4 Giant Hostas: the Most Spectacular Varieties!

Hosta 'Empress Wu': the one of all superlatives

It’s the largest of them all! The Hosta ‘Empress Wu’ is impressive, its dimensions place it at the top of the list of giant Hostas: it can reach up to 1.30 m in height and sometimes even more in spread when planted in optimal conditions, meaning in partial shade and in rich, cool, well-drained soil (adding compost and leaf mould is essential to properly nourish this giant). Note that it achieves these extraordinary dimensions after 3 to 4 years of cultivation, allowing it to establish its fleshy root system. You will see its ample, heavily veined leaves, a beautiful matte bluish-green, rising above sturdy stems, with a lamina of about sixty cm in diameter. Its foliage is quite thick, ensuring good resistance to attacks from snails and slugs. This variety truly makes an impression and deserves a thoughtful placement, both to showcase it in a border and to give it enough space to develop. Its foliage is its flag bearer, but be aware that its flowering occurs early in the season, between June and July, allowing for the observation of delicate pale lavender bells for several weeks. Like all Hostas, ‘Empress Wu’ is very hardy.

This sculptural Hosta is perfect as a standalone or accompanied by contrasting foliage, in shapes and colours such as slender ferns like Matteuccia Struthiopteris, Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, a few Ajugas reptans, or even rubbing shoulders with Hydrangeas or elegant Azaeleas.

Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’: the brightest

The hosta ‘Sum and Substance’ competes for the title of the largest hosta with ‘Empress Wu’: it must be said that with its more than generous dimensions, 1 m in height and a minimum of 1.20 m in width, it certainly holds its own and provides a truly unusual spectacle in the garden. It stands out from ‘Empress Wu’ with its ultra-bright colour, an acid green, stunning in the shade. Its particularly crinkled foliage adds to its charm. It presents a light green colour at the start of growth in spring, then shifts to an increasingly luminous chartreuse green as the season progresses. The leaves easily reach fifty centimetres in length. Flowering from July to August, it produces tubular flowers borne on tall stems, lilac in colour.

It also makes a strong impression when planted alone, but it is perhaps even more striking in a mix of fine, light foliage, creating a transparent contrast: Dicksonia antarctica, Carex and purple laciniate Acer, and why not a few Digitalis to accompany its display in late spring.

Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’ (© Nate Davis), in bloom on the right

Hosta 'Jurassic Park': a magnificent variety

Everything is impressive about this dinosaur of Hostas: the almost circular leaves measuring nearly 40 cm long and wide, a height of around 1 m quickly reached thanks to its vigorous growth, and a similar span, even much wider up to 2 m. The variety ‘Jurassic Park’ creates an impressive clump. With its bluish foliage and beautiful pronounced veins, it truly looks stunning and stands out as an exceptional perennial in the garden. This beautiful colour, close to ‘Empress Wu’, evolves into a slightly satin dark green during the summer. It also deters slugs, intimidated by its thick foliage. To develop and display its incredible exuberance, you will need to pamper it by providing rich, fertile soil and a sufficiently shaded location. Its summer flowering is discreet, like all cultivars in this selection, tinted with a very pale mauve.

You can use Hosta ‘Jurassic Park’ as a standalone feature, as a structural element, to highlight the curve of a path or a focal point, for example; it has the capacity for that! Also dare to pair it with plants that, due to their lightness and verticality, will enhance it even more: graceful Thalictrums, tall Physostegias that will contrast strongly, or Cimicifugas in purple that will brighten up the end of summer (Cimicifuga atropurpurea ‘Brunette’).

Of course, you can surround it with much humbler, variegated or lighter hostas: you will then create a unique space dedicated to these endearing perennials.

Hosta ‘Jurassic Park‘

Hosta 'Earth Angel': what a variegation!

Here is a stunning Hosta that, in addition to its impressive dimensions (95 cm tall and 1.20 m wide), offers a magnificent contrast of colours on its variegated foliage. The heart-shaped leaves of ‘Earth Angel’ emerge in spring with a blue-green colour edged in cream yellow. They gradually turn into a beautiful olive green with a lighter, cream border. This variegation is dazzling and very bright. In my opinion, it overshadows its slightly more modest dimensions compared to the giants we have just reviewed. It is a superb variety that blooms in early summer, with very light lavender bells reaching a height of 1 m.

Like other varieties, this Hosta will reach its extraordinary dimensions under optimal growing conditions, expanding over the years. Grow it in the ground, in shade; it can tolerate morning sun or filtered shade, which acts as an incomparable enhancer of its variegation. It is slightly more susceptible to gastropods than the other Hostas in this selection, so provide it with your best rough mulch! This specimen can even be grown in a pot, provided it has a large enough container to express all its flair.

Hosta ‘Earth Angel‘