How To Grow Beautful Hostas To Showcase Your Garden

Hostas come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Grown primarily for their foliage, they come in various hues of blue,green,white and gold with solid or variegated characteristics. It will take 3 or 4 years for a plant to display the characteristics of a mature plant. Hostas do well in zones 3 - 8.

There is a staggering number of varieties and choice basically comes down to taste and budget. Your average priced hostas are $6-8 but can get up over $100. Growing great hostas begins with great stock. Be sure to buy your plants from a reputable nursery to ensure quality,health and success.

If you already have hostas growing that are healthy and vigorous you can also get more stock by division. Dividing can be done from spring thru early fall. This involves digging up a mature plant and splitting it up by spade, cutting or pulling apart. Just be sure your division has at least one upwards shoot, part of the fleshy material and some roots attached. Always be sure to disinfect cutting implements between each cut to help protect against hosta virus x. This is discussed in more detail a little further down. It seems ruthless but these pieces will grow just fine. For more info on dividing go to our website

www.hostasnlilies.com

Another great article on hosta division can be found here

How To Divide a Hosta

Hostas can also be grown from seed but do not come true except for hosta ventricosa. However it is fun to start seeds and see what does come up.

When selecting your planting site keep in mind hostas are shade tolerant and not shade loving. They will not thrive in deep shade. They seem to do best with morning shade and afternoon sun. If this isn't possible plant them between other plants to help defer some of the suns rays. Also check the variety as some are quite sun tolerant. In general we find a little too much sun is better than no sun.

If in a bright location be sure to keep well watered. Make sure you have your planting location well worked up with loose soil deeper than the plant and 8-12 inches wide. A good plan is twice the depth and width of the new plant. Also remember that a mature plant can occupy 3 or 4 sq ft. Plant the crown or the point where the leaves and roots meet at ground level.

For bareroots such as we ship, it is good practice to soak the roots in tepid water for 30 minutes and be sure roots are spread out when planting. Once the roots are spread in the hole and supported by a small hill of soil fill with dirt being sure not to leave any air pockets around the roots. A good soaking of the soil will help firm the soil and get your new plant started.

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Mulching will help keep roots moist and supress weeds. Just be sure you aren't creating a home for slugs, snails or rodents. Try to avoid getting water on the foliage. Keep the plant watered but not soaked as that will encourage root rot.

Once established some fertilizer will keep it fed. You can either use a liquid or a granular slow release type. Either way keep the fertilizer off the foliage. Don't fertilize after late July as you don't want to encourage new growth too late in the growing season.

Hostas are very winter hardy and great for northern climates. You can leave the dead foliage in place and any fallen leaves etc will serve as mulch. Hostas downfall would be going too far south such as Florida. They need a cold period. In fact they need around 700 hours at 4c.

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Hostas biggest pests are deer, slugs and snails. Deer can be a challenge in some areas but there are many new products which repel them and strategic planting locations are also a protective measure. Slugs can be kept in check with diatomaceous earth, ashes, copper strips, beer traps, board traps and chemical baits.

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The major disease concern today is called hosta virus x. This causes discoloration, disfiguration and spreads by sap. So anytime you are dividing,scaping or cutting in any way disinfect between cuts.

Check out our website here for great tips and daylilies.
www.hostasnlilies.com

Your greatest protection is by purchasing plants from reputable nurseries who dilingently destroy suspected infections and take every step to ensure disease free stock.

Great article on growing and propagating hostas.
Great Hosta Tips

This guy has some great ideas on gardening and everything from pest control to making your own growing medium. Free ebook and a number of free plans. Check him out at
Learn From Mike

Now you have your Hostas in place- what about watering during those dry summer months? This ebook teaches everything about flower garden and lawn irrigation. A must for serious gardeners
How To Irrigate Effectively

This is a neat one page primer on growing hostas.
Growing and Propagating Hostas

This article Hosta Tips is one I had published at Ezine Articles. It is a handy condensed Hosta growing guide that is easy to print.

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