The Best Green-Leafed Hostas to Dress Up Your Garden

The Appeal of Green Hostas in the Garden

In shady, cool areas, Hostas are the go-to candidates. It’s true they have no shortage of assets: easy to grow, fidelity for many years, generous foliage, and charming flowering. They thrive equally well at the foot of trees and bushes, in cool rockeries, along shaded borders, or near a water feature. Of course, they can also be grown in pots, allowing you to enjoy them even without a garden—on a terrace, balcony, or in a patio.

Green foliage is already well represented in the garden, and the gardener might be tempted to prefer blue or golden varieties. But that would overlook the beautiful diversity displayed by Hostas with this colour: silhouettes, textures, shapes, shades… They are far from boring. This also makes them classic choices that are easy to pair. This colour brings a touch of greenery, creating a refreshing, even exotic atmosphere. Hostas with green foliage will fit into all types of settings, from the most contemporary to the most natural, including Japanese-inspired designs. Discover different ideas for incorporating them in the article ‘Hostas: 7 Successful Pairing Ideas’.

Planted en masse in cool soil, hostas create a refreshing zone

Small green-leaved Hostas

The smallest Hostas do not exceed 30 cm in height. These perennials can easily fit into even the most confined spaces and thrive in fresh pot arrangements. Among them, let’s first mention the Hosta ‘Frosted Raspberry’, a dwarf variety that grows no taller than 25 cm with a spread of 45 cm. It delights with its lanceolate, very glossy, and slightly undulate leaves. The foliage is green with a fine, bright white margin.

Another mini Hosta is the ‘Limey Lisa’, which produces cordate (heart-shaped), rounded, and satiny leaves. Their colour is a fresh, vibrant lime green. This variety reaches 15 cm in height with a spread of 40 cm.

Meanwhile, the ‘Purple Dwarf’ stands at 25 cm tall with a spread of 50 cm. It features lanceolate and undulate leaves in a simple, attractive green.

The Hosta nakaiana is another compact miniature variety, measuring just 20 cm in all directions. Its silhouette forms a lovely green dome, composed of undulate and well-veined leaves. These leaves display subtle metallic reflections, adding an elegant touch.

Medium-sized Hostas range between 40 and 80 cm in height. They remain very easy to incorporate anywhere, whether in the ground or in pots. Among them, consider the Hosta ‘Eye Catcher’, which indeed catches the eye with its puckered and embossed foliage. It boasts a bright chartreuse-green hue. This cultivar grows to 40 cm tall with a spread of 50 cm.

On the other hand, the Hosta ‘Saint Elmo’s Fire’ offers dense, variegated foliage. Initially buttery yellow, it gradually develops light green tones with white margins. Its cordate and veined leaves create a lush, opulent impression. A perfect ground cover, it stands just 40 cm tall but spreads over 70 cm.

Let’s also mention the ‘Sweet Susan’, a Hosta that forms a beautiful clump of about 60 to 70 cm in all directions. Its deeply veined foliage is highly graphic, and its green colour also features golden reflections.

We’ll conclude this non-exhaustive list with the ‘Marilyn Monroe’, whose thick, undulate leaves display a lovely green hue. The undersides of the leaves shimmer with silvery-white reflections. Once again, this variety is ideal for creating a beautiful ground cover, thanks to its 40 cm height and 90 cm spread.

Hosta ‘Sweet Suzan’, ‘Limey Lisa’, and ‘Marylin Monroe’

The Most Impressive Green-Leafed Hostas

If you’re looking for a structural Hosta that will add volume and graphic appeal, turn to the most imposing varieties. They produce particularly opulent foliage.

This is first and foremost the case with the Hosta ‘T-Rex’, a spectacular variety with veined, undulate, and trailing foliage. Each leaf can measure up to 45 cm in length. In terms of silhouette, this Hosta makes a magnificent ground cover, reaching 90 cm in height and spreading up to 2 metres. Choose a standalone location for this specimen, which is sure to catch the eye.

Next, we have ‘UFO’, equally impressive. It forms a large clump, reaching 1 metre in height and spreading up to 2 metres. Its foliage ranges from dark green to a lighter shade, with a very fine and random yellow border. A perfect Hosta to adorn a terrace or courtyard on its own, in a beautiful pot.

Another giant Hosta: ‘Empress Wu’, measuring 1.30 metres in all directions. Its bushy and majestic habit creates truly refreshing scenes. This variety produces large, heart-shaped leaves, thick and crinkled, with deep veins. In terms of colour, it dazzles with a green tinged with blue.

Let’s not forget ‘Lakeside Maverick’, which seems almost plucked from a prehistoric jungle setting. It boasts deeply veined foliage, in a dark green with a slight sheen. Thick and heavy, the leaves can measure up to 38 cm in length.

Hostas ‘UFO’, ‘Empress Wu’, ‘Lakeside Maverick’, and ‘T Rex’

Green Hostas with interesting flowering

While Hostas are primarily valued for their foliage, their summer flowering is another ornamental asset. It is characterised by small trailing bell-shaped flowers, often mauve or white.

The Hosta ‘Sweet Susan’ produces lovely double white flowers, which have the unique feature of exuding orange blossom notes.

The Hosta plantaginea ‘Aphrodite’, on the other hand, produces semi-double flowers that are quite rare and also pleasantly fragrant.

The Hosta plantaginea ‘Grandiflora’ is another of these fragrant varieties, but it stands out further due to the size of its flowers, which are much more impressive. These are lovely white trumpets measuring nearly fifteen centimetres.

For its part, the Hosta ‘White Trumpets’ rewards us with a generous flowering, in the form of pure white campanulate flowers that are quite uncommon.

On the left, Hosta plantaginea ‘Aphrodite’, and on the right Hosta plantaginea ‘Grandiflorae, foliage and flowering

Slug-resistant green Hostas

While Hostas are undemanding and easy-to-grow plants, they can fall victim to the appetite of gastropods. A young plant grown in isolation can quickly suffer the consequences, especially in early spring.

As a preventive measure, you can opt for varieties considered naturally resistant to snails and slugs. Their tough foliage and thick lamina are reputed to be less appetising. This is the case, for example, with the giant ‘Lakeside Maverick’. Many variegated varieties will also be less susceptible, such as ‘Great Expectations’ or ‘Forbidden Fruit’.