Hosta: just right for most Michigan soils

January 25, 2001
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Hosta: just right for most Michigan soils ANN ARBOR—Hosta will grow in nearly any type of soil, including clay, sand or loam—in just about any base Michigan has to offer. And, depending on which variety is planted, hosta can also tolerate Michigan’s summers whether hot and dry or hot and humid.

Hostas (green-leaved plants in foreground) on the U-M campus. Photo by U-M Photo ServicesKen Rapp, University of Michigan landscape architect, and Bill Kronberg, a senior horticultural assistant at U-M, have designed hosta plantings in various locations throughout the University’s Ann Arbor campus. In one garden, besides hostas, there are also bleeding hearts, ferns, redbud trees, rhododendron, evergreens, ground ivy, and sparrows. While Rapp and Kronberg didn’t plan for the birds, their plantings, as well as the vines covering the surrounding buildings, have attracted numerous sparrows that flit from tree to hosta, to vine, to grass and back again.

Kronberg swears that hostas are fairly easy to grow. “In fact,” he says, “some varieties can be happy in full sun in a parking lot. Some will grow well in clay, too, something we have challenges with in this part of the state.”

Yet there are some hosta varieties that bring with them their own problems. Kronberg says H. lancifolia seems to be especially appealing to rabbits, and one year an entire hutch of bunnies lived off one of his plantings. But without rabbits, Kronberg says, “hostas can also provide an entire summer of blooming if the right combinations are used.” One U-M garden area features 37 different types of hosta.

The variegated varieties prefer partial shade, the blue-leaved varieties more shade to maintain their true-blue coloring, Kronberg says. And while most varieties will tolerate less than ideal conditions, to bring out the best of the “big ones,” rich, organic soil and watering when needed is advised.

Hostas neighbor well with small to medium trees like Redbuds and Dogwoods with something like Honeylocust forming a central, taller canopy. In combination with these taller forms hostas create a quiet, relaxing space. When paired with rhododendron (both prefer a cool, partially shaded site and hosta doesn’t mind the low pH required for healthy rhododendrons, both the textural and color contrast is pleasing. The two don’t compete spatially, Kronberg says, and besides, “rhododendron provides much needed winter weight when the hosta go dormant in winter.”

Bleeding Heart, Dicentra spectablis, also works well because the foliage dies back in mid-summer after its display, and the hosta fills in the gap without missing a step.

“Hosta can be texturally bold,” Kronberg says. They can be used creatively to provide ground, contrast, rhythm and movement, and sheer interest in the garden when used with any plant which shares its requirements. Hosta work well with astilbe, ferns, wildflowers like Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry), Erythonium americanum (Yellow Trout Lilly), Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot), Hepatica acutiloba (Sharp Leaf Hepatica), Arisaema triphyllum (Jack-in-the-Pulpit), or low ground covers, like Galium odoratum (Sweet Woodruff).

Hosta also works well with bulbs because as the hosta leaves enlarge, they conceal the ripening leaves of the interplanted bulbs. Kronberg likes to use Allium aflatunense that rise between blue Halcyon Hosta and Golden Sum and Substance Hosta leaves and are blooming just as the Bleeding Heart blooms are starting to dwindle.

While hosta can withstand some typical dry spells, watering at least once a week when they are first planted will help them get established. “Establishment is very important here in southeast Michigan where we can go weeks without rain,” Kronberg says. “Once established, though, hostas do real well in dry shade.” One really can’t go wrong when following the advice on the plant labels for spacing. “I planted ‘Abba Dabba Doo’ too close once and realized that a five-foot spread really meant a five-foot spread,” says Kronberg. “It’s really disappointing to see such a beautiful hosta like that cramped because it loses some of its majesty. It’s like being ‘dressed up and nowhere to grow.'”

Hosta can be used in many areas of a garden or landscape. “They have a sort of serene and calming disposition,” Kronberg says. “Though I’m surely not implying that they are boring. Just sort of, well, like manatees, maybe.”

Some hosta Web sites— American Hosta Society Hosta Forum Hosta Photo Library Hosta links

American Hosta SocietyHosta ForumHosta Photo LibraryHosta links