Hosta Species

This is one of my favorite hostas and one of the best fragrant garden plants. It blooms for over a month, August-September, which account...Read Mores for its common name, August lily. The fragrance is strong and sweet and carries well on the air, with no heaviness to the scent.

The 5" long white trumpets are lovely, though they hang on long after they fade and make the planting look scruffy unless plucked almost daily. (I don't like the look of most hostas when their flowers are faded.)

The double-flowered cultivar 'Aphrodite' has been heavily promoted, but its performance is decidedly inferior to the plain species, as few people garden in a climate that allows its flower buds to open properly.

The foliage is handsome and well complements that of variegated hostas. Most gardeners fill a planting with nothing but variegated-leaf hostas. The result is like a stage full of primadonnas with no chorus to back them up---a visual cacophany.

Vigorous and fast growing. More sun tolerant than most, though I've seen plants on a sunny south slope (Boston Z6a) get smaller year by year. The leaf color is more yellow-green than most hostas without being truly chartreuse, but it looks great in the right context.

This hosta differs from most others in 3 other important respects:

1) It rises earlier in the season, which matters if you're using it to cover fading bulb foliage. It's a good companion for the little early spring bulbs and the earliest daffodils, but not for anything that's later.

2) It produces foliage in flushes all through the season. There are always fresh leaves coming on to cover any midseason mishaps. And you can divide any time the ground is workable and not have to wait for another season to have good foliage.

3) Unlike most hostas, it has no winter dormancy requirement. This means that it can be grown further south than most hostas, especially on the west coast. I don't know if it has a southern limit where the heat of summer isn't limiting, but it's further south than the Z8a indicated above.

Most wonderful large fragrant flowers. My favorite Hosta

I love this hosta and just harvested seeds for the first time this Fall. I planted them and they germinated and are growing in just 7 sh...Read Moreort days! I'm very excited to see what seedlings are produced. This is a hosta that everyone should own. I have them in a spot that has shade a good part of the day until late afternoon. These tough guys weather that western afternoon sun like a champ! Fragrant and yes, they DO attract hummingbirds and butterflies!

This is one of my favorite hostas just for how fragrant the flowers are. Early mornings and evenings are sweetly scented by the large wh...Read Moreite blooms. A very fast grower, too. For me the leaves have been easily fried by the sun. Blooms August-September in my garden.