Hosta - The Stars of the Shade

Here’s a new and innovative idea for your next summer garden, a hosta garden. By making use of some of the hundreds of different Hosta hybrids, you can create a very interesting and exciting addition to your landscape.

Bold Foliage

Hosta are best known for their beautiful, bold foliage. The attractive leaves come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. Some have lance-shaped leaves, while others have heart-shaped, oval, or even round leaves. In addition, they can be found with either smooth or wavy margins and can be glossy, quilted or corrugated in texture.

To get the greatest diversity in your hosta garden, be sure to mix large, broad leaved hosta like ‘Sum and Substance’ and Hosta sieboldiana with smaller leaved hosta like ‘Golden Tiara’ and ‘Ginko Craig’. An extra dimension can be added by including curly leaved hosta like ‘Corkscrew’ and tall vase-shaped ones like ‘Krossa Regal’.

And not all hosta are just plain green! You can choose from many different colors to give your garden that extra “pop”! There are different shades of green from the dark green leaves of Hosta ventricosa to the pale green leaves of Hosta plantaginea. Hosta can also be found in a wide range of colors other than green including gold, chartreuse, and blue. Adding variegated hosta will provide even more diversity with beautiful combinations of greens, golds, whites, and blues. My personal favorites are
‘Orange Marmalade’ which has a gold/orange leaf and a contrasting blue-green edge and the heavily textured ‘Paul’s Glory’ with a lime green interior and a narrow blue-green edge.

Beautiful Flowers

The hosta flowers are attractive too! You can look forward to many beautiful blooms from summer to early fall. Some of these flowers are very fragrant as well. Hosta ‘Fragrant Bouquet’ has a lovely fragrance as well as beautiful variegated foliage. Hosta flowers also attract hummingbirds to the shade garden and can be harvested for beautiful summer bouquets.

Low Maintenance

Hosta are the perfect low maintenance perennial since they require little attention once they are established. They grow well in full shade to light shade and can even tolerate full sun as long as they are kept moist, thus allowing for versatility in garden placement. When planted “en masse” as a ground cover, the dense leaves of hosta act as a natural weed barrier.