Growing Hostas

How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Hostas

By The Editors
Hosta Plant
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Hostas are hardy perennials that are especially perfect for a garden that doesn’t get too much sun. Reliable and easy to grow, hostas are long-lived—and may even outlive the gardener! Plant in the spring and cut back in the fall after a few frosts. Learn more about growing and caring for hostas.

About Hostas

What’s neat about hostas is that there are so many sizes, heights, textures, and colors to work with! They fit into so many different kinds of gardens (patio, border, container, rock, shade) and are cold-hardy, too.

Most varieties tend to have a spread and height of between 1 and 3 feet, but larger or smaller varieties are readily available. Leaf colors include variegated white, lime green, and blue-green, to name just a few. The texture and shape of hosta leaves are also diverse, ranging from smooth and narrow to ridged and heart-shaped. 

Though mainly known for their attractive foliage, the plants also produce lovely flowers from early summer to early fall in pink, lavender, light blue, or white. Hummingbirds and other pollinators love the flowers, and the flowers may even be fragrant, depending on variety.

Note: Slugs, snails, rabbits, and especially deer like hostas almost as much as people do. Keep this in mind if you have deer regularly wandering into your garden, as they will readily graze a hosta patch down to just stems.

Planting

When to Plant Hostas

  • Buy hostas as dormant, bare-root divisions or potted plants in the spring. 
  • Hostas can be planted later in the growing season, but will need extra attention (mostly watering) to ensure that they do not succumb to summer heat.

Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site

  • Hostas do best in partial sun or dappled shade, but will do fine in deep shade, too. 
  • Hostas’ large leaves do not lend themselves well to intense full sun, but if kept in fertile soil, they can “take the heat.”

How to Plant Hostas

  • Set the plants in a planting hole with the crown of the plant even with the surrounding soil and the growing tips visible at the soil surface. 
  • If buying potted hostas, plant them at the same soil level as in the pot. 
  • Gently dampen the soil around the plants and water until soil is moist.

Hosta flowers
Hosta flowers are much-loved by bees and hummingbirds.

Care

How to Care for Hostas

  • Apply a well-balanced, slow-release fertilizer after planting or when growth emerges in the spring. 
  • Keep the soil moist but not wet.
  • Place mulch around the plants to help retain moisture. 
  • Remove flower stalks after bloom to encourage new growth.
  • Many hosta cultivars have nice color in fall so let them thrive until they start to suffer from frosts.
  • In late fall, after a few frosts, hostas will flatten out and get mushy. We suggest cutting them back to avoid slug and disease issues. Clean up around the plants and remove brown leaves. However, if you run out of time, you could also wait to cut them back until spring.
  • Transplanting and dividing is best done in early spring when the leaves just begin to emerge.

Transplanting or Dividing Hostas

Hostas do not usually need dividing for their health. If they have less space, they’ll simply grow less quickly. However, if you wish to divide a hosta for a neater appearance, it’s best to do so in early spring once the ‘eyes’ or growing tips start to emerge from the ground. This is also a good time to move or transplant a hosta to a new site.

Leave as much of the root attached as possible to each crown or plant. Plant the new hostas at the same soil level as they were previously. Water well until established.

See video:

Pests/Diseases

  • Slugs and snails:  If you see irregular holes along the leaf’s edges or entire leaves chewed off at the stem nocturnal slugs may be the culprit. Look for shiny slime trails on the leaves or on the ground around the plants.
  • Deer: It’s true: deer love hosta. To discourage deer, use fencing or motion-sensitive sprinklers. Speak to your local garden center about odor-based sprays and deer repellents; the deer will taste the distasteful repellent first. Here’s an example.
  • Rabbits: If you see clean-cut chew marks on young hosta stems and leaves you may have rabbits in your garden. Look for dropped leaves and rabbit droppings on the ground and around the plants.

Recommended Varieties

Once you start exploring hostas, you’ll find they get rather addictive! From 4-inch miniature hostas to 6-foot-wide giant hostas, there’s a hosta variety to fit any situation from large borders to tiny rock gardens. Here are just a few:

  • H. fotunei ‘Aureo Marginata’: Deep-green oval leaves accented by a golden edge. 

hosta-fortunei-aureomarginata_full_width.jpg

  • H. x ‘Blue Cadet’: A small hosta with heart-shaped, bluish leaves. It makes for a nice edging plant. In mid-summer it blooms with mauve-blue flowers. 

hosta-blue-cadet_full_width.jpg

  • For sunnier spots, select plants from the Hosta plantaginea group. These plants also tend to have fragrant flowers in late summer. ‘August Moon’, ‘Honeybells’, and ‘Sum and Substance’ are a few of the varieties in this category.

plantaginea-hosta_0.jpg

Wit & Wisdom

  • Young hosta leaves are edible. Known as urui in Japan, they’re commonly boiled, fried in tempura, or eaten raw. The flavor is similar to lettuce and asparagus. 
  • If you wish to remove your hostas, cut off the leaves to the ground and then dig out the crown located just below ground level. Pour vinegar or boiling water over the plant. If you have a larger area of hostas that you want to remove, cut the leaves off, remove the crowns and then cover the area with black plastic for the rest of the growing season.

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Reader Comments

Leave a Comment

Hosta replant

Submitted by Joan Hart on September 27, 2019 - 12:58pm

I recently got a lot of hosta plants that my friend was digging up. We planted them today 9/27,should we cut them back or is there anything we should do special?

Hosta Replant

Submitted by Milyhow on September 30, 2019 - 9:57am

Hostas are extremely hearty. You do not need to cut them back until the frost kills off the leaves in a few weeks. If the transplantation left them looking bedraggled you can cut them back and they will survive but it will be better for them to keep their leaves for longer.

not cutting hosts back

Submitted by jen on July 30, 2019 - 8:43pm

We don't have time cut our hostas back in the fall. Will it compromise their health by skipping this part of their care?

Not cutting hostas back

Submitted by milyhow on September 30, 2019 - 9:59am

They will be more prone to rot/disease but odds are they will be ok. If you wait until the leaves are SUPER dead from the frost they just pull right off of the plant, no need to even cut them.

Slugs

Submitted by Karen Mcgraw on July 10, 2019 - 9:42pm

How do I get rid of slugs that are eating my Hostas's?

Slugs on hostas

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on July 11, 2019 - 11:40am

Slugs do love hostas. See our Slug page on how to get rid of slugs: https://www.almanac.com/pest/slugs

Hosta's

Submitted by Kim Preston-Smith on June 14, 2019 - 7:52am

There are tunnels going to my hosta. The roots are being eaten and the leaves are left. The leaves drop into the hole. One day the plant is standing the next it is flat on the ground.
This morning I just found a pile of leaves moved from the plant and no roots are left. Help! This season I am losing all my hosta.

Hosta Pest

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on June 14, 2019 - 4:18pm

It sounds like you’re dealing with a rodent pest of some sort; probably a groundhog. See our groundhog pest page for advice on repelling them from your garden.

Hostas

Submitted by Pat Aurora on May 9, 2019 - 5:05pm

I live in Florida, zone 9. Will hostas grow here?

zone 9?

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on May 13, 2019 - 4:36pm

We suggest that they will in the chart that opens this article. However, not all of them will. It would be best to contact your local cooperative extension service to see if and which in your particular area would do best. Here’s a link to find the service nearest you: https://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services

Hostas

Submitted by Cathy Schwartz on May 9, 2019 - 11:55am

I'm wondering why my green and white hostas are now having leaves that are all green and are not like the original plant that I purchased. Am I doing something wrong?

Hostas

Submitted by Nita Wilkerson on October 27, 2018 - 2:05pm

I am moving into a new home and it has several hostas, but they are laying flat on the ground as if an animal has been laying on them. However, there are no animals in the area that big. So what's going on and what do I do with them. It's definitely fall here.

hostas on the ground

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on October 29, 2018 - 4:15pm

Did you have a freeze or a chill? Hostas are perennials but they are not evergreens, so they will “give up,” so to speak at some point in the fall as they prepare to enter dormancy. Without knowing more, it sounds like you need do nothing.

Hosta planting

Submitted by Karen on July 20, 2018 - 11:57am

Can you plant hosta seeds in ground in fall as long as you water them? Will they come up in the Spring?

when to start hosta seeds

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on October 29, 2018 - 4:22pm

Seed-starting time for hostas as well as other plants is February or March. About two weeks before you want to start/plant them (we suggest in peat pots or the like), put them into a bowl of water and soak them, in the refrigerator for about two weeks. Here’s some guidance on seed starting: https://www.almanac.com/content/starting-seeds-indoors

Bear in mind that germination is typically low (you need a lot of seeds to get a few plants) and slow (it could be two weeks to two months or more before you see growth). Good luck with this—and remember you can always divide hostas to increase your collection (it doesn’t take as long to get a plant).

about hosta

Submitted by yash on June 2, 2018 - 3:36am

I like the idea you share about bare root division in hosta. I personally promote root division rather than seed propagation. The way you present your ideas are appreciable in simple and easy to understand.

Pages

Growing Hostas

Botanical Name Hosta spp.
Plant Type Foliage Plant
Sun Exposure Shade
Soil Type
Soil pH Neutral
Bloom Time Summer
Flower Color Blue, Pink, Purple, White
Hardiness Zones 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
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