A hosta beautiful options
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F YOU’RE pondering what to grow in your patio tubs this summer but aren’t keen on all the routine upkeep and regular replanting of a conventional bedding plant scheme, try hostas instead.
On the looks front, hostas are classy, cool and sophisticated and they do have flowers as well as their stunning trademark foliage.
There is also the convenience to consider. As they are hardy perennials you can leave them outside in the same pots for several years on end without any winter protection and when it comes to watering, hostas are serious moisture lovers so you can simply leave them standing in large saucers of water all summer.
Hostas come in a huge range of varieties so they’re very collectable. There are varieties with waxy blue-green leaves, ranging from the giant Hosta sieboldii Elegans and Big Daddy with 11-inch leaves, to dwarfs such as Blue Moon.
Variegated hostas are real stars. Choose green and gold kinds such as glamorous Gold Standard or Frances Williams or go silver and green with Frosted Jade or Francee. There are masses more.
Curly Hosta undulata and its named varieties add a contrast in shapes and textures while the pale gold or lime-green leaves of varieties such as Piedmont Gold and Zounds add subtle colour shades. For a superb show, grow a few of each.
Hostas are seen at their very showiest in pots. Container growing is the best way imaginable for keeping them safe from their old arch enemies, snails.
Spread a band of sticky pest-proof glue or wrap copper bands round the pot’s side and snails will proceed no further.
Another alternative is to grow them in pots standing up on bricks in a pond. Grown this way they make stunning foils for colourful bedding plants on the patio or pond plants such as water irises, water lilies and waterside bog plants, such as primulas and astilbes.
And all without the snails reducing the glamorous foliage to tatters.
If you’re sold on the idea, start gathering a good collection over the next few weeks.
Hostas are a tad late coming into leaf compared to a lot of other perennials so it’s worth waiting until a bit of foliage unfurls so you can see exactly what you are getting.
Then repot a single plant or a group into suitable containers without breaking up the root ball. Being slow-growing they won’t need to be divided or repotted for several years.
What’s more, as they are portable you can move plants round or try them alongside new partners, just like rearranging furniture.
This makes them winners for tiny gardens, balconies, formal features and gardens within gardens.
Hostas certainly have hidden potential so it’s high time that they came out of the closet.
GIVE YOUR PLANTS A BREWED AWAKENING