Hosta Landscape Tips

Shade Garden Border

• Many hosta varieties have beautifully shaped and colored leaves that gardeners may want to show prominently in the garden. Hostas are good plants for garden beds under trees and on the edges of yards or properties, provided the shade is not too deep. A border of small or medium-sized hostas in front of a perennial shade garden is an attractive and easy-to-maintain garden that will provide returning greenery for years. Planting options include either planting a front border of all hostas or combining them with other shade perennials or herbs.

Display Specimens

• Some rare hostas are much sought after by gardeners and horticultural collectors. Display specimens enhance the entrance to a home or create an awesome scene lining a driveway. Other areas to display hostas include underneath a mailbox or outdoor lamp post, at the base of a fountain or garden statuary and around a garden shed.

Mass Planting

• Hostas are beautiful plants and fill in large empty areas quickly. They naturalize well under trees where the soil is well-drained and rich with organic matter. Spaced far apart at the original planting, with a fresh mulch cover, hostas will flourish and multiply quickly, although not aggressively. Hostas will be ready for separating in spring and fall.

Other Areas

• Hostas, especially the mini and dwarf varieties, are good additions to rock gardens and along pond and waterfall edges. To grow divided plants, pots suspended on post and rail fencing allow gardeners to grow them without planting them out in the landscape. Hostas make excellent additions to woodland gardens, interplanted with other low-growing foliage plants and shrubs.

Pests

• Hostas are generally sturdy perennials with few pest problems but disease and insect infestations can weaken and even kill them if not treated. Fungus, bacteria and viruses can attack hosta foliage, ruining the leaves and spreading rapidly from plant to plant. They will show as rusty or brown spots on leaves, rotting areas on leaves, in different forms depending on what is attacking the plant. Many leaf problems are spread by slugs, which shelter in the leaves during the day and eat the foliage in the evenings and early morning hours. Many fungal and bacterial conditions are caused by extended wetness on leaves from overwatering or rainy periods without sun. Don't water hostas in the evenings and don't spray water on foliage. Use a soaker hose to deliver water to the soil around plants instead of leaves. Remove affected leaves and burn or seal them in plastic bags and discard them; do not compost. Use slug traps if there are many holes eaten in leaves, and use a fungicide or pesticide treatment for persistent problems that have been properly identified.