Some shrubs don't do well with black walnuts, hydrangeas and physocarpus as Chris pointed out; any kind of roses, azaleas, weigelia, spireas, lespedsia, are all things I've tried a time or two and didn't succeed. I tried Madonna lilies three times before I gave up, they just got weaker each year and finally stopped coming up. But hibiscus, cimicifuga, garlic, thyme, artemesia, lavender, dianthus, passionflower, Dutchman's pipe vine, columbines, ruellia, creeping veronica, lamiums, can all be added to the list of things that will grow under them or within range of their roots.. Most native wildfiowers; trilliums, dog-tooth violets, mayapples, false solomon's seal, woodland phlox, Dutchman's breeches, wild strawberries (but not garden strawberries), ginseng, colt's foot, toothwort, other spring ephemerals, are all good. Sandy This post was edited by mosswitch on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 10:55

If you get to Milwaukee, let me know. I have clumps being given away all the time. tj

Mary, I've seen photos of Dawn's Early Light and yes it's stunning. I actually looked for it yesterday and both sites I looked at were sold out. If you find it for a decent price please let me know. I'll look up info on the others you suggested, too. The Summer Breeze in the photos above is pretty also. OHhh this is terrible! So many Hosta so hard to choose. LOL Thank you for everyones ideas and suggestions. It's so much help. Sunny

Welcome to Hosta World! There have been several threads about companion plants on this forum. Here's one of them. Google hosta companion plants gardenweb and you'll find more. Companion plant thread Which hostas did you start with? Kathy