Hosta Plants - Plantain Lilies
Hosta Plants (Plantain Lilies): Another great perennial flower that is a must have in the border. It loves shade, wet conditions and grows where other cannot.
| Hosta Plants | Perennial |
|---|---|
| Bloom Time | Summer |
| Light | Light to Deep Shade |
| Water | Moist Soil |
| Diseases | Crown rot, leaf spot, viruses |
| Pests | Caterpillars, slugs, nematodes, deer |
| Propagation | Divisions, Seed |
| Color | White, Lavender, Blue |
| Zones | 3-9 |
Hosta Plants -'Barbara Ann':
Large, a sport of S. Elegans, forms huge clumps of rounded blue-green leaves with wide creamy white margins, thick puckered foliage has good substance and is pest resistant. Near white flowers bloom mid-summer.
Hosta Plants are very hardy perennials that produce tall slender stalks of lavender, blue or white flowers throughout the summer, but nearly every gardener will tell you they choose Hosta for the variety of foliage that you can get with the many different species.
Hundreds of cultivars are available from dwarfs to giant sized specimens that attain heights of 3 to 4' and a spread of 5' for even more.
Hosta are often used profusely in the shade garden as this is where they thrive. Some cultivars have bright green almost a chartreuse appearance to them that seem to glow in the shade.
Hosta Plants are one of the easiest perennials to propagate. You can pop them out of the ground nearly any time of the year, cut them into chunks and plant them immediately
I just take an old gypsum board saw and hack them into pieces to plant in the border. It is best to keep the crowns above the soil line and add a good handful of bone meal into the planting hole.
Another way I add to my Hosta Plant population is to let the flowers go to seed. The next growing season there will be all kinds of "volunteers" sprouting up around the parent plant. Just let them gain a bit of maturity and move them to their new home later in the year.
Hosta Plants - 'Frances Williams':
Hosta sieboldiana 'Frances Williams' - large, bluish-green puckered leaves with striking uneven golden edges. Bright color all season. Pale lavender flower July-August. Moderate growth rate, requires shade in southern zones. Height 20-28 inches, width 24-40 inches. Shade, Part Shade (northern zones). Zones: 3-9.
Hosta Plants are descendents of the wetlands and they love to have wet feet. The wetter they are the more they like it. If you can find a place along a pond edge or other water feature, the Hosta will be right to home.
One word of caution with the mighty Hosta Plants . It is Deer Caviar. They love, love, love them. If you have Deer, you will have to treat your Hosta. I used Liquid Fence and found this to be the only thing that completely stops the Deer from eating Hosta.
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Hosta Plants - 'Gold Drop':
Hostas or plantain lilies have around 70 species, from China and Japan, they have been hybridized into hundreds of exciting crosses.
Heart shaped Gold Foliage. (Chartreuse). Small. Up to 1'. Fast. Very nice in pots. Thats why I aquired it. I love Hosta in pots. This one looks nice with Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist'. Very hardy and drouth tolerant. Can take some sun to full shade. Zones 3-9
Hosta - 'Gold Drop':Heart shaped Gold Foliage. (Chartreuse). Small. Up to 1'. Fast. Very nice in pots. Thats why I aquired it. I love Hosta in pots. This one looks nice with Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist'. Very hardy and drouth tolerant. Can take some sun to full shade. Zones 3-9
Hosta 'Great Expectations'': This is been said to be the most beautiful hosta offered today. This hybrid of Hosta sieboldiana 'Elegans' has a fabulous cream center (emerging gold in early spring), surrounded by a wide blue-green edge.
They should produce medium-sized clump, to 30" wide, is topped with near-white flowers in early summer. 'Great Expectations' needs morning sun or very open shade to grow properly. Zones 3-9
Hosta 'Regal Splendor': Large, upright hosta. Heart-shaped gray-green leaves with irregularlyy creamy margins and a puckered texture. Lavender flowers. Variegated sport of H. 'Krossa Reagal'.
Hosta 'Patriot's Fire Hosta': Excellent sport of Hosta Patriot, this new introduction has large, variegated spring foliage of green with yellow edge. Yellow coloring gradually fades to creamy white during the season.
Unequaled for their beautiful foliage, low care, and many landscape uses. Hosta provide bright color in the shade with handsome, broad, ribbed foliage in many colors. Very showy from early spring until late fall.
Hosta 'Francee': develops wide mounds of large oval leaves rimmed with cream. Lavender funnel-shaped flowers bloom in summer on 30-inch stems. Zones 3-9.
Hosta 'Frances Williams': is one of the most decorative of all hostas. Its bold cupped and puckered heart-shaped blue green leaves are irregularly edged with yellowish green. Dirty white bells rise on 2-foot scapes in summer. Zones 3-9.
Hosta 'Sagae': is a popular variety with blue-green leaves edged in creamy-yellow. It grows 28 inches tall and 3 feet wide. Zones 3-8.
Hosta 'Tattoo': A true original, Tattoo's rounded leaves have their chartreuse-splashed centers framed in a blue-green border, and set in an apple-green background. Lavender flowers.
Hosta Plants - 'Blue Cadet':
Blue Cadet is a small to medium size hosta with heart-shaped blue green leaves. It forms neat dense mounds with lavender flowers that bloom in early summer. The picture show the size it can get in a container, here they are in the nursery . Zones 3-9.
Often some gardeners have entire Hosta Gardens, playing with all of the different shapes, sizes, colors and textures that the Hosta has to offer.
Other gardens can incorporate whole sections of Hosta in "seas" of Hosta leaves.
They work well as foundation plants, foundations around shade trees where nothing including grass will grow or play with them as the first plant in a long meandering lawn edge.
Wherever you use the versatile Hosta, it will be a perennial that gives a lot more than it receives and you will be greatly rewarded.
Astilbe
Astilbe and hostas are the classic partnership in the shaded garden. The fine astilbe foliage and colorful flower plumes enhance a plantain lily bed all summer long.
Columbine
The dancing colorful flowers of columbine bloom when plantain lilies are beginning to unfurl their young leaves, thus extending the season of interest in sun or part shade.
Christmas Fern
The upright fronds of Christmas fern contrast well against the solid foliage of plantain lily in shade.
