The unsung heroes of the shady garden are the hostas. Hostas come in 70 different species and over 3,000 different cultivars, so you’ll have enough to choose from. They are grown mostly for their lovely foliage, which adds intriguing texture and color to the garden throughout the season.
TYPES OF HostaS
Many kinds, including Hosta plantaginea, sometimes known as the August lily, have beautifully fragrant blooms. ‘Aphrodite,’ for example, is famed for its very fragrant white blossoms. Its double petals fragrant the evening air long after the other hostas’ blossoms have gone. My August lily is still in bud, despite the fact that August is finished. I’m hoping it will bloom soon!
Every year, I travel to the New Hampshire seacoast to see the plants in Prescott Park. They have a demonstration garden with numerous All-America Selections plants and other well-marked favorites, which allows me to see how they’re doing in this dry summer. It also features lovely formal gardens and a particular collection of hostas donated by Birchwood Farms’ Anna Kay.
Despite the fact that it has been so hot and dry this season, the majority of the hostas are in excellent condition. Color and leaf form differences have always piqued my interest. The names add to the amusement. What do you call a hosta with serrated edges and narrow leaves? ‘Hacksaw’ comes to mind. ‘Curly Fries,’ a plant with thin leaves and ruffled edges, was selected the 2016 Hosta of the Year.
‘Rich Uncle’ is a gold plant with thick, broad leaves that appear quilted. ‘Paradigm’ is textured in a similar way, but it’s gold with large green margins.
‘Titanic’ and ‘Blue Mammoth’ are two other large-leaved variants. The tiniest hostas, such as the 10 inch tall, practically white ‘Vanilla Cream’ and the 3 inch tall miniature hosta ‘Pandora’s Box,’ are on the other end of the scale.
With its pointed, heart-shaped leaves, ‘Eternal Flame’ has to be my favorite. It has a sense of movement about it.
Growing HostaS
Hostas are low-maintenance plants that endure for a long time. Your plants will be well-fed with an inch or two of compost sprinkled in the spring before the shoots sprout. They can shade out the majority of weeds, reducing upkeep to a bare minimum. Unfortunately, the same wet, rich soil and cool shade that bring out the best in a hosta also provide the perfect setting for slugs. Hostas with textured leaves are more resistant to slugs than those with smooth foliage.
Made in the Shade
Plant coleus, New Guinea impatiens, torenia, begonias, fuchsia, and sweet potato vine alongside other shade-loving plants like coleus, New Guinea impatiens, torenia, begonias, fuchsia, and sweet potato vine to prevent the “hosta ghetto” look in your shady garden.
Hostas are also ideal for planting alongside spring flowering bulbs since their late-emerging leaves will cover the tired-looking bulb foliage. Hostas make ideal foundation plants for a shady deck or porch where ice and snow would damage shrubs because they die back to the ground in the winter.
What color do hostas come in?
Hosta leaves come in a variety of colors, from light buttery yellow to deep forest green to powdered blue, and there are also variegated varieties. Red coloration in the stems and leaves has recently been bred for by hosta breeders.
What are the most common hostas?
Here are 17 of the most well-known Hosta varieties.
- Frances Williams is the hostess. Growing in partial or full shade, this is one of the most popular Hostas.
Are purple hostas real?
Purple Sensation has rich purple flowers that are bordered and striped in pristine white, unlike classic hosta cultivars that have pale lavender or soft white flowers. Hostas are excellent ground coverings and attract helpful pollinators with their bell-shaped blossoms, making them the ideal companion for your spring-blooming bulbs.
How poisonous are hostas to dogs?
The Agavaceae family includes the hosta plant, which is a perennial herbaceous plant. There are about 40 different species of these hardy plants belonging to the same genus. Hostas, which are native to Asia’s eastern regions, may grow in a variety of environments.
Hostas are a low-to-the-ground plant with ribbed or striped leaves at the bottom and blooms at the very tip of the stalks. The flowers occur in clusters, and the stalks emerge from the leaves in colors of white or a blue-purple combination. Hostas are frequently utilized in landscaping or as houseplants in pots.
Hostas produce saponins that are poisonous to dogs and other small animals. The saponins in hosta poisoning cause vomiting and diarrhea, which are common symptoms. If you have dogs, you should avoid growing hostas on your land and keeping these potted plants indoors.
When dogs swallow the hosta plant, which contains saponins that are toxic to dogs and hazardous if ingested or come into touch with the skin, they develop hosta poisoning.
Are hostas invasive species?
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to invasive species in gardens and landscapes. The bad news is that invasive plants are frequently planted as ornamentals, and numerous invasive species are widely accessible for purchase from nurseries and garden centers, as well as as components of wildflower seed mixes. The good news is that there are thousands of lovely non-invasive plants to pick from. While many of the most well-known garden plants aren’t native to the Midwest, the vast majority of them aren’t invasive. Non-native plants such as hostas, hybrid tea roses, most garden hydrangeas, boxwoods, tulips, daffodils, garden salvias, dwarf shrub junipers, and peonies, for example, are not known to be invasive in the region.
There are hundreds of beautiful and distinctive native plant species that make great food and habitat for native birds, mammals, and pollinating insects if you want to take it a step further and develop an environmentally friendly garden. We’ll share our suggestions and techniques for avoiding invasive landscape plants, as well as resources for finding acceptable replacements, in the sections below. For the expense of travel, MIPN staff are also available to speak to groups about invasive species and landscaping.
Japanese barberry, tawny daylily, smaller celandine, reed canary grass, forest forget-me-not, water hyacinth, purple wand loosestrife (from left to right).
Avoiding Invasive Plants
The table below lists a “dauntless dozen” invasive landscaping plants that are still for sale (where not restricted by state law), as well as the difficulties they cause and a native replacement recommendation. Download our free Landscape Alternatives app for iOS or Android for a more comprehensive list with photographs. Simply search for “landscape alternatives” in your app store. A copy of the accompanying booklet is also available for download. Avoid purchasing or planting any of these problematic species, and if you already have them, consider digging them up and replacing them! If you see any of these species for sale at a nursery or garden center, speak with the management and request that invasive plants be removed from the inventory.
In addition to not planting invasive plants on purpose, gardeners should keep an eye out for invasives emerging from seeds scattered by the wind or birds. Gardeners should also be sure to buy weed-free compost, mulch, and hay. Check out our consumer fact sheet to learn more about weed-free certified products. If you manufacture or sell garden goods, we also have a fact sheet for you.
Gardening with Natives
There are many non-invasive exotic garden plants, however native plants can have extra environmental benefits. Native plants in the Midwest evolved in tandem with native birds, creatures, and insects, and they frequently provide greater habitat and food supplies. The key to selecting a native plant (or any plant, for that matter) is to match the plant’s traits to your garden goals, as well as the plant’s requirements to the site conditions. When it comes to trees and huge bushes, the maximum size of the plant must meet the available space. It is critical that all plants be planted in a site that fits their requirements for light, soil richness, and moisture.
Here are some fantastic resources to assist you in selecting plants for your Midwest garden:
- The native plant or wildflower society in your state (IL, IN, IA, MI, MN, MO, OH, WI, ON)
Please let us know if you’d want MIPN to speak to a gardening club or native plant group about landscape invasives. We will need a stipend to cover travel expenses, but no honorarium is expected. Within 3 hours of Chicago, travel expenditures are normally $100 or less, and $200 to $300 elsewhere in the Midwest. Here’s a recent presentation we made for an occasion like this. We may be able to provide live or preserved samples depending on the time of year!
Is there a pink hosta?
Question: I’ve read about pink hostas in periodicals, but I’ve only seen seeds for them from a few online seed suppliers. Could you elaborate on the situation?
Yes, there are fly-by-night seed companies claiming to sell hosta seeds with brilliant pink leaf, but this is not the case. It’s just a ruse. Most likely, the provider, who claims to supply mixed hosta seed, finds that extensively doctoring a photo of an ordinary hosta, something that is surely easy enough to accomplish with Photoshop or comparable software, to make it look brilliant pink, helps their seeds sell much better. The resulting viral photo is unmistakably eye-catching. In fact, the plant in the photo is so vibrant that it would be difficult to resist the urge to purchase seeds. Of course, the new plants will almost certainly all be plain green, though there is a chance of various shades of green and even some variegation… just not pink variegation.
Sometimes these kind of vendors simply take your money and disappear, but more often than not, they will send you a packet of seeds, but what kind of seeds? Hostas, perhaps, but anything from weeds to salad greens have emerged from packs of seeds from such dishonest providers in other comparable instances. They can keep the fraud going longer if they send you seeds of something. After all, it takes a few years for a hosta to reach its full size and color, proving that it isn’t pink at all.
When there are too many complaints, these types of vendors can close up shop and reopen elsewhere under a new name, then repeat the trick.
What pairs well with hostas?
Hostas go well with astilbe, ferns, geraniums, and shady-friendly bulbs. Bleeding hearts and heuchera are two of our faves. The delicate blossoms and elegant, arching branches of bleeding heart (dicentra) plants are the perfect contrast to bold, flashy, or variegated hosta plants.
Do hostas spread?
Hostas bloom late in the season, yet they swiftly spread out to fill their designated area. They grow slowly, taking two to four years to reach full size, with the largest species and cultivars taking much longer. Allow lots of space while planting to accommodate their eventual size. Small variations spread out three times their height. Larger kinds are at least twice as wide as they are tall, while medium-sized types are twice as wide as they are tall.
Hostas are disease-resistant, but slugs and snails can’t stand their succulent leaves. Keep an eye on the sprouting leaves and eliminate the intruders as you come across them. Use exclusion measures such as ash rings around the plants or beer saucers as bait in moist, humid areas.
Which is the biggest hosta?
How Can You Make GIANT Hosta Growing Conditions Better?
- The vivid gold leaf of the Key West Hosta makes an astonishing 80-inch broad mound.
- Empress Wu’s wavy green leaves are reported to be the largest hosta leaves ever!