Re: reflection on Hostas

In a message dated 7/23/04 4:49:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
remmulp@STNY.RR.COM writes:


> and dwarf varieties. Most of the "small" ones are too large for me and
> started to overwhelm (and overstay) their welcome.

I 'll agree here also.  I have a lot of hostas and I have forgotten most of
the names over the years though they do well when there is a lot of land to
cover with garden.  We have an old farm and they can cluster around trees totally
free of any care.  Some years they look pretty good and by midsummer they all
begin to look ratty. If you have lots and lots of free space, hostas will
fill in.  If you have a smaller garden you may want something else.  I'll say
this for hostas, they never die, they are yours forever.

If you have a smaller garden one of these hostas will eventually need a lot
of space.  We put some in the ponds though not behind the electric fence the
deer ate them.  As Bill said, even the middle and smaller ones begin to have
multiple crowns and spread into very large clumps.  You cannot believe when small
how large the clumps can become.  Just wait.

Hostas tend to be a cult plant with a dedicated following.  Something like
daylilies and irises.  Growers like to have a lot of them.  I collected a bunch
of them once and then sort of lost interest.  As daylilies, so many arrive
newly each year and most of them look alike.  A very few have deep purple flowers
which is an asset though the flowers are seldom mentioned so finding one with
flowering assets is difficult.

When originally planted, I did not think to use a tapestry effect and vary
the colors.  I just planted what appealed to me.  Where they are basically all
green, they are not very interesting.  We have had two very rainy summers here
and the result is giant Hostas. I have cut some flat to the ground to stop the
overlapping and killing of other plants. Picture two 55 gallon rainbarrels
completely missing in the Hostas.  I planted around 500 Sieboldiana seeds one
year and the result is too awful to think about.  A few have very good crinkly
leaves.  The rest are going twenty at a time to my niece's landscape nursery.
They are so big that around twenty in plastic wrappings fill up a pickup
truck.  Again, if this were not a farm, you would be up to your ears in Hostas.

One should plan plenty of space and when in five years or so the plant
becomes overwhelming, one needs two men and some determination to remove it.  The
last big one I removed broke the shovel.  We have a lot of garden space so the
Hostas are not hogging all the shade as some areas never got planted with
Hostas.  Where I interplanted Hellebores, I have had to slice the Hostas to the
ground every summer.

I have not been reading all the Hosta posts so this may be a repeat comment.
There is one common and cheap one called Regal Splendor which is bluish green
with a while border.  The leaves are very tough and slug free. The form is
tallish and vase shaped.  It is a good center plant to begin a garden.  It is
the only one asked about in my garden.  If you visit us now, you get a Hosta to
take home.  After digging out dozens of them the Hosta areas are still very
full.

If Bill has anymore energy, he is not too far away, he can come and dig out
our Hostas.  He mentioned close to the house.  A hosta which roots into the
foundation of an old house is a menace.

I still like some of them but the caution of overuse is to be heeded.  Once
you plant a shaded area with Hostas, there eventually will be nothing else
there.  When you remove them, one small root left behind will present you with a
new plant in a few years. If nothing else, they have extraordinary vigor.

We sent some to Florida with a visitor this summer.  Waiting to hear those
over summer results.  He tossed them in the back of his car and they arrived in
perfect condition.  To think, I used to take care of these plants with some
research on culture. Even those cut down with the lawn mower return and have the
ability to survive under the mower.  Don't underestimate the power of a
Hosta.

Claire Peplowski
NYS zone 4
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