Thanks for responding bilbo, my name although it is a mans name is misleading, I'm actually a woman and definitely not a Kev! Hostas and their like would not do well in this particular spot, although it is waterlogged for a month or so in winter, most of the year it is pretty dry, actually very dry, we are away a lot so the plants need to be really capable of just getting on with it, I know I'm asking a lot of a plant but there must be some robust little chaps out there who can cope as well as the roses have over the years

Oh that's OK, as you can imagine , it's a VERY common mistake, I don't take offence easily, just correct the mistake.