Beginner Gardening: help under oak trees, 1 by dax080

dax080 wrote:
Hi - I'm back - to answer some of your questions - the bed you are seeing has many different sized hosta in it. There are gigantic, very large, large ----- down to mini, so you can get what you want and still manage the growth with little hassle. Here's another pic from this year - as you can see, the back completely overlap, while the small front ones are still individally distinguishable. - I do transplant and change them around, but that's just what I like to do.

I've sent another pic of caladium too. They are annual here, but you can dig them up and over winter them (I'm too lazy for that). They are planted when the temp of the ground is 60 - 65 degrees. They do like moisture to grow as large as possible, so you would probably need to water.

Yes, hosta do provide a place to hide for small critters. I have a dog and he loves to forage through them (he's short and can go under many of them) and he keeps the animals at a healthy distance from the house. So I can't help you there.

Another companion to hosta are various types of deadnettles. They come in all variations of colors in greens through whites, and can live with almost no water at all and look great!

And finally, I've sent a pic of a sculpture and vase of violas in the hosta bed under the linden.

Hope this spurs some ideas for you - Dax