A shade-loving Asian perennial famous for sculptural mounds of broad leaves in green, blue, gold, and variegated patterns, the backbone of woodland gardens.
Description
Hostas grow from a crown into mounds of broad, heart-shaped, ribbed leaves. In summer they send up tall stems bearing lavender or white trumpet-shaped flowers, often fragrant.
Cultivation
Cool, moist, rich soil and shade or filtered light suit hostas best. Slugs and deer are their main enemies. Thousands of named cultivars range from mini to giant.
Uses
A shade gardener’s staple, hostas are unrivalled for foliage contrast under trees. Their large leaves are used as cut foliage and even eaten as a young shoot vegetable in Japan called urui.
Find more plants by letter
Hosta starts with H and ends with A. Browse other plants along the same letter.
Plants that contain a letter from "Hosta":