Clay pots will crack in winter, use large plastic nursery pots instead. If the ground cover is aggresive, you can keep it pulled away from the containers. Otherwise it should work so plant away.

What type of groundcover? I would say it depends on that as not all groundcovers are so aggressive.

Sweet Woodruff fills in around hostas very nicely, and is not a garden thug, very easy to pull out if it goes somewhere you don't want and has never choked a single hosta in my garden. :-)

clay pots sticking out of the ground will also wick all moisture out of the soil .. and hosta wont like that ...

if you put babes out in the groundcover.. they will probably disappear ...

if you put foo foo fancy hosta.. same... try undulatas ...

if you grow babes somewhere else... and move a BIG plant into the GC .. then they will probably flourish .. with a little management of the GC ...

BUT ... and there always is one .... i will qualify all answers on ID'ing the actual GC .... what is it??

ken

PS: GC is a great place for slugs to hide ....

Thanks everyone for thr response. I wish I could tell you what the ground cover is called. It was given to me by a friend who uses it for baskets. We are in zone 5/6 and it is not super pretty in the winter but it gets through and greens up very early. Like I said it is lime or bright yellow green. I would rip it out for the Hostas but it is just to beautiful. OK, all you hosta lovers I am going to try the clay pot as an experiment only because I did it when the weather was warm and the hostas were coming up. If that doesn't work I will find something else to circle them with.

I have hosta in vinca, stone crop, bishop's weed, and lamium, and i've never had a problem with the ground cover slowing the Hosta. The hosta I planted weren't small,and they are medium to large variety.

I have them thriving in English Ivy, vinca minor, CREEPING CHARLIE (DIE SUCKER), poison ivy...you name it. LOL

I completely agree w/ Ken that clay pots are not a good idea from a moisture perspective.

Does it have little roundish leaves and grows in runners, rooting along the way? If so, I have it too, and I have my mini hostas planted in around it with no problem (though I do keep the GC pulled back from the minis) I think full size hostas would be just fine. Wish I could remember the name....

Sounds like Creeping Jenny. If so, it is very shallow-rooted and would be easy to control by just keeping it pulled away from your hosta.

Heck, I intentionally plant ground covers around the hosta to help cover the ground. They don't have any effect on the hosta. I have even planted hosta in wild violets, which is probably the toughest ground cover there is. It outcompetes Creeping Charlie.

At least wild violets are pretty and don't smell like cat pee. LOL I love violets...hate the CC but can't get rid of it!!!

The plant you are talking about is Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea', which is the gold form of Moneywort, or Creeping Jenny. I have some under a weeping Japanese Maple for contrast, but rip out a lot in the spring to keep it in one spot. It is invasive, not just aggressive, but it would be tempting to see it under 'Potomac Pride' or 'Edge of Night', or even some of the gold/green variegated hostas.The bigger, the better.

I love Creeping Jenny and buy it in bunches to plant around the hostas. Wouldn't dream of ripping out a single leaf even right on top of the hosta.

OK Y'all I guess I've got Creeping Jenny. OOH that didn't sound right! This will be an experiment. If I see the Hostas waining because of the pots I will put them back in the ground. I know how much they like to stay watered.
Thanks a bunch!

Hostanana,

After seeing your picture of your Japanese Maple I bought the gold creeping jenny and even went so far as the take it out of the containers it was planted in so it wouldn't die over the winter and planted it in the ground! It all make it! I just discovered the green kind in a my sun
perennials so will transplant that too!

Connie

This is the only pic i could find of creeping jenny and it is not very clear

it is the yellow plant up front

from 05
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kept, if you are going to go through the trouble of planting pots in the ground, go to a *mart store and buy a couple of cheap plastic pots. They have them for around $1. Then you don't have to worry about the water issue as with clay pots.

JMO, but I'd rather do it right the first time instead of waiting to see if the hostas decline.

Good Luck whatever you decide.

Janet

Janet,
Yes, I agree with you but when I posted the question I had the clay pots in the ground for about 3 weeks. It was a hindsight question. If I see the hostas are not doing well I will rescue them. Sounds like most everyone feels they will not do well. OOOPPPS!

GreenGuy
What a beautiful pond, the creeping jenny is an eye catcher......Love that fire hydrant.

Great photo!

I have creeping jenny in a pot with a Gold standard as we speak. I suspected the GS might have HVX so I dodn't want to plant it out and I thought the CJ would set it off nicely.

To be honest, I think it would look better under a darker hosta, but it wasn't awful. I will put some under my ventricosa to see how that works this year.

Alexa