Yes, you can grow hostas in full shade, and few perennials handle deep shade as well as they do. Your hostas will live and spread in spots where almost nothing else fills in. Most types still color up best with a few hours of soft, filtered light each day, so the answer comes with one small catch about leaf color.
The gold leaves on my Sum and Substance went pale and washed-out in the deepest, damp back corner where my lawn meets the woods edge. I planted it there because that north-facing patch barely saw the sky and nothing else would fill it. I noticed the plant grew fine, but the bright gold I wanted came in flat and tired. So I thinned one low branch overhead to let in some dappled light.
Within a season the same plant pushed out leaves in a rich, deep chartreuse. The clump never struggled in the dark or thinned out on me. It just lost the warm tone that gold and yellow types only reach with a little sun on their leaves. You will see the same pattern in your own dark beds.
That color shift tells you a lot about hosta shade tolerance. The plant handled deep shade with no trouble at all, because hostas are woodland plants at heart. In the wild they grow on shaded forest floors under tall trees, so a dim corner is their normal home, not a hardship.
Their wide, flat leaves are built to catch what little light filters down through a canopy. That design is why your hostas outlast most other perennials in a shady bed. Where a coneflower or a daylily would stretch, flop, and refuse to bloom, a hosta just settles in and spreads. Deep shade is the one place these plants beat almost everything else you could plant.
Leaf color is your guide when you pick a spot. Blue-leaved hostas want the most shade of all. Their cool waxy coating melts in strong sun, and the blue fades to a plain green once that coating breaks down. Tuck your blues into the darkest, dampest corners you have and they will hold their cool, frosted blue all season. A blue hosta in deep shade is one of the few plants that looks better the less sun it gets.
Gold and variegated types are the opposite. They need a touch more light to bring out their bright tone and crisp white or yellow edges. Give them a spot with morning sun or bright, broken shade. Match each plant to the light you have, and a bed full of both reads as layered and rich, even with no direct sun at all.
The real risks of growing hostas in shade are not the lack of light. They are deer and snails, which treat tender hosta leaves like a salad bar. Damp, shady ground draws slugs and snails in fast, and a hungry deer will graze a whole clump down to stubs overnight. You have to plan for both before they find your plants.
Protect your hostas and watch the soil. Ring young clumps with crushed grit or a slug bait to slow the snails, and spray a deer repellent if your bed sits near the woods. Make sure the soil drains well too, because crown rot sets in when the roots sit in soggy ground for days. Give your hostas rich, moist, well-drained soil and steady pest control, and they will thrive in full shade for many years.
Read the full article: Best Shade Perennials for Every Garden
