About Hosta Garden

Hosta Garden is an informational site about growing hostas and other shade perennials on Colorado’s Front Range. There is no nursery behind it and nothing for sale. It exists to answer the questions that come up when you try to grow a woodland plant in a dry, high altitude climate.

The writing comes from gardening in these conditions rather than reading about them. That means clay soil that sets hard by August, beds that turn out to get more afternoon sun than the plan allowed for, hail in June, and the recurring question of how much water a shade bed actually needs. Most hosta advice in print and online assumes a wetter, milder climate, and applying it here without adjustment tends to produce poor results.

The site covers variety selection, which hostas tolerate the light we get, which ones are worth planting for fragrance and where to place them, what grows well alongside hostas in dry shade, how care changes through the seasons, and where to see mature plants in the ground nearby. The hosta and shade perennial guides bring all of that together in one place.

Everything here assumes Denver, Aurora, and the surrounding Front Range, because that is the climate I garden in and the only one I can write about with any confidence. Readers elsewhere are welcome, though the watering schedules and siting notes will need adjusting for wetter ground and softer light.