Green hostas are the backbone of a shade garden. Plain green comes in more variations than you might expect: fresh lime, mid-green and deep bottle green, matt or glossy, smooth or ribbed.
Green hostas
These are the most forgiving hostas of all, and they cope with deeper shade than any other colour. They are the hostas to choose when a spot is too dark for anything else.
The collection brings together the plain green varieties, from the glossy Devon Green to the giant T Rex, and every hosta with green in its pattern, such as Francee with its white edge.
Many green hostas bring something extra as well: fragrant flowers in late summer, as in Royal Standard, or red leaf stems, as in Gooseberry Sundae. Plant them in shade or partial shade, in humus-rich soil that stays moist. Thanks to their even colour and steady growth, most of them also make excellent ground cover.
Every pack contains 2 plants of the same variety and comes with our 100% growing guarantee. We ship from 1 March to 1 July.
A plain green leaf is chlorophyll from edge to edge, without white, cream or gold areas that produce less energy. That makes green hostas the most vigorous of all: they settle in quickly, fill out sooner and recover well from a setback such as a late frost. They are the natural choice for the deepest shade, where gold varieties turn lime and white-centred ones grow slowly.
Green covers a wide palette. Get Nekkid has glossy leaves that catch the light, Devon Green a deep, polished green, and the fragrant Plantaginea Grandiflora a fresh light green. Hyuga Urajiro, a collector's plant, leans towards blue-green, with streaked, spear-shaped leaves. The light green of young leaves often deepens by midsummer. Putting a glossy green next to a matt one gives a planting depth without adding any other colour.
Miracle Lemony stays compact and has unusual lemony-yellow flowers, and Invincible is a compact, sun-tolerant green with fragrant flowers. For ground cover in a medium size, look at Marmalade on Toast and Purple Sensation.
T Rex, Kingsize and Lakeside Maverick are the green giants, big enough to stand alone at the back of a border. Royal Standard and Plantaginea Grandiflora are a little smaller and add fragrant white flowers late in the season.
If plain green feels too quiet, choose a green hosta with a pale margin; the green still dominates. Diamond Tiara is a compact one edged in white, Queen Josephine a medium one edged in cream, and Spring Morning and Moerheim are large versions in white and cream. More patterns are in our variegated hostas.
Use green where you want calm. A drift of one green variety covers the ground under shrubs and trees, softens a north-facing wall and makes a quiet background against which flowering shade plants stand out. Green is also the best colour for mass planting, because it stays even from spring to autumn. And it holds a busy border together: a plain green hosta between two patterned ones stops the planting looking restless.
Plain green leaves make the best stage for flowers. Spring bulbs come up between them before the hostas unfurl, white and pink astilbes stand out against them in summer, and the hostas' own lavender flower stems show up far better above plain leaves than above patterned ones.
Under mature trees the shade is often dry as well as dark. Dig in plenty of compost, plant a little away from the trunk, water deeply in the first two summers and spread a layer of leaf mould in spring. Once settled, vigorous green varieties cope with these conditions better than most hostas.
Yes. Plain green hostas cope with less light than any other kind, so they suit north-facing beds and the shade under trees. Even they need some daylight, though, and under trees the soil is often dry, so water well in the first summers.
Not all of them. Thin, soft green leaves are among the first to be eaten, but thick, glossy ones resist well: Devon Green is a good example. If slugs are a problem, choose from our slug-resistant hostas.
Royal Standard, Plantaginea Grandiflora, Invincible, Venus and Aphrodite all have scented flowers in late summer, and most of them cope with more sun than other hostas. See all fragrant hostas.
Design & companions
Hostas make an excellent ground cover for shade: planted closely, their leaves meet and suppress weeds from late spring until autumn. Choose medium-sized, vigorous varieties, plant them a little closer than in a border, mulch the gaps until the leaves close, and expect full cover after about three seasons.
4 min read
Planting
Yes, hostas can grow under trees, but the soil there is dry as well as shady, so plan for water. Choose thick-leaved or plain green varieties, plant small divisions in pockets between the roots without piling soil over them, mulch well and water deeply whenever it is dry, all through the first growing season.
8 min read
Order and pay now, and your bare-root hostas ship from 1 March. Here is how pre-ordering works and what to expect when your plants arrive.
3 min read
