Hosta

Plantain Lily

Featured Plant: Hosta rectifolia 'Mito-no-hana'

Primarily native to prairies of China, Japan, and Korea, hostas have been grown in America for over 150 years. Currently, there are over 6,000 cultivars, of which at least 500 are distinct and garden-worthy. We continually evaluate the introductions from the country's best breeders, choosing those that represent the best and most unique.

Note: When hostas are divided under nursery conditions they often take on immature leaf characteristics, including more pointed leaves as well as reduced cupping and corrugation. The leaf forms that are pictured and described will redevelop in one to two growing seasons...be patient.

For best performance, hosta plants prefer woodland garden conditions...light shade to a couple of hours of morning sun. Hostas are often touted as the best shade-loving plants for the perennial garden.

More Information About Hosta

How To Grow Hosta

Hostas are incredibly tough plants and will get along fine in almost any garden...but they look their absolute best with just a little extra attention.

How Much Sun?

Hostas prefer woodland garden conditions...light shade or a couple of hours of morning sun. Those who live in the north can get away with growing hostas more sun than us here in the south. Hosta leaf colors are preserved longer into the season with shade...so if you want to preserve that nice blue leaf or yellow leaf for as long as possible, choose more shade, preferably afternoon shade. The best sun hostas are the green cultivars.

What Type of Soil is Best?

Well amended soil is best...rich in organic matter and tilled to improve drainage and prevent winter crown rot. Slightly acidic pH.

How Much Water?

Hostas are drought tolerant but 1 inch of water per week will keep them looking tip-top.

What Type of Fertilizer is Best?

A fresh layer of compost once per year is plenty to keep a hosta supplied with all the nutrients it needs to look great.

How Much Maintenance Do Hostas Require?

Not too much. If you want to ignore your hosta, it will not mind at all. But you can keep your garden looking tidy by removing the spent flower stalks in late summer and by cleaning up the dead foliage after a few hard freezes at the beginning of winter.

Common Pests

Deer love hostas and so do slugs, especially the newly emerging tender leaves. There are a variety of deer controls out there (fencing, predator urine, rotten eggs and hot peppers) but you can also control deer by interplanting hostas with plants that they do not like (e.g., Helleborus, Taxus, Vinca - Check out all our deer resistant plants). Slugs can be controlled with a variety of treatments but some non-toxic organic methods include collars, diatomaceous earth and sand around the plants.

How Do I Propagate Hosta?

Hostas can be divided every 3-4 years by digging them up and carefully separating the slips. Make sure each slip has some roots. When hostas are divided they often take on immature leaf characteristics, including more pointed leaves as well as reduced cupping and corrugation.

When is the Best Time to Divide?

Fall is the best time, but hostas are such tough plants that I have had success dividing them (in Raleigh) in any month.

Design Tips

Inter-plant with evergreen or wintergreen plants to fill in when your hostas are dormant. Flowering in summer, the purple or white hosta flowers can be combined with other summer flowering plants with white or purple flowers. White, cream, and yellow variegated hostas stand out best when surrounded by solid green plants. Blue hostas stand out best when set off with complementary colors like pink and white flowers. Fine textured plants like carex and ferns play well with the bold texture of hostas leaves.

Hostas are often touted as the best shade-loving plants for the perennial garden, which is hard to dispute. In cultivation, hosta plants readily mutate and have produced thousands of novel colors and leaf forms (blue hosta, gold hosta, and variegated hostas are the most popular, but we also have green hosta, and white variegated hosta). Plant Delights Nursery has evaluated thousands of hostas and has assembled a large and diverse collection of the very best hostas for sale including a variety of hosta sizes (mini hostas, small hostas, large hostas, giant hostas, and huge hostas), hosta flower colors (purple flowering Hosta, and white flowering hosta), and fragrant hostas.

Plant Delights Nursery continually works with the country's best hosta breeders to evaluate new introductions, choosing only those cultivars that have the very best and most unique traits. We also have our own hosta breeding program at Plant Delights Nursery and have released dozens of unique hosta varieties from the smallest to the largest hostas. Our hosta nursery is one of the top in the country for its wide selection of the best hostas on the market.

How are Plant Delights Nursery Hostas better than the competition?

Our hostas are all container-grown and unlike our competitors we sell large multiple-division plants...our price is for an entire container of 1-20 divisions. When you buy hostas from Plant Delights Nursery, you are often getting large plants (unless you buy a mini hosta which will be small but full) that you can immediately divide. Since we grow our hostas here, you are able to buy hostas direct from the grower.

Additional Hosta Resources:

Be sure to check out Tony's many blog posts about Hostas over at the Juniper Level Botanic Garden blog.

Watch our hosta videos: