My new bed.

There are several gardening staples that I've resisted for the past 20 years that I've gardened here in Arlington.  The first is collecting Hosta: I've only picked up a few over the years.  The second, big one, is actual landscaping efforts.  My beds have always been very cottagey: stuffed full of a hugely diverse assortment of perennials with a few annuals trialed here and there.  But I had a problem: 5 yards of very soil-like 3 year old compost.  I complained to the supplier, and he brought me fresher compost, but he asked me to keep the old compost so that he wouldn't have to load it back into the truck.  Thus, my slightly elevated new bed, 25 feet by 5 feet between my house and a neighbors, extending from the base of my Bigleaf Magnolia (Magnolia asheii) nearly to the base of an elm.  Bright shade conditions, and easily watered.  My neighbor had inherited a few hostas along the property line, so I placed my bed against them.

So now I've made a bed that my landscaping friends would at least consider passable.  Pretty much all hostas, mostly in groups of three (including the really large ones.)  I taper down to smaller hosta at the end near the elm, and I've filled it with coleus and impatiens to make it pretty until I get more coverage from the hostas.

I selected hostas that I thought had good leaves (especially slug resistance) and that also have nice flowers.  They are:

Hosta 'Guardian Angel'

Hosta nigrescens

Hosta 'Little Blue'

Hosta 'Sugar And Cream'

Hosta 'One Man's Treasure'

Hosta 'Purple Lady Fingers'

Hosta 'Golden Scepter'

Hosta plantagenea

Hosta plantagenea 'Venus'

Hosta 'Diamond Tiara'

Hosta 'Halcyon'

Hosta 'Whirlwind'

Hosta 'Little Wonder'

Hosta 'Wet Bikini'

Hosta 'Popo'

I put a little European ginger where eventually it might get overtaken by the biggest hostas: no loss.

There's a large reserved spot for Hosta 'Winter Snow', if I can find one.  And I have spaces for a little Hosta venusta and about 2 other small hostas yet to be chosen.  Between Steve Greene, Blanchettes, and Seawrights, there's no shortage of choice of hosta.