HOSTABUDDIES
I’m often asked what to plant with hostas. There are a number of good companion plants that will thrive with your hostas (hostabuddies). You just have to ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want a nice backdrop for your hosta garden? For example, if your hostas are planted in front of a wall or on the side of a house, you may want to add some clematis or vines climbing up the wall. If you want something smaller in front of the hosta garden, consider epimedium, ginger, heuchera, tiarella or lungwort. Add a bit of color with astilbe, martagon lilies or spiderwort. Japanese primrose and helebores are fantastic in the spring when the hostas are first coming up; toad lily and Japanese anemone are a welcome touch of color at the end of summer. If you have an issue with deer feeding on your hostas, plant daffodils and allium in the fall. You’ll eventually need to cut them back but while they’re growing, the deer seem to stay away from the surrounding plants. Daffodils are poisonous and the deer don’t like the onion smell of anything in the allium family.
A couple of important things to remember when adding companion plants to your hosta garden - make sure they’re compatible with the environment and be careful they won’t overwhelm your hostas. Sometimes the best hosta buddies are other hostas. Combine different sizes, shapes and colorations for a super gorgeous hosta garden!
