Hostas at the cottage Note: Hosta info in description

The hosta I call American Standard produces seeds and they be true to type. If you hosta produces seeds and they are black they may grow a new hosta. Light color or white seeds are sterile. If you plant the seeds they may come back like the parents but revert to a solid green hosta the second year. In 1978 when we moved to our home we brought the green and white hosta with us. From that plant we have given away hundreds of hostas. Back in the day, before hostas became popular, everybody had this green and white hosta and I never knew its name. When our home garden was a show place we had over 250 hostas. We are down to less than 30 now. I do not know why a hosta will live, but not grow in size if planted under an dogwood tree. If you take half of the plant through dividing it the original plant will usually never grow back to its pre-divided condition, but the parts you got from the division will form a perfect new plant. People with show quality hostas generally will not give you a small piece of the plant. The best way to increase you hosta inventory is to carefully removed part of the plant from the outer edges with a long sharp knife. Part the leaves and slice out what you want. Fill the hole where you removed part of the plant with soil and it will fill it where the part was removed and your hosta bed will still have full looking hostas. I have heard of squirrels eating them but slugs are the only problem I have ever had. Go out on a warm moist night when everthing is wet. Carry a salt shaker with you and sprinkle a little salt on the slugs back and it will instantly start to die. Of course you should never put salt in your soil to prevent slugs because you would ruin the soil.