Arie, grower Gerard Heemskerk and Miriam Young get down to some serious discussions about Hosta growing.

Shade and sun working together

It is widely known that Hostas do well in shade, and H. 'Christmas Candy' is no exception.
However, some sunlight is needed to bring out the colour contrast in the leaves and also to encourage flowering. The solution to this is to position the plants where they will only get sunlight in the morning, when it is weaker.
Hostas with white variegation can't tolerate as much sunlight as those with yellow variegation or all green foliage. A typical symptom of sunlight damage is that the leaves will get brown, necrotic spots.

There are, however, some mitigating factors that can improve even a white centred Hosta's sun tolerance. Keeping the soil moist is one. Another depends on the local climate. In a generally cooler climate a hosta can tolerate more sun than in hotter regions.

Hosta is a favorite dish for snails and slugs, and as soon as they come out of their winter hiding place they will look for them. If these monsters find your Hostas early in the season, they can destroy or damage them for the rest of the year. Already damaged plants are even more noticable to snails and slugs and will be attacked. 

Your Hostas must therefore be protected from snails and slugs right from the beginning of the growing season. Numerous preventative measures are known about, such as broken glass, coffee, metallic mats, shells, etc. However, the easiest and most effective way is to pick them out of their hiding places, in combination with the use of slug poison, preferably an organic one that is not harmful to other wildlife.

Arie has lots of questions for Gert van Eijk-Bos about the genetic makeup of Hosta.

Do you have any great slug and snail prevention tips?
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