Pruning Hostas

Hostas are well known to be one of the easiest perennials to grow. 

And while pruning hosta leaves isn't necessary to maintain your hostas' shape or size, you can keep them looking beautiful as long as possible during the season with some easy seasonal pruning.

Spring Care

Hosta leaves normally look great all through the spring, so nothing but some spring fertilizer is usually necessary.


 

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The Summer Ugglies – Summer Pruning

The hotter summer months are when hosta leaves begin to look worn, damaged or dried out.  This is lovingly referred to as the "summer uglies." 

Simply snipping spent leaves off at the base of the plant will not only make the hosta look better but fewer leaves in the summer is less stress on the plant as a whole.

 

Here at Sunset Hosta Farm, we don't compost those leaves. They are disposed of to avoid the spread of pests and disease. Hosta leaves are sometimes home to slug eggs, and leaving the foliage in the garden might allow the opportunity for the eggs to hatch.

Further Reading:  Hostas and Slugs

  

Fall Pruning

Early fall, the hosta leaves will begin to die back and this is a great time to begin to prune then. Everything that a hosta needs to survive the winter is buried in the ground, so cutting the entire plant to the ground level will do no damage.  

You could also mark the location of your hostas for the next season by leaving a few inches of leaves on the plant.

The last full hosta pruning cleanup should be after the first frost. By now most if not all of the hosta leaves have completely died off and a light raking over the area will remove most dead leaves and the pests that live there.

  

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If you haven't yet incorporated hostas into your perennial garden scheme, you should really give them a try. There's a good reason that hostas continue to be one of the most popular shade and part sun plants available.

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