One of the finest sights to be seen in a garden is when the ground is carpeted with a mature stand of large hostas, their neatly-stitched, ribbed leaves layered one upon the other. Actually, "fully furnished" rather than carpeted is a more apt description, as the quilted, green paddles can rise some feet above soil level. Add a coating of morning dew or misty rain on the vast, splayed leaves and you're liable to become weak at the knees.
Such was my first experience of hostas many years ago at Fernhill gardens in Sandyford, where a decades-old colony of near-blue Hosta sieboldiana "Elegans" borders the pond, and where rivers of many other varieties flow through the woodland. Alas, I can't replicate that effect in my own garden, having soil that's far too dry, as well as an unsurpassed collection of slugs and snails - arch enemies of this most curvaceous of foliage plants. "Elegans", which dates from around 1905, is a relatively old variety, at least in hosta terms. The first living hostas reached Europe from Japan less than 100 years earlier. Since then they have been eagerly bred and selected, and there are now about 2,000 registered cultivars, as well as around 30 species.
Hostas come in innumerable variations of leaf form and colour, and range in size from the inch-long (and cringingly-named) "Shining Tot" and "Tiny Tears" to the monstrous "Sum and Substance" and "Zounds". With so many to choose from, and with more and more being bred every minute - especially in the US - it's understandable that some gardeners become infected with a kind of hosta fever.
Queen of the hostas is Diana Grenfell of Apple Court, in Hampshire. She and her husband, Roger Grounds, grow 1,000 varieties, including about 400 small-leafed species and hybrids which form a National Collection, under a scheme run by the British National Council for the conservation of plants and gardens. About 100 varieties are offered for sale each year.
Collecting hostas, especially the newest introductions, is not a pastime for penny-pinchers. " `Blue Ice' was about 100 dollars when it came out," recalls Ms Grenfell. "And `Tattoo' " - which has a variegated tattoo pattern - "was more than that when it came out two years ago. I haven't got it, but I'm desperate for it! It's definitely 100 dollars now, but I'm waiting until it comes down in price." So, with serious amounts of capital outlay tied up in potential slug-food, Ms Grenfell has to be extra careful about protecting her hostas: "We have a real problem here, and I will try anything."
Her current regime is to use liquid Slugit (which contains metaldehyde). "Just before the noses come through the earth, and again a fortnight later, and again as the leaves are unfurling - so that it catches the little black keeled slugs that live under the ground. I use slug pellets weekly after that, but very, very sparingly."
Some varieties of hosta are less palatable to hungry molluscs, including a blue-grey one that arose at Apple Court, called "Silvery Slugproof". "We find it completely slug-proof, even though it is next to other blue-grey hostas that get eaten." The widely available "Sum and Substance", with massive goldy-green leaves beloved of flower arrangers, is also fairly resistant. In general, hostas like a shady or dappled, cool and moist position, and they team up nicely with other dignified shade-lovers, like ferns, dicentra and astilbe. But some, including the hardworking "Sum and Substance" and hybrids of Hosta plantaginea will grow in full sun, provided they get plenty of moisture. "They grow beautifully with some of the more tropical foliage," says Ms Grenfell, "like palms and bamboos".
Diana Grenfell will speak on `Hostas and Fabulous Foliage' at Wesley House, Leeson Park, Dublin 6 on April 21st at 8 p.m. Tickets from the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, Swanbrook House, Bloomfield Avenue, Donnybrook, Dublin 4. Tel: 01 6684358 (mornings only, Tuesday to Thursday). Members £5, non-members £10.
Apple Court Nursery and Garden has a mail order service for hostas, hemerocallis, grasses, ferns and selected perennials. Hordle Lane, Hordle, Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 OHU. Website: www.cotton.com/flowers/hemerocallis/APPLECRT.HTM