Hosta Guardian Angel - Plantain Lily

The Hosta 'Guardian Angel' is a mutation of 'Blue Angel', an award-winning variety appreciated for its quality of blue colour. This variegated, large-sized cultivar offers large, heart-shaped leaves with irregular blue-green colour in the centre, creamy white in early spring, turning whitish-green later in the season. Mature plants tend to keep their white centre longer in spring. The pale lavender tubular flowers are borne in summer on top of flowering stems about 1m to 1.50m high. This beautiful perennial plant makes a great impact at the edge of the undergrowth, always in shade or partial shade, planted in cool and well-drained soil.

This Hosta, or Funkia, is a completely hardy perennial from the lily family or the hosta family according to classifications. 'Guardian Angel' shows, starting from spring, a growth habit in very wide clumps. The plant, reaching maturity in 5 or 6 years, reaches a height of 60-70 cm and can spread over 1m to 1.20m, if the conditions are met. It is a long-lived plant, with strongly veined leaves in the shape of a heart. The lamina is thick and slightly bumpy. This thick foliage resists gastropod attacks quite well. The flowering usually takes place in July-August, in the form of elongated bells, grouped towards the top of the peduncles that emerge well from the foliage. Each flower opens in a pale lavender shade. All the aboveground, deciduous vegetation disappears in winter.

Hostas are often planted under deciduous trees or showcased in rock gardens and borders, especially near water features. This perennial is also suitable for container gardening or as a standalone plant. 'Guardian Angel' Hosta harmoniously blends with ferns, heucheras, caladiums, and astilbes, which share similar growing conditions. To enhance the beauty of its foliage, pair it with Carex, silvery Caucasian forget-me-nots, or yellow to golden Hakonechloa, which offer a contrast in colour, as well as in texture and leaf shape.