Hello from MN; NOT knowing if your photos were taken in Aug. but my guess is that the purple blooming hostas are lancifolia and will tolerate alot of sun without a problem and your white blooming hostas are "Honey bells". If you're looking for some deer resistant, sun tolerant BLUE leaved hosta's you could try, Buckshaw blue, commonly found in the trade. I'm not sure what the ground feeding critters will bother them under the birdfeeder. I LOVE your gazebo! It looks big and festive. WOW. You are so lucky to have a focal point with function like that. Now I'm confused as to the "park" comment. Did you get the hosta PHOTO taken there or did you get a start of hosta there? I hope this helps. Later, Love, Lisa

Hosta's blooms are white or shades of purple... no blue unless you want to stretch your imagination with various purple shades.

Lisa, what a loving person you sound like, I'm in Iowa. My sister in MN (Buffalo) offered me some hostas. If she has any like this, I might take her up on her offer this year.

No, that's not my gazebo, it's a little over a block away in the park, they have lots of weddings there in the summer, lovely thing. I don't have enough room for anything that big, and that would be expensive to build because (to me) it is a quality piece of architecture, probably custom built from plans maybe 25 or 30 years ago now. So I enjoy it from afar. I have a lot more photos of it if you are interested in something like that for yourself.

Maybe the powers that are in charge of that might give me some hosta starts from there, thanks for the names, I don't think I have a deer problem (yet) but they are over in the park. Did see a coon under my birdfeeder.

I took both those photos in Sep 03 at the park. Thanks for some names. I do like the purple ones, but darker like these are. Most people around here have the same variety, (except one neighbor who has a bunch of different ones), which have (to me) too-pale lavendar flowers or the white. That particular white is gorgeous with the larger (to me) blooms.

lancifolia, hope it will do with a max of 5 hours morning sun, it's mostly from the way the house is.

lynnem, ok so forget the blue for this purpose. I want green green leaves for now. The darker purple would be fine; I'm told of some potential problems over in my OGR forum, they don't bloom long, it doesn't matter, the foliage makes a nice, dense ground cover, and they don't seem to require as much care as other things I'm planting.

I do love that white one, so if Lisa has it id'ed correctly, lancifolia and honeybells, that is what I will look for on that.

An additional problem I mentioned to those who responded in the OGR forum is that a lot of seed has fallen from the feeder. I feed year round, so if birds forage beneath it like they do now, they might disturb plants. I'm willing to give it a try and see what happens.

Thanks so much for responding.

sunflower seeds will hurt the plants a lot more then birds will

I'm guessing the one with larger white flowers is Plantagenia, which blooms late in the season, does well in sun, and is fragrant. It's been around a long time so lots of folks may have divisions to share.

Hi again: Mary Ann could be exactly right on that white blooming hosta name. My lancifolia blooms late Aug and in Iowa in Sept....that could be the clue we needed to I.D. those correctly. I went and looked up H. Honeybells to see that the scape and bloom color are the same. Later, Love, Lisa P.S. Please don't pay $ for Lancifola. It is EVERYWHERE and Buffalo is an hour west from me but I've got a spade FREE for ya.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta Library

Hi again, all, and thanks ever so much for the suggestions. I wrote them all down, think I'll look for the White Plantagenia and Purple Lancefolia.

Now I'm a little worried because you say that it does well in the sun. This spot only gets about 5 hrs max sun a day. Any thoughts?

Over on the OGR forum, they tell me there is a Pink Gruss an Aachen, and I am totally excited about trying to work something out with that and the hostas (if I can find some).

When do you divide hostas? Why is the sunflower seed bad? I could pick it out of the millet mix I buy and just buy straight safflower seeds for the cardinals. Are they bad, too?

I could only use the feeder in the winter, but I like the activity outside my window while I'm at my computer with the birds coming and going.

1. When the birds drop the sunflower seeds, they can tear through the more fragile hosta leaves. I don't think that lancifolia is all that fragile.

2. 'Honey Bells' has not just white blooms, but if I recall correctly, they smell sweetly, too. Someone here will correct me if I'm wrong.

3. The birds won't bother the hosta. One of my feeders is set in a hosta row, no problems. However, birdseed may attract chipmunks, squirrels, and rats. Again, usually not a problem except when the chippers tunnel underneath the hostas and, if the hosta is small (a "mini" or "small") enough and the tunnels plentiful enough, this undermines the roots. The size you're looking for is a medium-to-large hosta and this shouldn't be an issue for you.

4. Hosta undulata erromena is a plain, plain green and a FIERCE grower, very hardy. Something else to ask around for; nobody bothers selling it.

5. Blooms are white to lavender to purple and that's it. Leaves are white, cream, green, dark green close to black, and "blue." Blue is only blue for the first part of spring and summer. Then, the wax covering goes away and the plant is green again. These plants were quite just adolescents when I took this photo and are huge now; I had to move the erromena because each is the size of a bushel basket now. The blue 'Halcyon' will be plain green by midsummer or a little later, depending on how much shade it gets (and some people also on whether watered from the bottom, or dripping over the top).

I decided to do a 3/4 circular bed and have bricks laid around the feeder. My sister has bunches of them, and I think she may bring me some.

My, your hostas are pretty. They are growing on me, and I want put a Gold Standard in with my roses and other things in another bedding scheme, just the one for color and visual appeal there.

I can always stop feeding the birds for the summer months in back. I guess I'll have to kind of play it by ear. A friend picked up some, I didn't really want them, but I reimbursed her and she planted them behind my garage. Patriot. I think I'll dig them up and put something else back there and put them with whatever I manage to get. Haven't found a source for lancifolia yet. The city greenhouse used to give us things, but I don't think they do that any more. Still, I could ask.

I sure like that one. Thank for responding to my questions so thoroughly and knowledgeably.

Heh heh heh, Aliska Skywalker...come over to the shade side!!!

Hosta addiction is sometimes sudden-onset, and sometimes it sneaks up on you.

'Patriot' is a very showy plant, even from a distance, which helps if you need to move it further away from your back porch.

About the birds: I feed all summer because I like to see them. But Ken_adrian here has noticed that his birds walk among the hosta, eating the slugs (he thinks, and I agree). So don't stop feeding if you enjoy doing it; just remember (or learn for the first time) that sunflower hulls contain a toxin that suppresses the growth of other plants. So give your feeder at least an 18" circle of bareness, because nothing will grow there anyway, except for the seeds the birds drop. :)

I should be thanking someone for the link... hmm... yes, Maryann___Chicago mentioned it. Thanks, Maryann!

Here is a link that might be useful: Birdfeeder Bare Spots / Sunflower Hull Toxins

You did say 18 FEET, not 18 INCHES? That plan, then is shot, now I don't know what to do. I've only been feeding there since last fall, and I do like to feed all year, but maintaining 2 bird feeding stations gets expensive, especially when I buy unsalted dry-roasted peanuts for the squirrels and English walnuts (and other nuts if I can afford them for a treat). I hammer the Brazil nuts so they won't ruin their teeth :-). The nuts got to be too expensive, so I just threw one a day out there, lucky the squirrel that got there first.

Squirrels will eat corn, but they just take the inner kernel and leave the rest, and I'm here to tell you they like nuts and sunflower seeds better, especially the striped ones over the oil ones.

I've hardly any place to grow anything RIGHT. In desperation, I was going to plant some tomatoes along my brick porch and protruding stoops facing west (maybe not a good idea) and I have been feeding birds on that stoop for YEARS. There are sunflower hulls all OVER the ground in that spot. It doesn't seem to faze a forsythia I planted last spring just a few feet back. Morning glory volunteers sprang up there last year and went nuts climbing all over my new porch rail and a bunch of other stuff.

I'm going to have to think about this. I could move where I feed them someplace where I never will plant flowers. Hmmm. Just had my yard mapped with a bunch of spray paint and flags. I could feed right over the phone box, why it's buried there is a mystery (but I probably shouldn't sink a post there).

Then I could scoop out all that bad dirt and fill with topsoil, another gruelling task I'm just not up to with everything else I have going.

I am having rotten luck with a lot of things lately. But thanks for tipping me off. I can quit the sunflower seeds in back, I buy extra striped ones for in front for the squirrels and chipmunks, and maybe find bags of just safflower seeds for the cardinals and get a regular mix with no sunflower seeds in it. Maybe that is the answer to the back bird feeder. That is right outside the back door in the lawn.

The Patriot hostas are out behind the garage becaue I didn't have a place for them either, didn't want to look at them. Now I have them mulched. Since it's pretty weed-free behind the garage now, and part shade, I was thinking of black raspberries, partial shade mix or Knockout roses or something.

I just can't seem to get it together. I'm usually on the old garden rose forum, and you should see what a mess I've made with my latest planting scheme :-(. But I keep planting more stuff as fast as I can.

Sorry it's so long, I read the article, and it's kind of a shock, but better before I bought a bunch more expensive plants for some of those places.

Here is the area I am talking about, I must say you have been so patient with me, I feel like a complete ditz, and it's not as if I've never grown things before, just not hostas and heirloom roses and some of the new things I'm trying to grow:

{{gwi:942738}}

Aliska, I don't think anyone has mentioned that hosta flowers are pretty short lived, and then you are left with an unattractive, spindly, naked green thing. In fact, many of us (me included), cut off the flower scapes just a few days after they bloom.

The good thing is, that once you get a couple of different hosta, the flowers will not matter ~ it's the leaves that you will be totally and hopelessly addicted to.

Think I'm wrong? Well, by post #3, you are considering picking the sunflower seeds out of your bird mix. By post #4, you're adding a different hosta variety, and then in #5 you are banishing your birds and squirrels to another location. hehehe....as Lisasmall said ~ welcome to the shade side, Aliska Skywalker ;)

Here are a few photos for your perusal:

Thank you for sharing those gorgeous photos. June and Alex are my favorites, and I like the blue, too. Chartreuse is a bit much, but just you wait, I said I didn't like purple roses, then I spotted Veilchenblau and got one!

Yes, I noticed the spindles on the Patriots, but I do like to see the blooms. I will cut them off when done.

I have to have some flowers mixed in with the hostas unless I use them for a special reason like to line the steps or a walk when something else fails.

No, I wouldn't have the patience nor the time to pick the sunflower seeds out. We have a bird shop, so if I can't find a bag without the sunflower seeds mixed in, surely I can find some at the specialty shop that doesn't. Or order online which I do more and more because the choices are almost infinite. Yesterday I ran around all afternoon and called places looking for dusty miller and a certain type of grass for some big pots that were given to me. Finally found some to mix with plants I started in the house.

It was just one new variety of hosta :-) For a different place. I have to ease into this hosta thing, I do have an addictive personality.

The shade side is a challenge for sure. It's about the dark side for me with all these glitches to my carefully devised plans. I have a couple neat old benches I wanted to feed the birds on but was afraid somebody would steal them, so I just kept feeding them on the stoop where it is easier in bad weather.

I saw a cute wooden childrens' picnic table I wanted to put out there, but it was $100, somebody could steal that, and the slatted top would be a problem. My kids got me an ugly bird feeder and offered to put it up for me, I delayed, delayed, delayed and found the one in the picture, finally my son took it off my hands. I didn't want to be ungrateful but did not want that in my front yard. The one in the back is the kind I like, made from mostly natural materials. I've saved up birch branches to make a tripod feeder, but they aren't right either.

I thought I'd respond right away because I have to move an artemesia I planted too close to a rose tomorrow, and I've been trying to do too much because I won't be able to dig and do heavy work when it gets hot. I'm always having to stop and do another chore or address a problem I hadn't figured on. I hope once I get more things going, I can ease up and enjoy it all and find a way so it won't be so much work. I think hostas will cut down on weeds and don't require too much care which is a big plus.

Lancifolia is one of my favorite hostas, actually. Nothing fancy, but it grows in a nice mound, and the flowers are a lot prettier than a lot of hostas flowers are, in my opinion. They're quite abundant and have kind of a "spray" effect, rather than a few long "sticks" with some flowers at the top.

Mostly I grow hostas for their foliage, but lancifolia is one where I look forward to the flowers as well.

Deanna

That's my top pick, now where to find them. Maybe wait until next year.

I would like one gold standard for somewhere else.

Then I looked up Honeybells, and a photo I saw of it was not pure white. I'd like a pure white one that flowers like that and has leaves similar to lancifolia.

The heck with the sunflower seeds. There cannot be that many from one winter, and most will be concentrated close to the feeder where I want the bricks. I'm putting a couple hostas in there and see what happens and stop putting sunflower seeds out there.

Now if I could find one vendor that has all three types reasonably, I'd get started with just a few, see what happens. If they don't seem to suffer adverse effects, I'm adding some alba roses at some point which tolerate shade.

Do you have any idea how I hate plowing through selections at Lowe's, HD, parking lots, all the numerous nurseries around here? I will call the conservatory and see if they will give me a couple of those in the photo . . .tomorrow.

Gilbert Wild has gold standard and owes me a slight refund, but nothing else I want in the way of hostas. Maybe I could get something else I want and just the one hosta.

Thanks, all, you've been a great help.

Could the white blooming hosta be Aphrodite? The blooms on that one are not only pretty, but fragrant.

Deanna

That would work. Would the blooms be as profuse as the ones in my first photo? I know I shouldn't go for blooms, because it's only a short while, but it would be something to look forward to when you're burned out on other plants that take more work all summer.

My, if you order them online, they are expensive. I'm going to try to find out what those roses are and the exact variety of hosta. Will call the city forester, he won't return my call, will call the conservatory, they will refer me back to the city forester lol.

The horticultural club may have put them in years ago, I think, and they may not know at this point what they are.

Thank you! And everybody who helped me out here. They don't have to be identical if they have the same leaf form and bloom color and general type.

After a couple of calls, I got ahold of a knowledgeable member of the Horticultural Club here.

The rose is Carefree Beauty, so I look for a vendor. ARE and Chamblee's, requires full sun. So that's out.

The one hosta you people were right, it is lancifolia. She wasn't sure what the other one was or if they will have it at a plant sale one block from me on Mother's Day, but is pretty sure they will have lancifolia.

I think they also might have Gold Standard.

Just wanted to fill you in on the latest.

I don't "do" plant sales because it's too much running around, and my mind goes in a whirl with all the choices but will try to make this one.

They want to see my photo. Luckily I had an 8X10 made of it and will take my albums.

FYI - Aphrodite actually needs a fair amount of sun in order to bloom (just make sure you water a lot). Actually, plantaginae has white blooms - it's just that Aphrodite (which is a plantaginae cultivar) has double blooms. Plantaginae might be easier to find, and cheaper, and needs sun in order to bloom too. Fujibotan blooms profusely, but the blooms are lavender, so that won't work if your mind is set on white.

Hope that helps~

Deanna

deanna, I'm going in a wider 3/4 circle around that feeder than I had originally planned, but it gets, at best, half a day sun, at least 2 hours in the morning, then out further, more in afternoon and evening. The part right by the feeder once the early morning sun is gone, that's it for the day. So if by "needs sun in order to bloom" you mean almost full sun, then I can't put any of that type of plant there.

The horticultural club lady said the white was definitely not Aphrodite. There will be others at the plant sale, and I can ask the others specifically what that one is, if they might happen to know. I'll google the others you mentioned, but I'm not paying those prices I'm seeing, I do if I just have to have something.

My mind is only definitely set on white there because of the first photo, I want a mix like that, dark purple, pink roses and white, possibly something else if it will fit in there.

I forgot to ask if lancifolia will bloom in the lighting conditions I described above; I'm sure most of them will grow but may not bloom or bloom up to their full potential. Maybe the white one in the photo needs lots of sun, too.

If I put more in other places, I'll be more open to different leaf colors, types and blooms. I didn't care for the Patriots much, that's why I had them put behind the garage. I'm doing most of my own planting now. Last year I didn't know how much digging I could do.

I'm disappointed about that rose. It looks darker pink in my rose catalog from ARE. It isn't that spectacular of a bloom, but just seemed to work right with those hostas somehow.