My Poorly Planned Hosta-scape

[Lionitus]

Hi Everyone. I have a dilemma that most of you will wonder "why didn't she realize this in the first place?" Call it overzealousness, call it denial about the bed's location, or just plain call it stupid. Anyway, the bed along the front of my house has a northeastern exposure. It was rampant with English Ivy and overgrown icky plants. I cleaned it all out and wanted very much a hosta garden there. Since it faces mostly north I decided it was ok. Well, I didn't study the sun's pattern well enough because most of the hosta I have there now suffers leaf burn and don't do very well due to too much sun.

So, my questions are:

1. If I leave the bed alone will the hosta eventually mature enough that they will be able to withstand the conditions there or should I just move them now?

2. Do you have any suggestions for hosta that will take the conditions there?

and finally (this probably belongs in the perennial forum)

3. what perennials would you suggest for this area?

My concern with putting sun loving plants there is that by mid-summer when the sun begins to sink in the sky again towards the south, the front bed is plunged more and more into shade. Alternatively, the sun doesn't really heat that bed up in spring until well into June. That's why I did hostas in the first place. I was concerned that sun-lovers would not get enough light.

Quite a dilemma for me. What do you suggest?

Thanks!
Lion

[jobranch]

Lion, I think your delima is a common one. I put some shade plants in a new bed last year and they got too much sun, so now I have to decide which sun loving plants will do well there. Since I am not sure what grows well in your zone, I will let someone else make some suggestions. I know from last year that putting hostas in too much sun is a lot of work keeping them happy. Water, water, water and they still burned. I have read that hostas will adapt to a new location, but I gave up and moved mine.

Jeff

[Linda P]

Evelyn,
How long ago did you plant that bed? If it was just last year, I would certainly give it one more year to see how well the hostas adapt. I have a number of hostas growing in nearly full sun here, and after a couple of years of adapting, they do quite well. Hostas are actually 'shade-tolerant' plants, and many of them do quite well with a lot of sun.
A northeast exposure is a prize location in my garden.
If you feel the need to provide them with a bit of shade, maybe you could put up a trellis or something that would help. One year I lost a good portion of a small redbud tree that was shading my mini bed. While I was waiting for it to re-establish, I used a patio umbrella to keep the poor things from burning up.
If you get that much sun, you could probably put some daylilies there, and any there are just any number of perennials that will do well in part-shade. Heuchera, of course, hellebores, columbines, ladies mantle...all of them get along well with hostas and are growing in my garden in about half-day sun.
Linda P

[ViolaAnn]

Lionitus - have you observed the sun patterns enough to know how long it gets sun each day? Many Hostas are very happy with morning sun but don't like afternoon sun. Others will withstand quite a lot of sun. Do some research on sun-tolerant varieties and try to choose some of those for that garden and they may be much happier than what you have now. I'd also be inclined to observe the garden for another year.

Ann

[thy]

Linda put the nail on the question... When di you mowe them ?

If they were mowed from the shade any time last year, they will burn if exposured to the sun, but if they start their growing cyclus there, they will adjust

As Ann said, put in some suntolerant - it is often the scentered ones, who have some plantaginea heritage in the most sunny area or plant a small beautiful theee to give some shade to that special area.

Will love to hear how they act this year

here i mowe daylillies from full sun to half day sun ...and the hostas the other way.

if you have the time one day, try to seach for Hank's picture of the day on the ones who burned, a lot of his plants get so much sun I wouldn't have belived it... he is the reason mine are mowing - direction -SUN

[John]

I would have expected NE exposure to be fine... is it really that sunny?  I'd suggest leaving them and see how they perform when established.  Are they getting enough water?  Any hosta with plantaginea genes is a good choice for a sunnier spot; greens and golds might be better than blues, which would often have better coloring without too much sun exposure.Perennials... heuchera might be good, but the purple and burgundy color ones seem to get greener if not enough sun.  Daylilies, perhaps... Problem might be, as you say, the sun exposure changes with the seasons, so you'll need versatile perennials.  Perhaps the best idea would be hostas, with a trellis as Linda suggested.

[largosmom]

The good news is that hostas in the sunshine often get awesome root structure and multiply fast. I would observe them another year and see which do better. I would move them selectively, only those tending to scorch, and replace with more sun tolerant hostas, or a mix of sun loving perrenials which will look nice with the hostas.

Laura

[thehostagourmet]

Lion, are you sure of your directions? Hostas shouldn't burn in a NE exposure unless they were moved there, already leafed out, from deep shade.

[Chris_W]

From the sound of it, this spot is similar to the north side of my old house. It shaded pretty good early and late season but as the summer progressed the moved further north and the outer edges of the garden got a lot of direct sun - a lot more than I thought - so I moved some things back closer to the house that really needed the shade and planted some coral bells, balloon flower, and campanula along the edge and they did fine even though they were shaded from time to time.

But like was mentioned, if this was a first year planting I would check them out this year. They may have deeper roots now to draw up more moisture and the foliage should adjust to the light better.