Black and gold (or chartreuse) is a very current idea. I started a black & gold bed (lots of sun) this spring.

For a small gold, I really like Little Aurora or Golden Prayers. The lemon/lime series are also a good consideration. Norwalk Chartreuse is new for me last year, but shows some promise.

Take a look at some of the super dark foliage available on heucheras. There's also some great black cimicifugas.

Melissa,
Thanks for responding.
Early days for your new bed, but did you like what you did with it?

I've been fond of dark foliage plants for some time. So, I overwinter ... drat, I've forgotten my latin ... anyway, elephant ears 'Black Magic'. I've got plenty of these guys, and the dark foliage played well with H. Guacamole and red New Guinea impatians plus the dark ajuga mentioned above 'black Scallop' and a patch of heuchera 'Obsidian' .

But there's plenty more room in this bed. I'm thinking a large solid gold-yellow-chartreuse hosta with a different leaf presence than Guacamole would be wonderful. But which?

Guess I'm thinking something with stage presence is needed ... Would H. Sunpower be a good choice? Or possibly H. 'Key West'?

I don't have the advantage of being able to look at photos. Just have a memory of color. So I'm not quite clear how best to showcase a larger hosta and pull off the color contrast I'd like to achieve. I occasionally manage to create something that others "Oooooh" and "Ahhhh" over, but that's usually been container combinations. I think I clutter my beds with too many types of plants.

Restrain me someone! I'm willing to strip this bed of everything and start from scratch ...

I am willing to strip everything from this bed, including plantaginea and her grandson Guac, but some form of this family will be in there. Wouldn't want to miss the fragrance or the sound of hummers attracted to one of these guys.

Well, for a large gold, you could certainly do Sun Power. But also consider Golden Sculpture or Squash Casserole. I don't grow Key West, so I cannot comment there.

I suggest you look at Don's list of Golds and look them up in the hostalibrary.org pics.

I would leave those two hostas in there and work around them. Moving them will set them back. Besides, it'd be kinda dull with just 2 colors. A sprinkling of green will be great.

For my front bed, I have Sedum Matrona and Purple Emporer for darks and Sedum Angelina and Mediovarigata for the chartreuse. I have a couple of heuchera, but with the tags being under about 24" of snow (17" of it fell today), I can't tell ya what varieties, though I think Plum Pudding might have been one. I also have Heucherella Stoplight to marry the two color families. I also have Golden Alexander. I've sprinkled in some greens with Daylily, Daisies and catmint. The only hosta I have in there is Squash Casserole. Oh, an adjacent bed has a Tiger Eyes Sumac in it. Mind you, most of these plants prefer part to full sun. I think I can get away with the hosta in this sunny area since I'm in Minnesota and the sun's not that intense here. But, by August, it was looking pretty ratty, like the rest of the hostas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Don R's list of golds.

It's not exactly 'black' but the leaves on Dahlia 'Mystic' would add a bit of height and colour. It has pink/white flowers and wouldn't be too outrageous with the Hosta flowers.

For a gold Hosta I really like Zounds. I love it's texture which is like seersucker, and the leaves have a metallic sheen. For a little Hosta - Golden Prayers.

Wellspring, I interpreted your post to mean that you were searching for companion plants as well as hostas.
If you only want information on hostas, you can ignore the rest of this post.

Consider adding Corydalis lutea to your garden. According to Wikipedia it has been moved to another genus and renamed Pseudofumaria lutea, so try both names when searching for information or plants. I think you might enjoy it for the shape and texture, which contrasts well with hosta. If you are limiting the palette to only plants with gold or black leaves, then you won't want it. The leaves are blue green. The foliage resembles its relative Dicentra. Dicentra can cause a rash in some people, but a quick search found no issues with Corydalis lutea. It's even on a list of plants recommended for a pet-safe garden. The foliage is soft and pleasant to touch. In my zone 5 city this plant blooms all summer in dappled shade. The flowers are bright yellow. It does self seed, which some gardeners enjoy and some do not.

Edie

OOOH. Edie reminded me that the gold-leafed dicentra (bleeding heart) is a great companion plant. A nice backbone to a shade garden!

Thank yous to all!

I've been spending time off and on all day researching hostas ... Thank you, Thisismelissa! We got the blizzard today, our slightly toned-down Illinois version, but it's kept the world inside and church was canceled.

So I went to the Hosta Library site. I can't see pics, so have to glean what I can from verbal descriptions. When I'm really hot on a particular plant, I'll try to look it up in multiple places. Some catalogs just don't really know what they're talking about. The written descriptions at the HL sound a little like gibberish with my voice synthesized computer, but I can get some idea about size, color, form, rugosity, etc.

Many of you guys collect 100's of hostas. Me, I love them in a little different way, I suppose. Even my relatively tiny collection gives some evidence of the variation in hostas, but each is, nonetheless, clearly a hosta. A small hosta was the first plant I id'ed with just a few clues. A previous owner had 3 or 4 varieties -- one small heart shaped guy that was spreading happily all over a front bed, a white edged small to med, and the fragrant ones. I couldn't see leaf colors, but could tell that these plants that shot up flowers on stick-like stems were all cousins. I remember discovering an amateur breeder in my church at the time. He told me about "plantaginea", taught me the term "scapes", and took me on a tour of his drip-irrigated hosta collection. So I felt minis up to the giants ... Fun!

But composing a bed is very hard for me . Because I love hostas, I will always use them, but I've found out the hard way that I need the ones I choose to be distinct in form and/or size. Otherwise ... well?

So, I guess I was asking both about the color combination ... which I've played with before. and I'm trying to figure out a showy, sun-tolerant specimen hosta. Since I don't currently have any "large" hostas I guess I thought that might be an obvious distinction. Vase or upright form would be distinct, too, as I gave my gorgeous 'Krossa Regal' to a special friend who admired it. It was a 3 year old in a rather large pot ... heavy sucker and happy friend.

Melissa- Guacamole will definitely stay put. Plantaginea may need to be shifted, but he got reduced last year, so isn't quite the monster he'd been. I mean some of him got moved to another place that I wanted solid green ... Love him though ... He's been divided before and comes back gangbusters. I think of him as northern gardenia ...

Edie- That's been a want list plant for several years.

Vetivert8-Yep, the Dahlia's have a number of dark-leaved beauties.

Got to go to bed ... I've got 'Golden Sculpture' in my head, but, man, that would be one honking big thing some day. Should I live dangerously? Hmmm ...

When a blind man came to visit my garden, I introduced him to hosta by shape, size and texture. Abiqua Drinking Gourd is deeply rippled with a distinctive cupped shape. Sum & Substance is a huge chartreuse leaf that could be the focal point of your garden. Sea Wiggles is a small, gold with 6 inch long, 1 inch wide, wavy leaves. Tiny Tears is one of the smallest hosta, a dark green. Lancifolia has lance-like, 12 inch long leaves, but again would be readily identified by its size and shape. I think Whirlwind -- a deep green with a lighter green center -- is shiny enough to have a distinctively smooth feel (I'd check, but it's winter here!). Best of Luck!

I forgot to mention Candy Dish, small, round with a wonderfully rippled edge like a victorian candy dish.

Incidentally, did you pick Black and Gold because you're a Steeler fan? Nance

I don't know how sun tolerate that Golden Sculpture is, so if you've got lots of sun and want to look at those light green/chartreuse colors and big and sun tolerant, your best bet might be Sum & Substance. He can grow to be huge and is very easy to grow.

Nance-
I bet your blind visitor loved the experience. Walking into any unfamiliar place means establishing some sense of up, down, borders, sidewalks, tree canopy, and the basic what-am-I-about-to-fall-over or step-on.
It�s an adventure! And, I love visiting gardens and being shown plants. That's the best way I can "see" them. I do have a good memory of colors, so I understand most general color terms, although I get a little confused with the hosta flower colors ... What's the difference between lavander, violet, purple, etc. Which is bluer? Which is darker, or more "reddish"? And, if you were to give me an answer on that, then what I picture in my head might not be the actual color at all.

That being said, I like playing with colors. When I could see, one of my favorite hobbies was drawing and painting. Trust me, no loss to the world that I can't do that, but I find that I enjoy thinking of a flower bed like a 3-dimensional canvas. And, trust me again, I'm not that good at that either ... but sometimes I come up with things that others seem to like.

As for "black and gold" ... It's the dark foliaged plants I fell in love with first. I am aware that "black" is often a misnomer. About as close as you get, as I understand it, is deep near-black purple and deep near-black maroon. My first tulip displays used the darkest tulips in a variety of forms, differing bloom times, contrasted with soft pink varieties ... gets rave reviews.

So, I learned something. My dark fascination works best when there's something it sets off. Containers another year had blackie sweet potato vine, purple fountain grass, and pink petunias spilling over with the spv. Simple, but nice.

I'm playing, Melissa, with several ideas from your earlier posts ... I'm liking the Actaea / cimicifuga idea for along the path into this bed. I've got 'Hillside Black Beauty' and it's a wonderful tactile plant. If I put a staggered row in fairly near the house I think they'd do well.
In "front" of them, then, might be the sweet spot for a hosta.
Guess I'm hoping to figure out how to set the jewel in the crown ...
Also, thanks for reminding me of Sedum 'Angelina'.

So, it's probably going to be 'Sum and Substance'. I know the locals always have it. But I will file away some other ideas that have come to me in my research. If I come across them, they may come home for that special spot ...

Another consideration for your darks is to use Black Lace Elderberry. Especially if you're in zone 5 or south. It'll offer you some nice foundation. You could also choose some of the darker leafed Japanese maples or Tiger Eyes Sumac.

Melissa-
Great minds? What I really want ... and my favorite local nursery said they'd get for me ... is Sambucus racemosa 'Sutherland Gold'.
It has the most beautiful, delicate, cut-leaf foliage. I just think hostas would look grand with it.
But a gold or yellow or chartreuse hosta might be too much of a good thing with the gold elderberry.
Ah, me, sometimes I wish I had a plant-by-number kit to fill in for designing flower beds.

Anyway, thanks again. Need to check the other thread later ...