Daily Home Renovation Tips

In Part 16  we used the example of the day lily’s to suggest you check not just the label but also the leaves of the plants you purchase to ensure you are purchasing what you think you are purchasing.

Today I would like to write about Hostas.

I really like hostas. They are the broad leaf plant that grows and grows and grows in (at least for us) almost any soil. They have worked well for us in both full shade and partial sun. They are just about as no maintenance that I can find in a garden plant; my type of plant!

We planted them in many areas of our main front garden as well as the two gardens on either side of our front door.

Take a look at the picture below. You should see 4 separate hostas. Other than the two on the outside having green and white leaves while the two in the middle have green only leaves, do you see any difference?

What about now? Look at the closeup of the largest hostas plant in the picture below.

Still don’t see the difference? OK, what about in the picture below?

Yes, some hostas flower and some don’t.  I knew that. However, I forgot all about some hostas not flowering when I was in the heat of the battle, that is when I was busy transplanting them to their current locations in our gardens. Can’t get it right all the time I guess. Failing to plan is planning to fail, as they say.  :-)

The above pictures show different hostas in our main front garden. Again, not all of them are flowering. In the first of the two above pictures from our main front garden the hostas plant in the middle, the one with the green and white leaves is producing flower stems but the two solid green leafed hostas on either side are not; well not yet … 2 weeks after this picture was taken they did start to produce flowers.

Is there a way to tell just by looking as a hostas plant in the spring before it flowers where it will or will not produce flowers? I have no idea. I wish there was.

If you know how you can tell if a hostas will flower, please send me an email or add a comment to this post. It would help me in the future and likely help visitors to Daily Home Renovation Tips as well.

To continue with the next article in this series, simply select this link to Part 18.