Hostas are one of the most rewarding and low maintenance shade plants you can grow. Get four things right, moist rich soil, shade, plenty of water and slug protection, and they will improve year after year with almost no effort. Here is the full routine.
Light: shade to part shade
Hostas are the classic plants for shade and woodland. Blue-leaved varieties in particular need shade to keep their colour and can scorch in strong sun. Gold and variegated types take a little more dappled light, which brings out their brightest colour. A north or east facing spot, or the dappled shade under a tree or taller planting, is ideal.
Soil and water
Give hostas rich, moisture-retentive soil improved with plenty of compost or leaf mould. Watering is the single most important thing to get right. Hostas droop dramatically when they are thirsty, but bounce back quickly once watered thoroughly, so never let them dry out in summer. A generous annual mulch in spring helps to lock in moisture and feed the soil.
Feeding
Feed with a balanced, slow release fertiliser in early spring as the shoots emerge, and again in early summer. Stop feeding after August so the plant can wind down for winter.
Slugs and snails
Slugs are the one real challenge with hostas. Two things help most: choose thicker-leaved, blue and puckered varieties, which slugs find far harder to eat, and stay on top of control with wool pellets, copper tape around pots, and nematodes in spring. Evening patrols in the wet weeks of spring, as the leaves unfurl, make a bigger difference than anything else. For more, see our guide on cutting hostas back in autumn, which clears slug eggs before winter.
Through the year
Divide congested clumps every few years in early spring, see when to divide hostas. Cut the foliage back once it yellows in autumn. That really is the whole job.
Ready to plant? Browse our full range of hostas, from giant blues to compact variegated forms, ideal in the ground, in pots and containers, or as an understorey in an exotic border.