Transplanted Hostas - From Lindens to Oak to Lilacs - June 2023

One of the big planting projects that I have tee'd up for this Summer is to plant a series of boxwoods underneath the pair of espalier'ed Greenspire Linden trees to add some structure and four-season interest with evergreen shrubs.  One of the things that I've learned from observing the garden over all four seasons is that while I claim to be a 'hosta gardener', I have begun to fall out of love with them (just a little bit).  Why?  Because they totally disappear during the late Fall, Winter and early Spring.  Sure...there's still a lot to love - they grow in the shade, are all-about-that-foliage, their Spring emergence is a fun little gardening moment and...they're forever dividable (meaning...they can be endlessly divided every Fall).  But, when I look at my beds during the month of January or February or March...and you didn't know they were planted out, one might think that the beds were totally empty.  As the hostas disappear.

All that to say...I don't intend to change anything, I just wanted to bring some structure and some of that four-season interest closer to the house (which...is where we spend our time during those very Winter months where the hostas disappear).

#1 on my 2023 to-do list was to add even more evergreens to the yard.  And 2023 priority project #1 this year was to plant out the boxwoods underneath these Lindens.  

In order to do that, I first have to prepare the bed.  And that starts with transplanting the hostas (and a couple of Allium) out from under the Lindens to make room for the boxwoods.  In the top photo of this post, you can see the 'before' state of the espalier'd Lindens.  Underneath them is four good-sized hostas that need to find a new home.  

Around the backyard, I have a variety of hostas including some Lancifolia hostas that are (for me) the least-desired.  I'm not sure why, but I'm more drawn to larger-leafed, corrugated hostas.  The lancifolia variety has thin, almost spikey foliage. Below is a photo of the southside Oak tree understory that shows the current state of the mixed hosta planting.  On the left is a Lancifolia.  Then, another unknown variety.  Followed by another pair of Lancifolia hostas.  I dug all three of those out and divided some of them and thought that I'd move them to a different location.

In the back, in front of some of the Lilacs and the largest London Plane Tree (Grampy tree) was a border that was totally blank.  There were two existing Guacamole hostas in there, so I took the Lancifolia hostas, divided them into seven different plants and stuck them in to fill in the border.

Most of these from the Lindens are (currently) big enough to divide, but I opted to leave them whole.  Transplant shock seemed like it was going to be enough to handle, so I'll plan on dividing these in the Fall.  Below, are two of the larger ones transplanted in the place of some Lancifolia hostas.

There's still one Lancifolia hosta left in this border, so I'll plan on dividing one of these larger ones and replacing it.  Here, below, is what this hosta border currently looks like after the transplanting.  

Next up, I'll post about the handful of Summer Beauty Ornamental Allium that I had to move to make room for the Green Velvet Boxwoods under the Linden trees, too.