Last week we spent a day expanding a clients gardens.

They have large clusters of a mixed variety of deep green and green/blue hosta’s. Around every other season I split them and rearrange them. This year I used these splits to build the client 2 new hasta gardens in the front of the home.

Above you can see the new hosta splits we planted. It is really important when planting hosta’s, especially the larger varieties, that you imagine this plant 3 seasons from now when you place it. The whole layout of this garden is simplicity. A simple grass patch, stunningly massive Red Oaks with nice woodland hemlock and taxus. We added some Japanese Astilbi that I split from another part of the yard. It is to the left of the oak in the first picture. The blue hosta are being used as texture, color and another transition layer. In the middle picture we are using them formally in a straight line, in the photo on the left we have them placed more naturally. Buying new hosta’s for the above garden could have cost between 20 and 30 per plant which would have cost this client around 4-500 just in plants. We built this garden for under 150 – the only cost being labor since we already had the plants growing on site. Garden Smart.

This is one of the patches of Hosta we split for the above new gardens. The picture on the far left is what the plants look like from the home. In the middle picture you can see upon closer look that I split the inside of the two hosta’s for the least visual impact and used the leaf as mulch for the plant. Hosta leaf is AMAZING mulch – smothering weeds, adding moisture to the soil and nutrients. It is always best to leave your clippings in the garden. In my case, people pay us to make their gardens look ultra clean and finished – still, there is a way to keep organic matter in the garden beds fashionably, and the above is one example.

I took over 20 splits from this patch. Can you see where I took them from? Even splitting this patch every season it is still increasing in size by about 20% every year. Soon it will be a massive area of giant blue leaf set against green grass and silver green hemlock.

When picking hosta’s go for the deep colors, the deep blues, the deep greens – stay away from green and whites and make sure to plant in large masses. The hosta always has a more pleasant impact when there are a bunch of them. The greatest thing about this plant is that you buy 10 this year and next year you have 20 or 30. With proper design and planning over the course of 5 years an investment of 100 hosta can supply enough plant material for massive gardens. By year 5 you could have 1,000+ plants from that 100.

I do not use slug bait or slug killer for hosta. If your soil is healthy, the slugs will not damage the plant to the point it is visably upsetting. When insects are killing your plants it is because your plant is weak. Strengthen the plant through organic soil conditioning or throw it out and get a plant that is Easy to grow for your area.

Fall is the best time to split this plant only because then it does not matter if you mess up the leaves. Other than that, you can split this plant anytime of the year. I did these in the early spring and within a matter of weeks they will look like they had been there for a season. Splitting the hosta in mid summer usually results in a very weak looking, hurt plant until the following spring – but, it does not seem to effect the plants ability to survive.

Easy. Garden Smart