Top Ten Hostas – why these are my best hostas, for now!

Who doesn’t like a hosta? Well I guess if you’re shouting ‘me’ you won’t like what follows. For the rest of you, buckle up, while I give you a run through of my top ten hostas.

I should say here and now that on another day I could probably create a completely different list, after all, I am a hosta-hollic. So if I’ve missed off your favourite, please shout. I have a shady area leading up to my back door which I’m planning to fill with hostas, so I’m really up for new suggestions. But for now, here are my favourites. The ten top hostas in my list offer a mix of sizes, leaf colour, shape and pattern, flower colour and growing conditions.

Deane’s Dream

Deane’s Dream is a lovely blue, medium sized hosta. His maximum height and spread (sorry, to me most of my hostas are boys, no idea why) is 40cm x 70cm. I love him for his elegance. The long blue tapering leaves just look gorgeous. I have two Deane’s Dreams in my semi-shaded bed, where I feel their colour works beautifully with the soft pink rose Wildeve. However, I think this hosta would look even better in a pot, as that way you’d get to see his secret weapon, his gorgeous pink stalks which carry his leaves. If you’re interested in the flowers (I’m not really) they’re pale lavender colour.

Undulata Albomarginata aka Thomas Hogg

In my new, north-facing thus fully shaded white bed, which I planted just last year, I wanted something to lift the gloom and to provide a punctuation mark at the end of the border. Undulata Albomarginata, also known in some places as Thomas Hogg, does this beautifully. He has fresh green tapering leaves, shaped like a lance, with white borders. Thomas, as I now call him, grows about 40cm tall and spreads up to 1 metre. The experts say that if you are looking for a good landscape hosta, he’s good for this, which is why he’s in my list of top ten hostas. Again, his flowers are pale lavender.

Sea Dream

If you have shaded or semi-shaded beds, you want plants which will inject some zing. This was what I had in mind when planting up my woodland style bed.

I’ve used lots of plants with almost ‘fluorescent’ leaves such as heuchera lime marmalade and Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii. In the hosta family Sea Dream fulfills this brief perfectly. His bright gold heart-shaped leaves have creamy white edges, making quite a show! There’s a real glow to him and he grows about 35cm tall and 60cm wide. The flowers are (yes you guessed it) lavender!

Julie Morss

I love the two-tone quality of many hostas. To be honest, I could include loads in my top ten list of hostas for this reason. But I’m going to suggest this gal, Julie Morrs. Again a medium sized hosta (40cm x 75cm) she has a light gold center with chartreuse and green margins in the Spring. These look like they’ve been painted on with a broad, slightly splodgy paint brush which I think makes them really attractive. As an added bonus, her leaves turn all green in Summer, creating a bit of variety.

Silver Bay

I find the blue green hostas really attractive. I think their leaves provide a really good foil for other planting. So in my woodland bed, alongside grasses, primroses and all sorts of other plants I have the gorgeous Silver Bay. He has almost round leaves (10cmx10cm) which are slightly cupped. They’re a little bit corrugated too which adds to their appeal. The intense blue green leaves look silver – I’m guessing that’s how he got his name. What’smore he has a white flower which is a nice change from all the mauve, lavender ones which so many my other hostas seem to produce. In my garden Silver Bay seems to grow into a really pleasing lowish mound – about 35cm high and 80cm across.

My Top Ten Hostas – the final five

So, we’re at the half-way point in my list. So far you will have noticed that my favourite hostas are in my beds and borders. However, they’d do equally well in good sized containers. Indeed my next two choices are in pots – and they look magnificent.

Guacamole

This hosta is on the larger side. He grows to about 55cm x 85cm and has slightly oval, gold leaves with a dark green edge. I think, with the contrasting colour, it looks stupendous in a blue container but sadly it got too big for mine. However, I have my Guacamole near other plants which are in blue pots. So I still get the effect.

In case you are wondering, the plants next to my Guacamole in the picture above are Hakone Grass (I always want to say Hakuna Matata when I mention that grass!!) and Podophyllum Spotty Dotty. I love the leathery, puffy, frog-skin like leaves of the latter. But apparently it produces foul smelling flowers which are pollinated by flies! I may not love it quite so much then!!

Anyway, back to the hosta. In addition to looking incredibly handsome, Guacamole produces bell-shaped almost white, fragrant flowers in August which the bees love. It will grow in full sun – it grows even faster if you keep it in those conditions apparently – but mine is in a shaded spot.

Sum and Substance

This is my favourite and biggest hosta – by a mile! Sum and Substance rules the roost on my patio. Although he’s kept in a corner spot, that’s because I don’t want any breezes catching his enormous leaves and ripping them. If it wasn’t for that he’d be centre stage as frankly, like Baby in Dirty Dancing, “no one puts Sum and Substance in the corner!”

The experts say he grows to 90cm tall and 1.5metres wide if not bigger when given the space to grow. But because my bad boy is in a container, he’s constrained. But he’s very happy.

The leaves are thick and substantial and at 45cm long and almost 38cm wide – bonkersly big. They are a glossy chartreuse but will go gold, if you grow the hosta in the sun. Yes, you read that right, this hosta (like Guacamole) is happy in full sun. So if you have a really sunny garden and want to grow lots of hostas, I think you could grown this one, with others sheltering under the shade of his leaves.

Where’s he’s positioned on my patio he gets a bit of sun but not masses of it, so the leaves stay green which is fine with me. He produces ivory flowers from mid July to mid August and yes, you guessed it, they’re massive! The flower stems can reach 1.8 metres. Again mine, in its container, doesn’t achieve these lofty heights!

Katie Q

I always think of Katie Q as Julie Morss’ larger sister. Their leaves are almost the reverse of each other. So if you thought when looking at Julie, “mmmm love the leaves but they’d be even better if the pattern was reversed” then Katie Q is for you. Katie is a vigorous grower, producing lots of leaves quickly; she will grow about 45cm tall but spreads a good metre or more. I have her in my woodland bed, growing beneath the graceful arching stems of Solomon’s Seal and next to a Nepeta (I know, I know you don’t get nepeta in a woodland!)

Rain Forest

Next to Katie Q I have the gorgeous mid-sized hosta Rain Forest. If I’m honest I think I’m slightly swayed by this hosta’s name but he does have some qualities which justify him being in my list of top ten hostas. Firstly Rain Forest radiates solid glossy dark green leaves and these have a lovely undulating form. He’s a vigorous grower and absolutely no trouble – he rarely gets munched by slugs, which for many will be a big consideration. Growing about 40cm tall and 60cm wide, I think he would look really nice next to lime green or variegated plants. So I may well lift the Aquilegias which are growing next to mine and plant some of my Lime Marmalade Heuchera cuttings there instead. (You may recall me taking the cuttings when I dealt with leggy heucheras) Oooh I love a plan, don’t you, so will while away this afternoon thinking about this re-jig!

Little Red Joy

I also love having unexpected treasures in parts of the garden. Plants which probably only I know are there. For instance I have a low growing clematis which is in my sunny border. It’s hidden behind other things, but I know to look for it. And when I do, I get treated to its gorgeous blooms, tucked away, just for me!

Little Red Joy fulfills the same role for me, in my woodland border. Growing at the base of an old tree, and hidden on either side by Aquilegias you’d be forgiven for not noticing her, not least because she’s a miniature hosta. She grows just 15cm tall and has a maximum spread of 30cm. But with her green glossy leaves, with stems which near the leaf become slightly red and spotted, I think she’s a little belter. So she’s the final entry to my list of top ten hostas.

My Top Ten Hostas – Some Final Observations

I could have populated this list many times over. After all, Mickfield Hostas, which houses the UK’s national collection, has almost 1000 hostas for sale! If you’ve never looked at their site, I’d urge you to do so. You can search by size, leaf colour, pattern, fragrance. The choice is incredible.

For wavey leaves, I really like the look of Ripple Effect and Frisian Waving Steel. I could have another giant – perhaps Atlantis or Titanic…oooh to be honest there are loads I fancy!

My only final tip when looking at hostas is that if you want to avoid the problem of slugs munching the leaves, hostas with thicker leaves in my experiece do best. But to be honest, all of my hostas seem to avoid that problem on the whole. Of course there are some munched leaves, they’re not perfect, but they are broadly fine, and that’s good enough for me.

I don’t do anything special to prevent slugs and snails, I just let nature take its course. I attract lots of birds into the garden through my plant choices – you can see how to attract birds birds through your plant choices here.

I’m also conscious of looking after the birds which are around. I’ve a top list of tips for caring for birds in case you’re interested. The birds then seem to reward me by sorting out garden pests. Well that’s the theory and it seems to work where my hostas are concerned.

As I said at the start, I’m always on the hunt for hostas. So if I’ve missed a favourite of yours, let me know!

Happy gardening xx