Gardening tricks: using hostas to create a shady retreat

No sun to speak of? These homeowners turned to hostas. A visit to Rita and Jim Hermes' garden in Oregon, Illinois, shatters the notion that a shade garden is dull, boring and colourless. 

Jim and Rita relied mainly on the common hosta to create their subtle yet stunning 16,000 square metre (four acre) shade showcase.

• The best-selling perennial in the United States, the hosta is known not for its flowers, but its foliage. Jim and Rita are passionate about the plant.
• "If there's one ideal plant for the shady garden, it's the hosta," says Rita. "When I walk out into the garden — even on a muggy summer day — I feel cool, because the garden looks cool."   
• The garden includes hundreds of hosta cultivars, ranging from giants such as Blue Angel to dwarfs like Gold Drop.
• Because the garden is so big, Rita favours larger varieties, such as Sum and Substance, Big Daddy and Sagae for impact, and Golden Tiara, Veronica Lake and Blue Cadet for edgings.
• Another favourite is Second Wind because of its shiny, deep-green leaves.
• The couple complements the hostas with a range of contrasting perennials.
• For delicate, lacy foliage, the Hermeses use ferns and astilbe.
• For more interesting foliage and attractive blooms, they rely on foamflower, coralbells, corydalis, celandine poppy and fern-leaf bleeding heart.
• The shiny leaves of European ginger, boldly dramatic leopard plant and darkly coloured snakeroot cultivars provide additional visual interest.

Rita and Jim had some different ideas, but with a relaxed attitude they managed to make it work. Here's how:

• Initially, Rita and Jim installed traditional foundation plantings and a vegetable garden in their backyard.
• However, Jim felt all along that the garden should be in front. One day, when Rita was away, he moved the vegetable garden to the front, planting marigolds around the bed edges for colour.
• Rita agreed to the garden's new location on the condition that she could choose future plantings.
• "There was never any master plan at work in this garden," Rita recalls. "I just found new plants that I had to have, and then I found a place to plant them."
• Today, that care-free approach has led to curving lines and pathways that draw visitors in, allowing close-up appreciation of the plants' subtle shading and colour variations.
• Some beds contain almost nothing but hostas. Others include shrubs, conifers, small trees and other shade-loving perennials, chosen carefully for their textures, shapes and hues.
• Rita favours weepers, while Jim likes boxwood, conifers and trees with interesting bark.
• A subtle use of stones, buried partway, makes them natural parts of the garden rather than obvious additions. Strategically placed statuary and container plantings contribute to the landscape's relaxed look.
• At the heart of the garden is the pond — Rita's favourite place to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning. In an island bed framing the pond, the gold and green leaves of the large, vase-shaped Hosta montana 'Aureomarginata' are reflected in the still waters with startling clarity.

So, do Rita and Jim ever tire of gardening? No way! They may be ready to cut back on their workload by summer's end, but come spring, another gardening season begins happily once again, centred on hostas — the kings of shade. They prove that hostas make an excellent shade garden -- something you should consider for your own yard.