The Rural Voice, 2005-05, Page 361
1
Gardening
A host of hostas for shade gardens
Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Shade gardens have come a long
way in the past 30 years.
My grandmother had a wildflower
garden on the south side of the house
that she sheltered with an eight -foot
high lattice fence on two sides. The
fence broke the spring and early
summer light until the maples on the
boulevard leafed out and provided
dappled shade for the rest of the
summer. The narrow spit of garden
was about five or six feet wide and
only 12 feet long with a flat stone
path that meandered down the centre.
Each spring there was a treat
awaiting you every time you looked;
trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpits,
hepatica, and mayapples peeked out
from among last fall's leaves and
debris.
A large copper beech sheltered
and shaded one end of the garden to
the north of the house and here were
the hostas, impatiens and begonias
along one end and the delphinium
and summer bulbs were the stars in
the sunny side of the border. You
would never think of mixing wild
flowers and perennials in a shady
border back then.
One perennial that has found its
way from the wild to the domestic
perennial border is the lowly hosta.
Hostas are natives to Japan, Korea,
and China and can be found in
woodlands, marshes, grasslands and
along streams and rivers. Like so
many plant discoveries, hostas were
introduced to European gardens in
the mid -1800s. For about a century
they were just large -leafed perennials
that filled in shady spots.
My grandmother adored them for
their blossoms. Hers had pale green
leaves and the plants were actually
offshoots of her father's plants.
32 THE RURAL VOICE
Above the leaves stalks of snow-
white, trumpet -shaped blossoms
would show in August. The fragrance
was heady and my grandmother
would show them off on her kitchen
table in a beautiful rose bowl with the
broad green leaves tucked around the
outside edge of the arrangement.
Plant breeders have been having a
heyday with all the different varieties
they can produce. Mark Zilis has
been studying hostas for 20 years and
pulling together material for seven
years in order to write a most
comprehensive guide called The
Hosta Handbook. When he began,
the largest collection of hostas was
less than 500 and by 1990 anyone
could order twice that many from a
variety of nurseries.
Care of hostas is
much like any other
plant. You look to
their Light.
water, nutrient
and soil needs.
There is a
hosta for
almost every
light situation
and soil type.
For the most
part they are
shade lovers but I
see more and more
of them planted in
sunny locations. It
makes me shudder. The best
setting is dappled shade which allows
for one to two hours of direct sunlight
and partial shade which is two to four
hours of less intense sunlight, usually
morning light. There are a handful of
hostas that will tolerate partial sun of
three to four hours of direct afternoon
sunlight but check their requirements
carefully before subjecting them to
the burning sun.
Shade plants like rich organic soil
and hostas are no exception. Clay -
loam provides the basics but you can
beef it up with some mushroom
compost, pine bark, or decomposing
leaves. Throw in some sand to
improve rooting conditions and you
have a fairly good mix. Zilis
recommends adding peat moss to the
soil to loosen it up and add to the
acidity if needed but 1 would suggest
oak leaves, pine needles, or a bit of
elemental sulfur. Peat moss is a non-
renewable resource.
Best to test your soil and be sure.
Hostas like a 6.0 to 6.5 pH level but
will tolerate a greater range of 5.5 to
7.0. Keep in mind that plants do best
in the recommended pH range.
Growing on the fringes makes it
difficult for them to access valuable
nutrients in the soil and essentially
limits their potential.
Picking out a hosta for your
garden can be both a joy and a
challenge. I can well understand how
people get caught up in the collecting
of them. Zilis offers 15 blade shapes,
28 leaf colours (that is not including
the underside terms),
L descriptions of leaf margins,
texture of the leaves and
vein pairs as well as an
assortment of other leaf
characteristics and then
there are the flowers
and season of bloom.
It really is a
wonderful book on
hostas and has been
produced for gardeners
to take with them to help
identify favourite plants
and note the ones they have
to have. It has a wide spiral
binding to keep it from snapping
closed all the time and the pages are a
narrow four -and -a -quarter inches
wide making it just small enough to
slip into your bag and not too
obtrusive when wandering through
gardens and garden centres.
It has a variety of colour pictures
to give you a better idea of the plants
although his descriptions are very
thorough. So when you venture into
the world of hostas, take along the
Hosta Handbook by Mark R. Zilis
published by Q & Z Nursery Inc.
Rochelle, Illinois. 1 already have my
choices marked with brilliant post -its
on the edge of the pages. To the
casual observer I look like one of
those hardened collectors who will
fight you for the last hosta on the
shelf. Happy collecting.0