Hostas are the poster children for shade-loving plants. There’s a hosta for every need, and they’re super economical as long as you’re patient—hostas exemplify the old saying, “first year they sleep, second they creep, third year they leap!” They come in a virtual wardrobe of sizes, shapes, textures, and colors. Depending on the variety, their leaves may be heart-shaped, round, oval, or lance-shaped; glossy or dull; smooth or quilted; blue, green, yellow, or white, or several all at once. Some even magically transform throughout the season; the variety ‘Remember Me’ changes from white with green edges to yellow with green edges (as pictured in the upper right of the photo). And as if all that wasn’t enough, the dears bloom! They send up slender spires of pink, lavender, or white trumpet-shaped flowers. Hostas are so extra.
Keep Them Happy: All hostas go dormant in the winter, and will seem to have died completely, but as long as you feed them once a year, they come back better than ever in the spring. They like to stay cool and damp in the summer, but unfortunately, so do hosta-chomping slugs and snails—bait for these critters 3-4 times a year.