hosta flowers, yes or no?

Published on by Quandie

Good morning from the garden!

Today I thought I’d ask you all the question, ‘hosta flowers, yes or no?’

In the past I’ve mentioned that I tend to cut the flowers off my hostas as soon as they appear.  But that’s partly because I have 500 (small exaggeration) of this old variegated variety of hosta in my garden …

and it has tall, spindly flower stalks with tiny lavender flowers on them.  You can see a couple of stragglers that I missed clipping in that photo.

If I just let them go, they look really messy and chaotic to me.  So, I have always trimmed them off.

In fact, in the past I’ve tended to remove the flowers from almost all of the hostas in my garden.

But this year it seems like the flowers on quite a few of them are really looking good.

Rather than having spindly flowers poking out in every direction, they have nice full clumps coming from the center of the plant.

Maybe it’s because they didn’t suffer any hail damage this spring.  Or maybe it’s because I top-dressed a lot of them with compost this year.  Or maybe it’s because I have been very diligent about keeping them watered.  We’ve had a very dry summer so far, currently we are experiencing what is considered a moderate to severe drought, so I’ve been doing a lot of watering.

Or maybe it’s just that I’ve never let them reach their full glory before!

Whatever the reason, this year I’ve decided that some of the hosta flowers deserve a spot in the garden.  In fact, I was standing over at nnK’s house across the street the other evening, and I noticed that from a distance it looks like my garden is full of purple blooms right now, and that’s not a bad thing.

One of the most prolific bloomers at the moment is this one …

This is a hosta that originally came to me from my friend Sue, and I’m fairly sure it’s called Golden Tiara.  Over the years, with lots of splitting here and there, I now have at least a dozen of them.

Another that’s full of flowers right now is this one.

I’ve got it tucked in between some Golden Tiara hostas on the right, and that glorious Raspberry Splash pulmonaria on the left.  I have no idea what this one is called, it’s similar in size to the Golden Tiara but is solid lime green.

Most of my hostas have pale purple flowers, but I do have a couple that get white flowers.

Wouldn’t that be a pretty addition to an all white blooming shade garden?

This next one starts out with pale lavender buds that fade to white as they open.

Not all hostas bloom at the same time.  I have several borders of a plain green hosta (also gifted by my friend Sue) that aren’t showing any signs of blooming yet.

In fact, oddly enough, although I’ve had these for years, I can’t even recall what their flowers even look like.  Clearly I don’t grow this variety for the blooms.  Instead, they make a great edging plant for a perennial border.  In fact, I just dug up two of them, divided the pair into 10 plants (yes, 10!, five each) and replanted them as a border under my Limelight hydrangeas.

They don’t look like much right now, but they will fill in quickly and create a solid border.

And speaking of hostas that aren’t blooming yet, one of my readers, Annie O, gifted me with a Royal Standard hosta that she says gets beautiful, and highly scented, white flowers.  But it’s also one that hasn’t bloomed yet (on left).

As is the Shadowland Autumn Frost hosta to the right of it.

I’ve done a little research and as far as I can tell, it does not harm your hosta in any way to remove the flower stalks before they open.  And you should definitely remove them after the flowers fade to reduce the amount of energy the plant spends on producing seed.  It can then devote that energy to growing more roots and foliage instead.

So I’m curious, do you whack the flowers off your hostas right away?  Or do you leave them until the flowers are done?  Do you have a particular hosta that you grow for its spectacular flowers, or do you pick hostas for their foliage alone?

Leave a comment and let me know.

26 thoughts on “hosta flowers, yes or no?”

  1. Linda,
    I love your blooming hostas! Your garden is just gorgeous. “Fairies came with their magical touch”. The only thing in my garden that is still blooming is my lantana bush! It’s been the hale and hardy of my perennials for 15+ years. Our relentless heat has not been kind.
    Smiles,
    Alice

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    1. Yikes, I feel for you. I was talking to my mom yesterday and she said it was going to be 110° in the Vegas area. She also mentioned that her plants were really looking stressed. Although our summer has been dry, the weather has been gorgeous. Your heat is headed our way this week though, with highs in the upper 90’s predicted for the end of the week. Not looking forward to that.

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  3. Your yard is beautiful. I let them bloom. I do clip them off when they are done. The bees love them and last year I had 4 hummingbirds that came at the same time each day to sip the nectar.

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    1. Thanks Kim. I have yet to see a hummingbird at my hostas, but I’ll have to keep an eye out for that. I do get them around some of my flowering annuals, so maybe they will visit the hostas too.

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  4. Your hostas are lovely! I only have a few hostas – chosen for the leaves. But I do leave the flowers until they’ve finished blooming, then I snip the stalks off.

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  6. If you want your gardens to flourish, invite a bee.
    And how do you invite a bee?
    Just like courting a lady, with flowers of course.

    Cut the stalks AFTER the bloom, but celebrate the cycle of the season. I have hastas blooming throughout, and the pollinators love it.

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  7. If the flowers are looking good AND you like them, let them stay. When and if they are no longer pleasing, clip them off!

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  8. I clip some and use as cut flowers. They look great in a vase with other blooms. The big white ones I leave in place til they are almost done. I always wonder if the seeds would sprout? Have you ever tried?

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    1. No, I’ve never tried to grow a hosta from seed. I just googled it, and apparently it is doable. It just takes a bit of time to get that hosta to full size. It’s much quicker to split an existing hosta. I’m always amazed at how quickly they bounce back after being split.

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  10. I love my Golden Tiara hostas, too! I found them at Abrahamson’s a couple years ago when we had a corner to fill in our front landscaping. The lavender blooms against the lemon yellow of my dad’s transplanted daylillies have been been bringing me a smile every time I pull into the driveway. I always let them put on their show then snip the stalks.

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  11. I really enjoy looking at your beautiful gardens! And your commentary always cracks me up.

    I have always let my hostess bloom, and trim them when they begin to fade and look messy. My friend always trims hers, and was admiring a bloom in a bouquet I put together. She was surprised it was a hosta flower. She trims them so fast she didn’t really know how pretty they can be. She said she might just let a few of them grow now.

    Stay cool!

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    1. Isn’t that funny! I guess I’m not alone. And although on occasion I think to use them in a bouquet, I usually don’t. I need to work on that!

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  13. Can’t wait to see the Royal Standard bloom. It usually blooms later in the season. The large, pure white scented flowers are spectacular.
    I always chop the flowers off…..maybe too soon. I, too, don’t like the messy look of all those blooms. But, I love the deep purple and white flowers. They stay until the end of their bloom cycle.
    Your garden looks outstanding. Makes me miss my garden in our old house.

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