fall hostas
The hostas bloomed like never before this year, in my garden and everywhere else, proving to unenthusiastic gardeners how stunning they can really be. I too found myself ridden with guilt over the opinions I had of these plants: they seemed kind of dull, with their easily scorched leaves perforated by slugs and borers, and quite unimpressive and rarefied flowers that don’t stay open long enough to justify the effort. They are impossible to kill and linger sadly through dry spells donning anemic struggling leaves, a living though muted reproachful comment on the gardener’s lack of skill.
I have not seen them like this, though, and I don’t know what brought on this lavender exuberance, and maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to them until this year. Plants, like any living thing, thrive on love and attention and fade with neglect. Since hostas are advertised as plant-it-and-forget-it greenery, we tend to ignore that they are alive and can’t possibly do their best in soils that are never watered, don’t get the benefit of any improvement and will never see sunlight.
Try treating your hostas like your do annual flowers, give them the same amount of nutrients and water, and they will turn from filler foliage you can’t kill but wish you could to the stunning specimen plants they have the potential to be.
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