Got it!!!

This is me at the garden shop looking for a new hosta.

 I didn't find a new hosta but I did find 2 that you usually have to buy online.

One of my all time favorite hostas is Hanky Panky.  This hosta changes colors as the season progresses.  The middle of the leaves look completely different than the outer portion of the leaves.  There are numerous shades of green, thin lines of white and yellow, and even some subtle streaking.  It is a small to small medium in size and would look great planted in front of a large blue hosta.

This hosta is called Frozen Margarita and it is a large size hosta with lime green leaves that have a very thin white margin on the edge.  Not every hosta in a hosta bed needs to be extremely unique like Hanky Panky.  Having rather plain hostas in various shades of yellow, blue, and green like this lime green hosta, allows a unique hosta like Hanky Panky to pop.

I see more and more garden centers do what Vigoro does now and I really wish that they wouldn't do 'that'.  What is 'that'?  

 

'That' is not put the name of the hosta on the label.  Their hostas are just labeled 'hosta'.  For the hosta collector who knows their hostas, they will probably know that this 'hosta' is Hanky Panky.  The real problem occurs when you have a new hosta customer who is laying out their landscape and they buy Vigoro hostas. 

The size info is generic so there is a 50/50 chance that they will end up planting a shorter smaller hosta in the back and a bigger taller hosta in the front.  Three years after planting these hostas, they will need to dig up those hostas and replant them correctly.  Maybe even throwing out the smaller hostas thinking that those hostas are small because they are defective. Even worse, they could throw all the hostas away because they think that hostas are high maintenance, which they are not.

Look at the two containers.  You pay 2 bucks more not to know the actual name of the hosta.  What in the world?

  The label also indicates that you can plant in sun or shade.  Hanky Panky should never be in the sun.  It is one of those hostas that need shade all day to keep its color.  My mantra when it comes to sun or shade is 'no sun'.  And I say that with the same intensity that Joan Crawford said "no wire hangers!" 

  I look at it this way.  No hosta grew better because it was in the sun.  Rather the opposite. The less sun the better. Here is an example of two hostas that are in full shade all day.

The blue hosta is Krossa Regal.  It is a large blue vase shaped hosta.  The hosta partially underneath Krossa Regal is First Frost.  Both of those hostas would look completely different if they were planted in the sun.  Krossa Regal would just be a large green hosta because the waxy substance that gives the leaves their blue color would have melted off in the sun.  First Frost would be a pale washed out yellow and it's blue center would look green.  Also both hostas would probably have scorched leaf tips and generally not look healthy.

I haven't the time to water and baby my plants and that is one of the reasons why I love hostas.  If you plant them in the right location and place them correctly by size and color when you plant them, you will have a very low maintenance but a high visual impact hosta garden.

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Need more hosta info?  Go to http://www.hostalibrary.org/