Whatever you plant, it needs to be something that you'll never need to dig up or divide. Magnolias have thick fleshy roots and you cannot dig underneath them.

You might look at Lamiastrum 'Herman's Pride'. Unlike L. galeobdolon, which is deeply aggressive, Herman's Pride is a clumper. Also, how about one of other Lamiums--'Chequers', White Nancy', etc.?

Just don't use anything you'll need to dig up.

royal standard is defined by its flower show.. otherwise it is just another green hosta ... it is highly fragrant.. due to its profusion of pure white flowers ..

since fern and hosta grow in the EXACT same conditions.. except for water ... then one should expect both to grow in the same place ... if you grow hosta there.. you should be able to grow fern ...

the difference.. are hosta are a water hogs .. fern.. not so much.. water availability under the tree may be an issue though to be sure.. this is one vigorous hosta that should be able to compete on some level

ken

If you could see some of the places all sorts of ferns have decided they should be growing in my yard, you wouldn't be concerned.

I have some Japanese Painted Ferns in part sun and they do fine unless there's a drought and then I have to water them. But your climate might be a little hotter than mine. I'm in NC, zone 7a close to the mountains. These ferns divide easily.

There are a bunch of hybrids between Japanese ferns and American ferns. Ghost Lady fern, Branford Beauty, etc.

@laceyvail 6A, WV and @Sigrid, thanks for the suggestions! I'll be going to the nursery today, I'll see if they have any of those available.

Whatever you plant, it needs to be something that you'll never need to dig up or divide. Magnolias have thick fleshy roots and you cannot dig underneath them.

@laceyvail 6A, WV, you're right, I figured that one out the hard way! LOL The previous owners piled mulch VERY high around both this tree and a dogwood, and now I have these hills that I can't do anything about :-/

The tree is a main focal point of the front yard, but it's deciduous and only flowers for a short period. I really wanted some late-flowering shrubs and evergreens under here to fill in for those weak times! So far, though, I've only stuck with bulb plants and other very shallow rooted perennials.

I have some Japanese Painted Ferns in part sun and they do fine unless there's a drought and then I have to water them. But your climate might be a little hotter than mine. I'm in NC, zone 7a close to the mountains.

@erasmus_gw, I'm actually in North Wilkesboro, I just put Greensboro because it's the closest city that I thought non-locals would recognize :-)

I have this Japanese painted fern in a shaded garden in the back, but one side gets a few hours of direct evening sun. You can see that the shady fronds are pretty, but the frond that gets more sun (top of the picture) is just shriveled :-(

royal standard is defined by its flower show.. otherwise it is just another green hosta ... it is highly fragrant.. due to its profusion of pure white flowers ..

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5, these hostas were here when I bought the place. I had no clue what cultivar they were, I just kept dividing them and putting them in shady areas. It's only recently that I accidentally left one in an area that went from full shade to full sun, and it's doing great!

That narrowed down my options, which is when I ran across this:

https://www.gardenia.net/plant/hosta-royal-standard-plantain-lily

Their pics have purple flowers, though, not white. I'm pretty sure mine will have purple flowers.

Here's what it looks like today:

I actually prefer to use the JPF colors with darker greens/ blue-greens/ purple. Though that is a bit picky.

Also, both the hostas and the Japanese painted ferns are deciduous, so, nothing all winter.

A nice evergreen fern like Autumn fern would give different leaf texture at least.
Or some of the heucheras have kept foliage during winter for me.

" hosta are a water hogs "

This is a very common misconception.....once established, they are quite drought tolerant, needing only a weekly soak in hot, dry weather. Most ferns will require the same if not more water.

The Autumn fern listed above is a good choice. And is considered to be quite drought tolerant.

I can confirm that the Autumn fern is drought tolerant. I had one in my very dry shade garden. Another fern for dry areas is the Christmas fern, not sure of the botanical name.

I went to the local nursery today, and as expected my options were pretty limited. They had two Japanese painted ferns in stock, one Christmas fern, and a ton of Boston fern and ostrich fern. That was pretty much my only fern options!

So I bought both JPFs and the Christmas fern.

The Christmas fern is larger than I wanted, so I just planted the JPF next to the birdbath planter and the Christmas fern farther back in a different area. I guess I'll just keep an eye on the JPF, and if it's not doing well then I can dig them up and reverse them.

This is the whole area so far; please ignore the weeds on the left hand side, I haven't gone too far pas the birdbath yet:

Here's the birdbath up close. It has portulaca in the birdbath, then around the base is three of the green hostas, a Palace Purple coral bell, an Autumn Joy sedum, and the Japanese painted fern on the right:

And here's the other area up close. I created a small rock wall. On the back side of the wall is a blue hosta (Blue Angel, maybe) with the Christmas fern in the back left and a Forever Purple coral bell in the front right. Then in front of the wall, left to right, is a variegated hosta, Pumila astilbe, Queen of Hearts brunnera macrophylla, and the other Japanese painted fern.

Behind this area is a Bleeding Heart dicentra, and then another variegated hosta.

Unplanted and near the astilbe is a red coral bell; I don't remember the variety right now. I'm thinking about planting it right here to add color between the greens, but I'm not sure if it's too much muchiness.

I'm also not sure what to do between these two areas. Right now it's just a big, bare spot with direct morning sun and then dappled sun for the rest of the day. I'd really like to put some sort of evergreen here, but it can't be too tall and of course has to have shallow roots. Maybe a dwarf radicans gardenia?