Yellow hostas carry their own light into the shade. From butter-yellow to deep gold and lime, their leaves glow in places where few flowers do well, under trees or beside a shady wall.
Yellow & gold hostas
The giant Sum and Substance is the best known, and the miniature Sun Mouse brings the same colour to a trough or a pot.
Alongside solid yellow and gold varieties, the collection includes hostas with gold centres or margins, such as Orange Marmalade and Wide Brim. Some also offer fragrant flowers, red leaf stems or thick, slug-resistant leaves.
Light decides the exact shade. A few hours of morning sun turn most of them a richer gold, while in deep shade they stay closer to lime green. Keep them out of hot afternoon sun, which can bleach or scorch the leaves, and make sure the soil stays moist.
Every pack contains 2 plants of the same variety and comes with our 100% growing guarantee. We ship from 1 March to 1 July.
Yellow hostas come in more shades than the name suggests, and many change through the season. Some open bright yellow in spring and soften towards lime by late summer. Others start pale green and deepen as the light gets stronger: Sum and Substance moves from light green through chartreuse to gold. Lemon Feathers, new in our range, even unfolds almost white before turning light yellow. Our product pages describe each colour, but in your garden the exact shade depends on the light.
Most yellow hostas colour best with a few hours of direct sun, ideally in the morning: an east-facing bed, the edge of a tree canopy or a spot with dappled light is perfect. In hot summers, shade from midday matters more than the exact number of hours. Some take more. August Moon, Fried Bananas, Banana Kid and Sunny Halcyon are also part of our sun-tolerant hostas.
A solid yellow hosta gives the strongest effect from a distance: a clump of Fried Bananas or August Moon reads as one splash of colour. Gold combined with green is subtler and copes better with deep shade, because the green parts keep feeding the plant. Choose a gold edge, as in Golden Tiara and Wide Brim, or a gold centre, as in Brother Stefan, Hosta of the Year 2017, or Warwick Comet with its cupped leaves. Both kinds are also in our variegated hostas.
Sun Mouse is the smallest. Wiggles and Squiggles has rippled edges, and Maui Buttercups stays compact. In medium sizes, Funky Monkey holds shiny yellow leaves on red stems and Ki Ren Jyaku has double pink flowers. At the top, Sum and Substance is joined by Tortilla Chip, a large yellow with fragrant flowers, and Winter Snow, a white-edged sport of Sum and Substance.
Gold leaves are often thought of as delicate, but several are among the toughest hostas we sell. Sunny Halcyon, Smash Hit, Sunset Grooves and the small Ayesha have good slug resistance, while Cathedral Windows and Enchiladas combine gold centres with fragrant flowers and more sun tolerance than most.
A gold hosta in a dark glazed pot lights up a shady doorway or a north-facing balcony. Medium varieties such as Glad Tidings, Mojito and Post-It do well in a large pot.
The classic partner for a yellow hosta is a blue one: side by side, each colour makes the other stronger. Glossy gold Sum and Substance beside puckered blue Big Daddy contrasts texture as well as colour. Dark green ferns calm the effect, and purple-leaved plants make the gold look even warmer. Find partners among our blue hostas. For a fresher look, pair gold with white, for example a yellow hosta beside a white-edged one such as Patriot.
A little, yes. Morning sun brings out the gold, while in full shade most yellow hostas turn lime green and look duller. Avoid strong afternoon sun, especially in hot summers, as it can bleach the leaves or burn their edges.
Usually it gets too little light, or the variety naturally fades as summer goes on. Both are normal. If a plant stays green all season, move it in early spring to a spot with some morning sun.
Sun Mouse is a true miniature, Wiggles and Squiggles is small with rippled edges, and Maui Buttercups stays compact. More small varieties are in our miniature and small hostas.
In our range, Sum and Substance, one of the largest hostas of all. A mature clump reaches about 75–90 cm high and 1.5–1.8 m wide, with huge, thick chartreuse-gold leaves. Give it at least a metre of space.
Care & seasons
Hostas need about 4 cm of water a week in summer, roughly 40 litres per square metre including rain. Water deeply at the base of the plant, preferably in the morning, whenever the top few centimetres of soil are dry. New plants, hostas under trees and hostas in pots need checking most often; a mulch keeps the soil moist for longer.
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