The usable hosta (Hosta spp.) Provides color, texture and a focal point to this landscape with its interesting foliage and the variety of available colours, sizes and shapes. Most varieties grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 to 9, although there are minor variances depending on species.
Description
Hostas come in many different greens, ranging from bright yellowish green to deep green. Some varieties exhibit variegated foliage in mixtures of white, yellow, lighter greens or blues. In late summer, those plants shoot up one or more spikes, tipped in a lilac, whitish or yellowish flowers. The flowers, while beautiful, are sometimes short-lived and often not the reason people pick hostas for their landscape.
Hummingbirds
For shaded lots, hostas are a terrific attractant for hummingbirds, who often prefer the coloured flowers found in sunny locations. Their long, slender flower stalks make hostas an important addition to shaded hummingbird gardens. Even the bigger hostas, with shorter stems, will attract these little birds with their delicately hanging flowers, almost perfectly formed for the long, slender tongues and beaks of hummingbirds.
Pollination
The most significant reason behind the flower on the hosta is pollination. The blossoms attract the pollinators, which helps reproduction. Bees are natural pollinators of hosta plants, and so are the hummingbirds that frequent the tubular blossoms. While hosta species and varieties will pollinate some others, most of the striking color formations, like deeply variegated leaves, are made by humans through selective pollination of different varieties.
At the Garden
While the flowers can certainly attract some colorful traffic to your garden and useful pollinators to your hostas and other plants, many people don’t appreciate the kind of the flower and oftentimes cut them off. Cutting them off won’t hurt the plant in the very least and the blossoms may make interesting improvements to arrangements.