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amberdim

don,t mind me asking...

amberdim
9 years ago

Why do you care if hosta blooms or not.

Comments (23)

  • evermore_gw z 4/5 NB
    9 years ago

    Great question, amberdim. Folks who hybridize have their own very good reasons, but for the rest of us, a lot of the blooms don't matter much. We grow them for the foliage.

    But then there is a very special category of hostas that we prize for their blooms. The fragrant ones, especially the August bloomers in the plantaginea group, fill the garden with their delightful aroma. Not to be missed.

    I have never fussed with Aphrodite and some of the others, but I have a whole bank of Royal Standards that smell delicious when in full bloom. Worth planting in masses, unlike my others for which a single specimen each is all I want.

    Steve

  • mac48025 ( SE michigan)
    9 years ago

    I love hosta flowers. Many are very showy and/or fragrant and they attract hummingbirds. The plantaginea type flowers are my favorite as the large, white, fragrant blooms in August are such a welcome sight.

  • DelawareDonna
    9 years ago

    I have been gardening foe 40 years and have always been at heart a flower girl. Hostas have a combination of beautiful foliage and some lovely blooms. What's not to love when the fragrant hostas bloom and their heavenly scents fill the garden. Others choose to remove the flower scapes and focus on the foliage. Different strokes for different folks,I say.

    DD

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    I love the bees/pollinators that the flowers attract and the fragrant flowering hostas are amazing! I don't really like the mess on the leaves as the flowers die off, but I enjoy tidying them up - and touching the plants.

    Nothing beats the scent of Plantaginea in bloom! Something about the very white against the light green...oh my but it's lovely!

    Do you have any fragrant hostas yourself?

  • arcy_gw
    9 years ago

    I love watching the humming birds flit in and around the hosta scapes.

  • amberdim
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I don,t think I know enough to tell you which one is fragrant. I have only 15 but hope to add more at some point.... I just started this year....

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago

    Stick around. We'll have you at 35 by next summer. They are addictive.

    bk

  • amberdim
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I will. I love now nelpful every one is. Thank you

  • gardenweed_z6a
    9 years ago

    When I first planted my various hosta beds, I planted with curb appeal in mind. Once they were planted, I started to cut the scapes off because I prized them for the foliage and considered the blooms "insignificant."

    One day I watched a bumblebee at work on some hosta flowers and was amazed at how long he worked the blooms. Since I garden for the pollinators, I stopped cutting off the flower scapes. Now I enjoy seeing them all bloom, especially the plain green ones I planted around the base of a huge oak tree. When they bloom in August, it looks like the tree has a purple petticoat around it.

    Yes, I garden for curb appeal but once I achieved that goal, I began to garden with other goals in mind.

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    I'm one that doesn't care much for hosta flowers, with the exception of Manhattan, which has a distinctive purple pink flower. That said, most of us on this forum consider ourselves more " collectors"... Meaning we have a widevariety of types spread all over the place, usually solitary specimens that bloom at different times, With different displays. Walking my dogs though my neighborhood a few days ago, I went past a home that had an entire hillside planted with some " plain" green hosta. Well, all those " plain" green hostas in bloom at the same time was far more impressive than any singular display of hosta blooms in my whole garden. So there this that aspect as well. I will bring my camera tomorrow and try to get a picture

  • hostacats
    9 years ago

    Coll I'd like to see the hill with the plain green hostas in bloom. I basically go for the foliage, but the blooms are also a nice addition too.

    michelle

  • smorz
    9 years ago

    seeds n more seeds.... one of my streakers didn't put out scapes n 2 of my intended pollen donors did not, as well. Also, I try and provide a diverse and friendly habitat for bees and other pollinators. I don't care for milkweed, but I have a section of it just for the monarchs.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    name any other plant that you cut the flowers off of ... before they bloom????

    ken

    ps: i dont care what you do with yours ... they are yours ... but i do think its blasphemy ...

  • amberdim
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I will keep the flowers as ugly as they are just for the honeybees.... actually I did not notice too many of them this year(bees)...

  • smorz
    9 years ago

    Not many bees here, either :( but frost hit most of my fruit tree blooms and they seem to be the main attraction for the bees. Now wasps, on the other hand, are in overabundance and are overzealous jerks this year.

  • newhostalady Z6 ON, Canada
    9 years ago

    I am not really a fan of the blooms. If they are fragrant, I smell them. If they produce no seeds, I cut them. Otherwise I leave them on for a while and cut them at my leisure. If I had a bigger property, I would try to grow some seedlings, but I do not. And if I had a streaker hosta, then I would go crazy trying to grow seedlings and figuring out what to do with all of them! LOL!

    But having said that, there is beauty in all things. Sometimes we just have to look closer . . .

  • paul_in_mn
    9 years ago

    Ken says...name any other plant that you cut the flowers off of ... before they bloom????

    um....dandelions ;-)

    and Morticia Adamms cut the blooms off roses

    Paul

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    "Ken says...name any other plant that you cut the flowers off of ... before they bloom???? "

    Coleus. Those flowers don't do anything for me either.

  • almosthooked zone5
    9 years ago

    Ken says// Name the other plant you cut of flowers before they bloom???

    That would be my large Hoya plant. The blooms are so strong, it makes me sick...very pretty but stinky

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    Here is that yard with the mass planting of plain green hostas...a different Flowering effect than you get with individual specimen plantings like most of us on the forum do.

  • User
    9 years ago

    Wow! Coll, thanks for posting that picture.

    Now, I think it must have been your Manhattan that led me to get one. Could you please pretty please post that picture of your Manhattan in flower? It is the most gorgeous thing in bloom! Or even NOT in bloom.

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    Here you go, Mocc. Imagine a mass planting of Manhattan hostas!!!! Oh, if I only had the space!

  • User
    9 years ago

    Coll, I thank you so much for the Manhattan photos. I am still smitten by this hosta. I don't remember ever seeing the texture and color of flowers on the scape anywhere else. A feast for the eyes.

    Luckily the email showing your response for the thread includes the photos. So, I'm keeping the email in my GWeb folder, for the pictures. Your name associated with it of course. Thank you.