Blue Hosta in the Garden

There are very few perennials available to us here in New England that offer the color and form of blue hosta. With colors ranging from deep blue to powdery light blue, they offer a quiet presence that can be used almost anywhere in the shade garden. Plants range in size from giant to small and display a variety of forms and leaf shapes.

Actually, blue hostas are green hostas with a coating of white wax on the leaf  surface, which makes them appear blue. Blue hostas prefer shade: too much sun melts the waxy coating. Like most hosta leaves, they change color throughout the growing season. Blue leaves eventually turn to shades of green.

'Dress Blues' (above) is a medium hosta that forms an upright mound of blue leaves with a yellow margin that lightens to cream as the season progresses. Hosta and ferns make lovely bed-fellows with the delicate fern fronds contrasting and complementing the solid hosta leaves. The dark stems of this fern play off the blue of the hosta leaves, creating subtle harmony.