Hostas in Containers

We really enjoy the hostas growing in our gardens. We also grow hostas successfully in a variety of containers. We do not offer them any special treatment for the winters. It is easy to water them in dry parts of the season.

Sometimes they are alone in their containers and other times we create a mini garden by adding other plants. Some containers are too heavy to move while others can be moved to other sites in the gardenswhenever needed.

Hostas do best in dappled shade or a spot in the morning sun. The hostas in this pot are facing the west but are in the shade of the overhanging birch.

In winter we need to store this large pot indoors so, with a bit of an effort, the pot of hostas is lifted out and left on the patio until spring when it is put back into the blue pot. The little blue pottery sea urchins were a find in the "As Is" section of IKEA for all of 99 cents each.

This half barrel holds a mini garden. The hostas are planted in the soil in the barrels. Bill "plants" one or two empty plastic pots with their lips at surface level.

To add interest and colour we plant up a number of slightly smaller pots with other plants. These pots fit into the empty pots and can be changed through the season.

A pair of metal urns stand beside a gazebo in the laneway. They are in the shade of mature birch trees,

The small hostas are planted in rich soil and are hand watered often as they dry out easily. Several Corydalis lutea plants were added and have since seeded so the little urns are quite full in season. The planted urns stay outside all winter.

On either side of this archway into the hosta garden we planted up two large tree pots from a nursery. There's a dwarf Alberta spruce in the middle of each pot with hostas planted around the edge.

The yellowwood and other trees by the pond provide ample dappled shade. The two pots indicate the entrance into the Evergreen Rockery that features a variety of hostas planted into garden spaces.

In the shade of some oaks and maples, and the remnants of the row of lilac bushes planted in front of our house by earlier owners, we have planted up three large permanent planters.

Each box sits in a growth of myrtle and is planted up with hostas, a variegated euonymous and pink tulips. Eventually the hostas have crowded out the euonymous plants so Bill plants white impatiens for the summer.