Hosta Plants: A Guide to Growing and Caring for Hostas

Hostas (plants in the Asparagaceae family)—sometimes called plantain lilies—are shade-loving plants generally ranging from chartreuse to dark green or blue in color. Originally from Japan and other Asian countries, these plants are easy growers that you can likely find at your local garden center. You’ll love hostas if you’re looking for a low-maintenance foliage plant to provide your garden with some ground cover and liven up your landscaping.

Most hosta plants sprout purple flowers of one variety or another—pink, lilac, and lavender flowers are all common. These fragrant flowers complement the waxy leaves and vibrant leaf colors typical of hosta cultivars. Hosta leaves usually come in broad-leaf shapes, sometimes as pointed, oval leaves and sometimes more heart-shaped or circular. These large leaves are one of the plants’ most identifiable traits, given their grand size is held in common by all varieties.

There are countless hostas, so if you want a specific color or style, you’re likely to find what you’re looking for if you search diligently. Here are five of the most common:

1. 1. ‘August Moon’: These hosta cultivars are bright-green and sprout light purple or occasionally even white flowers. They’re notable for being able to tolerate full sun more vigorously than other types of the plant.
2. 2. ‘Blue Mouse-Ears’: As their name suggests, these hosta cultivars are dark blue-green and shaped like the rounded ears of rodents. If you’re looking for a variety of hosta encapsulating all the unique, stunning attributes of the plant in general, this might be the one for you.
3. 3. ‘Halcyon’: These hosta cultivars possess pointed, blue-green leaves and can grow to be a little over a foot tall. They often sprout lavender flowers.
4. 4. ‘Patriot’: These variegated (possessing leaves with different colored areas) hosta cultivars are among the most impressively distinct the plant has to offer. Their leaves are green in the center with elegant, white margins.
5. 5. ‘Sum and Substance’: True to their name, these large hosta cultivars will add quite a bit to the sum and substance of your garden as a whole. Generally growing around three feet high and twice that size across, they’re ideal if you’ve got a lot of space and want to make use of it.

Dividing hostas at the roots for propagation is very simple. Pull up the plants until you see the roots, cut a portion or several portions of the plants—including the clumped-up roots—and replant the portions in separate areas of your garden. Once transplanted, treat the propagated plants with the same care you gave your original hosta plant or plants and watch them grow yet again.

Planting hostas and caring for them is fairly simple, but it’s still important to give these plants their ideal conditions to set them up for success. Review these tips to help your hostas thrive:

1. 1. Consider how you’d like to plant the hostas. There are multiple ways to plant hostas, depending on which materials you buy. Track down hosta plants already in soil for the easiest path forward—simply gather up the root ball (the mass of roots already enmeshed in soil) for transplanting into your yard or garden bed. If you’re up for a challenge, bare-root hostas will come without any soil around their roots—as the name implies—so you’ll be responsible for getting them into your garden or potting them swiftly. Seeds are another option if you’re willing to wait a little longer for them to bloom.
2. 2. Time things right. Given how much hostas love both shade and sun, it’s important to plant them at just the right time to give your new green foliage an ideal head start. You don’t want the early days of their growing season to be too bright—as they could be in late spring and early summer—or too gloomy, such as in winter, when hosta plants enter dormancy anyway. Early spring or early fall generally present ideal growing conditions for hostas to begin blooming.
3. 3. Provide adequate light and shade. Hostas are resilient, especially once they start growing, but giving them the right amount of sunlight and shade will go a long way. They grow best in partial to full shade, so plan your landscaping around helping them avoid the light of the full sun. Luckily, hostas possess a great degree of hardiness, so they’ll likely make it through the heat of a late summer afternoon sun just fine once their new growth is underway—providing they’re cloaked in some degree of shadow.
4. 4. Water frequently. Water your hostas throughout the week, leaving their environment moist but not soggy. Consider watering a little more frequently if the morning sun is shining brighter than you’d like it to on your shady garden.
5. 5. Fertilize well. Fertilizing these plants relies heavily on giving them the organic matter they crave. Provide your plants with plenty of natural mulch. A slow-release fertilizer will come in handy, too, to keep your plants healthy and help them reach a robust, mature size. Before long, you may garner a visit from some hummingbirds wanting to drink your flourishing hosta flowers’ nectar.
6. 6. Defend against pests. Both insects and rodents can come for your hostas. Spray the leaves with a repellent to keep bugs away. Voles and other vermin are more likely to go after the plants’ roots, so consider planting them in the ground within pots to make it harder for these creatures to get at them. Traps can be used if necessary.
7. 7. Prevent disease. A vigilant eye is necessary to ensure hostas don’t succumb to fungi and diseases like crown rot. Keep them healthy and you likely won’t have any worries, but use fungicide or cut out afflicted leaves and roots when appropriate should they succumb to an ailment.

Grow your own garden with Ron Finley, the self-described "Gangster Gardener." Get the MasterClass Annual Membership and learn how to cultivate fresh herbs and vegetables, keep your house plants alive, and use compost to make your community—and the world—a better place.