Green Hostas
Our list
of hostas changes frequently, so some of the varieties mentioned here may
not always be available. We realize it would be better if everything
was always up to date, but it doesn't work that way around here.
You can probably just skip over
this part quickly and move on, cause nobody gives a hoot about green hostas.
I can here you all now, "Oh, that's not true..." Well, I've been
selling hostas for 25 years and I know what you guys buy, and you don't buy
many green hostas. And that's too bad, because not only are there some great
green hostas out there, but you need green hostas in your garden.
The best garden is not the one
with the most flowers and the brightest colors. A hosta garden with
nothing but variegated plants is just too busy. It's like painting
each window frame on your house a different color. You need green
hostas as a foil to show off the variegated plants. To add some subtlety to
the garden. You need green hostas.
The
green giants are not too hard to sell. Everyone likes the
big hostas and some of the largest are green. 'Komodo
Dragon', 'Vim and
Vigor',
and the other huge plants are always popular. Green hostas with
piecrust edges are semi-popular too, like 'Niagara Falls' at left, mostly
because there aren't too many variegated plants with true piecrust edges.
And lastly, Hosta
plantaginea,
the August Lily, is fairly
popular because it has immense fragrant flowers, unlike those on any
other hosta. Unfortunately, it is best grown
in warmer climates and we don't think they are the best choice for Northern
gardens. They emerge early in the spring and in areas where late
frosts are common, they can suffer leaf damage and a late hard
freeze can lead to crown rot and kill them. They also need a
long growing season to bloom and after all the trouble of growing them,
gardeners in the North may not see the flowers. On the other
hand, since these problems are due mainly to the fact that
plantaginea is native to Southeastern China, a warmer
climate than other native hosta habitats, it is probably the
best hosta for growing in the warmers areas of the U.S.
We would grow a lot more
interesting green hostas if you guys would only start buying them.
