Hosta Spotlight

Hostas infuse Cincinnati gardens with vigor. Certainly they are durable, pest-free and thrive where other plants struggle, but a great strength of hostas is the design element they bring to the home.

For shade or deep shade applications, hostas provide:

• Size: Huge, big, medium and really cut.
• Color: Greens, but in different, vibrant shades—blue, vivid, golden, and mixed.
• Variegations: Stripes down the center; stripes along the edges, and wildly.
• Textures: Crinkly, wavy, and smooth are the major ones.

Hostas will grow where grass seldom does, so a ring of hostas surrounding trees and shrubs is a garden classic. Expand the ring and add some variety for a hosta garden that can both blend in with the surroundings and add some interesting accents to a particular spot.

For example, mixing hostas with evergreens is a great way to soften the bases of trees, especially those where the canopies are high enough that you can see through to the neighbors’ yard.

Use a BIG hosta to provide a graceful transition from the tall evergreen above to the flat green of the yard below. For a soft progression, use a hosta similar in color to the tree. For a lively interpretation, mix in contrasts of green with gold, big with small or several variegated hostas. A large tree can actually be a great centerpiece for a very interesting garden.

With arborviteas, use golden hostas or the heavily variegated cream-striped ones; their colors compliment each other. Any of the golden varieties, like ‘Gold Tiara’, will appear bright green in the shade and develop a deeper gold in partial sun.

As a matter of fact, a stand of golden hostas, or heavily variegated silver hostas, is effective at drawing attention to special sections of the yard. Use them like a spotlight, or maybe stagelights, to frame a special piece of garden art or a favorite sit-down-and-relax space.

In front of traditional evergreens, choose variegated hostas. They are effective at breaking up the steady, consistent, never-ending, will-it-not-stop quality of long hedge runs. A chorus line of hostas, whooping it up in gold and silver dashes, splashes, crinkles and waves is a pretty exciting way of covering up those low bare spots around hedges.

For privacy or to cover up those less-than-special areas (pipes, foundations, utility-related items), a stand of hostas is the perfect solution. It does a great job of looking dapper while covering up those drab features of the yard.

Good news! Hostas are as carefree as the evergreens themselves, so you won’t drag home a lot of work when you fill the mini-van with hostas. Drop them in the ground and you’re done!