Spotlight Plant Of The Month For July: Hostas

Whenever the summer turns hot and hazy, you can bet that July will be in Photo Courtesy of Gary Trucks, Amber Wave Gardens the thick of the hottest part of the year! While daylilies are hitting their prime and coneflowers are starting their marvelous show of purples and whites and now even more color choices, there is something serene, refreshing, and a bit mysterious when one stumbles across a planting of hostas in the shade during this muggy month.

Hostas can range in size from tiny teacup-sized plants to huge behemoths, commanding the landscape. They can have smooth and shiny leaves or puckered and muted leaves. Greens, golds, and blues abound, as do variegated varieties.

Hostas are most accomodating plants. They tolerate bright to deep shade, and even a few sturdy individuals will do reasonably well in brighter, sunnier conditions. It is little wonder that the hosta is one of the most popular plants for gardeners today!

Hostas will tolerate most soil conditions and are hardy throughout our region. They do require reasonable moisture and rich soil to grow, so if you plan to add a few, make sure to amend your soil by adding lots of compost, humus, and manure. They appreciate a sidedressing of compost in the spring, and will grow by leaps and bounds with the addition of compost tea and liquid kelp/fish emulsion during the growing season.

Unfortunately, slugs love hostas almost as much as we do! You can sprinkle diatamaceous earth around your plantings, set barrier collars of copper around your plants to "shock" them, salt them (literally)! or give them a beer bash to drown in, which is my favorite way to control them. I place tuna cans or shallow saucers in the ground filled with beer, and the slugs will drop in on their way to get a drink, thus drowning. What a happy way to go!

One of the prettiest sights is to walk in a woodland garden and see these lovely foliage plants in their prime. One of the hardest things to do is to protect your plants from the greedy roots of competing trees and bushes. By planting the hostas near, but not directly in the way of trees and shrubs, one can avoid direct competition for moisture and nutrients. This works well if you are planting in a shady area with only a few trees. When planting in a woodland setting, you can overcome the problem of root competition by first planting your hostas in pots, then sinking them into the existing soil and mulching to hide the pots. Be aware that this contained, sunken garden will need to be dug up in a few years to divide the plants and to keep them from becoming pot bound. Just dig them up, divide, add fresh soil with compost, and repot them, sinking them back into the ground and adding mulch once again.

Hostas will bloom at various times, and a few do have fragrant blooms as well. Some gardeners break off the flower spikes, while others let them bloom away. Either way is fine, just treat them the way that suits your fancy!

In the spring, many garden centers have hostas for sale. My best advice is to buy one huge plant, take it home, and divide it into three or four smaller plants. This is a better bargain than purchasing many cheaper, smaller plants.

Given the right conditions, hostas can fill-in a bed fairly quickly. They are easy to divide in the spring or fall, and make great gifts to the gardener on your list. You won't have trouble finding someone to give those extra plants away to, I guarantee!

So when you are wilting, go and visit your hostas! Even when the temperature is hot and the air is steamy, you will be mentally refreshed and cooled by the sight of hostas in the shade!