What Do Hostas Look Like When They First Come Up in the Spring?
Reader question… “Last year was the first time I have ever grown hostas and I’m afraid they might have died over the winter. I haven’t been able to find any of the three plants I had.”
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Reader question… “Last year was the first time I have ever grown hostas and I’m afraid they might have died over the winter. I haven’t been able to find any of the three plants I had.”
Reader question… “So one has hosta… and one has winter. My question is a bit more complex.”
I sow the hosta seeds in quart-sized plastic plant pots, hopefully labeled and one variety to a pot. For soil, I use a bagged potting mix for seedlings because it has given me better results than any of the other starting mixes I have tried.
Hosta Lancifolia is an old and very common hosta. Some sources say it was the first hosta ever grown in this country. The medium green, lance-shaped leaves arch to form dense mounds of foliage, and for me the shape of the mound is this hosta’s most attractive feature.
Hosta ‘Tattoo’ is supposedly a very difficult hosta to grow, with many never making it through their first winter.
I read recently that there are now more than four thousand varieties of hostas in existence, and less than five hundred of those can be considered stable.
Hosta ‘Shade Fanfare’ has light to medium green leaves, with wide margins that start out as yellow in the spring and change to creamy white. Shade Fanfare hostas have very tall scapes, funnel-shaped light lavender flowers, and produce lots of seed pods.
I almost didn’t see it. My interest was in the larger bluish hosta and the interesting ruffled edges it is starting to develop… and in tackling the dense carpet of out of control weeds in the garden that serves as a nursery for some of the smaller volunteer hostas.
Until this year, none of my Revolution hostas have ever produced streaked or speckled seedlings. They always had lots and lots of seed pods, and even many seed pods that were brightly striped…
I’m seeing some interesting changes in some of my hosta seedlings this year. Most of the seedlings in this group are four to five years old… a few are probably a year or two older.