Help w/ Garden--Hosta Ideas

14 years ago

Hello, all!

As you will see below, I have a small garden w/ many astilbes (sprite, ostrich plum, & fanal), tradescantia (sweet kate), 2 types of brunnera (love that jack frost!!), & a quick fire hydrangea. With the green-gold of the trandescantia w/ its blue/violet colors, could you suggest any hostas to fit in in the middle of the bed (between/behind the fanal astilbes)? Note: the aconitum will be moved to the back of the bed to the sides of the quick fire--too large) & the big leafed plant (rodergsia) will be moved as well. I was thinking something in the blue family and/or yellow/green variegated. I get about 2 hours of direct noontime sun & need probably medium sized hostas. Note: in other parts of this garden I've been successful w/ Halcyon, June, August Moon, Cap't Kirk & Krossa Regal (just got an Abiqua Drinking Gourd, too--love the looks of that crinkly corrugated look!!!)

{{gwi:1073170}}

And, by the way, is there a way for me to post my photos from photobucket where the photos are large (like I've seen all the rest of yours are)? I think my directions for posting are old...

Thank you in advance for your help! I've seen how many ideas you've had for others in the past!

MCG

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Comments (11)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
hey

when you upload.... opt for a bigger upload size?????

otherwise... when you click on your small pic.. your PB acct comes up with a larger pic

somehow you are creating thumbnails ...

ken
donrawson
14 years ago
Go to your Photobucket album, put your cursor on the pic you wish to upload and there will be the following choices:

Email
Direct Link
HTML Code
IMG Code

Next, left click on Direct Link and then right click to copy the URL address. Take the URL address and paste it to your GardenWeb post as follows:

Your pic will look like this:
{{gwi:1100237}}
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Janice
14 years ago
Lovely beds, already 'City'!! There are so many choices for you that will do so well in those areas!

In my situation, that is so similar to yours, in terms of sun exposure, I have many that work well.
I have run out of 'forum-time' till later today, but I WILL get back with some suggestions--later!!!

janice
Janice
14 years ago
Okay--I'm taking a little break--so I'd suggest 'Paradigm', or 'Jewel of the Nile', or 'Guacamole', 'Fragrant Bouquet',
'Jimmy Crack Corn', 'August Moon' or 'Abba Dabba Do', all of which are in this bed that gets full sun from 11:00 a.m.
to around 1:00 p.m. or later, depending on the time of the season!

Here's some pix. of how well they do:

From our bedroom window:

From the outside looking back at that window:

And, actually, across the path from this bed, 'September Sun', 'Choo Choo Train', 'Regal Splendor', 'Rascal'
and now 'Spring Fling' are doing very well in almost the same sun!

A tad bit further back with less 'time' in that sun, 'Sunpower' is doing well and can actually take a lot
more sun that probably the others:

'Satisfaction' and 'Carnival' can take it, too:

You've actually already have in place, many great 'companions' to hosta--and I've been spending the last couple of years adding
some to my beds! I love the complementary plantings--makes 'the look' far more interesting to me!!

Oh my, posting these pix make me want Spring back--right away! Okay, I'll just have to wait--I know! Sigh!
toymr2mk2
14 years ago
What a beautiful yard! I have to agree with Janice. When I looked at your pic I immediately started thinking about something that was brightly colored like Inneswood, Gold Standard or Paradigm.
mycitygarden
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks to you all! I couldn't wait to get on to see what you all would suggest & you gave me pictures, no less! Thanks, don r, for the photo uploading advice. I think my directions come from the forum from a couple of years ago & photobucket's options have expanded since then (i'm printing out your directions!! :-) )

Janice, I saw your photos last week on the forum and was admiring the colors, lushness, and the play of light & dark. My garden can be like that--it's so satisfying! And certainly one needs it when the perennials one can grow are so limited. I have a sun garden soul (I NEED color!) but I do love the textures you get from the greens.

Which leads me to my next question: I looked up all of your helpful suggestions & my heart really went out to paradigm (is that the one blooming in your third photo?) I agree that my garden needs more color; it's just that it can't clash with the sweet kate tradescantia which is in three different spots in my garden (along with the hakone grass)So...is that actually paradigm in your garden that I really like--with the stripey effect & the crinkly/corrugated edges? LOVE!!! I do like my August Moon, too, and that might work. My mom has Sun Power but it's HUGE! (what kind of sun can that get? hers is lovely but gets fried half way through the summer.

Questions, questions!!! I love gardening!!! Thanks for all your help, everyone!

melissa
Janice
14 years ago
Hey Melissa! Yes, it is 'Paradigm' in the third pic, and blooming! If you like that one, you
might also consider 'Dick Ward' which is similar but I really am leaning toward that one more,
as a top 50 favorite ;o) because it does have a propensity to go stripey, which I love.

Here's a leaf of mine from last year:

By comparison:

And the young planting:

I haven't seen a mature planting of 'Dick Ward' but it sure is promising to me! Either way, you
can't go wrong and there's another that is so similar--I can't think of it right now
but someone has the one I'm thinking of which some of us mistook for 'Paradigm' in one
of our guessing games so, hopefully they will step up and tell you what it was!!

You might also consider (clickable link) 'Alex Summers' as a good one next to your Hakone grass!!
toymr2mk2
14 years ago
Hey Janice if this is a sunny area will DW be able to handle the sun as well as Paradigm or Sun Power? Those two should be able to take quite a bit of sun especially if they get adequate moisture......I am very partial to Dick Ward also as I think it is a beautiful hosta just concerned that it would burn pretty badly in a lot of sun......But then I have been wrong before!....:)
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
14 years ago
Hey, don, I don't think following your directions will make my pics look like yours or Janice's-LOL. I suspect it must be a glitch with my camera-nothing to do with the garden itself (or lack thereof), of course...
donrawson
14 years ago
Cynthia,
Do you currently have some digital photos posted on a website such as Photobucket that we could help you out with? What do you think is the problem with your camera? Don
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
14 years ago
Aw Don, you are SO nice. Actually, it was my way of saying that you and Janice have the most wonderful gardens and it really isn't my camera, but rather my garden which does not rise to the level of your pics! Thanks for the offer. I am hoping the spring will bring new possibilities and less vigorous excavations by the two slap-happy idiots that destroyed my attempts to install a new hosta garden this year!

Cynthia