Hello everyone!

My wife and I just recently purchased our first home together. We added a mulch bed in the back recently around our deck, and have some large Cedar trees that help provide shade. While these trees, do provide a lot of morning/evening shade, the mulch beds do tend to get some afternoon sun.

I need help with planning out my hosta garden, including which types etc. Should I start with potted hostas, or bare root?

Once again, I am incredibly new to this, so I may need some hand holding..However, I am very willing to learn!

My mulch bed is about 4 feet wide and about 20 feet long.

I would look at hosta pictures and see what you like. If your garden is 4' wide, you may be able to judiciously choose a few fairly large hostas, but the real giants may be too large. (Of course, you can move them to a new garden if they outgrow that space or divide them).

What zone are you in? That can definitely affect what you can put in a garden which has afternoon sun.

Check out Don Rawson's Hosta Lists - http://hostalists.org/

They will give you lots of ideas for hostas which will tolerate certain conditions as well as those that may appeal to you for other reasons.

Learn about hostas - check out the Hosta Library http://www.hostalibrary.org/
Follow the links about Hosta Virus X too and learn about it. It's still around but if you know what to look for you can avoid most infected plants, or at the very least, spreading infection.

Another interesting source is MyHostas.be

Good luck. I hope others will chime in with other suggestions.

I love hostas it will be very calming and attractive near patio area. I do like a few other shade plants mixed in with the hostas like ferns, Burrena, toadlilies.

Back to the hostas I like to buy my hostas from the nursery in the pots and I have a favorite online vendor.

Favorite hosta to me are the oldies that take a licking and do not curl up and die. There are a few new ones that are not as strong as the golden oldies.

Last I agree look online and get an idea of what you like. Do you like blues, yellows, or if you want ones with a large area of white or yellow varigation.

Here is a article on how to layout a hosta garden
http://www.finegardening.com/d...

A few of My favorite hostas
June
Regal Splendor
Halcyon
Elegans
Paul's Glory
Krossa Regal
Guacamole
Sagae

online vendor
http://www.perennialnursery.co...

I concur with Hallsons as an excellent source for hostas. (perennialnursery.com) though I've not been able to purchase from them because I live in Canada. But I've been impressed with pictures people have shared, the owner, Chris, is very knowledgeable and I visited them once when I was in Michigan and had a lovely visit.

Very interesting link about planning the garden.

Yes I make a point of spending some of my garden funds to support Chris because he is the best,

Fifteen yrs ago my purse was stolen at work. I had ordered in the winter three months before the theft When I cancelled all my cards and contacted everyone I forgot about Chris because the order had been months earlier.

He sent me an email that the card had been denied. I told him to cancel the order and when I got replacement cards I would reorder. He said nope he was sending and pay him later or add it to future order. It was a large order. I had only ordered twice before so he had no long standing record to judge. He has a great big heart. He always send a great bonus hosta too.