Hostas Make Excellent Landscape Plants for Garden Shade

Hosta plants are widely popular landscape plants for shade gardening. They are admired more for their beautiful foliage than their flowers and, because once established, they are a low maintenance, long lived perennial.

Hostas are native to Japan, China and Korea. They were introduced to Europe in the late 18th century and were brought to the Americas in the middle of the 1800s.

They are an easy plant to hybridize and there are currently more than 3,000 cultivars registered with the American Hosta Society. Variegated and gold/yellow cultivars are the most popular among hosta gardeners.

According to Canadian Gardening Magazine, more than half of these cultivars come from mutations of existing cultivars. Hostas tend to be unstable genetically and will periodically send out leaves that are significantly different in appearance from the rest of the plant. Carefully divided from the main plant, these sports can be nurtured into a new cultivar.

Season Long Foliage Landscape Plants

Hostas are hardy, low maintenance herbaceous shade perennials that are easy to grow in garden shade. Grown primarily for their foliage, hostas are hardy to USDA zone 3.

Hostas may be blue, light to dark green, white or gold and the leaves may be solid coloured or variegated. Some of the most prized specimens are variegated shades of gold and white.

Further adding to their flexibility in shade gardening, hostas come in a wide range of sizes. A hosta garden may host plants as small as three or four inches in spread to giant types that can spread to eight feet. Most cultivars grow in a rounded shape, but some have very thick upright ribs making the plant more vase-shaped.

Until recently, the flower stalks hostas put out in midsummer have been their least desirable feature. But more effort has been put into the flowing potential of these attractive landscape plants and many cultivars now bloom with showy spikes of large white or pale mauve, lily shaped flowers.

An Ohio State University fact sheet says new varieties are being bred for larger, more attractive flowers with 50-75 blooms per flower stalk. Even better, some cultivars of Hosta plantaginea are have six inch white flowers that are fragrant.

Cultivating Shade Garden Hosta Plants

Though considered one of the garden shade plants, hostas actually do well with a few hours of direct sunlight or in the kind of dappled light found under deciduous trees. Morning sun is best and will help to bring out foliage colours.

In general, blue or solid green hostas can take less sunlight than the gold, yellow or white varieties and fragrant hostas need five to six hours of sunlight to develop their scent. Crisp brown edges on the leaves in mid-summer are indications of too much light damaging the leaves.

Like all woodland landscape plants, hostas prefer a well-drained, rich, slightly acidic, soil with plenty of organic matter worked in.

Prepare a planting hole for new hostas by digging deeply 12 to 16 inches and one and a half times wide as the mature plant size. Add plenty of organic matter and mix well. This will nourish the hostas and also help to ensure good drainage.

Hosta plants appreciate a winter mulch to protect the roots and crowns from freeze/thaw cycles. After the foliage has died back, cut away the dead leaves and clear any remaining debris from the growing area. Cover the hosta garden with an inch or two of compost to feed the plant next season and top it with another inch of shredded organic matter.

In spring, clear the mulch from the crowns but leave it around the plant to conserve moisture and nourish the soil.

Dividing Hosta Plants

It takes four to eight years for hosta plants to fully mature. Hostas should be divided when there is no new growth in the centre of the plant and not before. Dividing hostas too often will prevent the plant from maturing fully.

To divide hostas, gently pry the clump from the soil and remove as much of the loose soil as possible. Using a sharp knife or spade, cut divisions from the clump. Washing the soil from the roots with a hose first can make it easier to see where the clump should be divided.

Dividing hosta plants should be done in spring before the leaves grow too large. But be aware that hosta roots will not grow until the foliage has fully expanded. Recently divided hostas need lots of water for the first couple weeks until the roots have taken hold.

Plant hosta with other garden shade perennials such as Japanese Painted Ferns, and annuals such as impatiens, begonias and coleus.

Source:

Growing Hostas: Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet