I had not intended to buy any hostas today because I was at the garden shop to buy geraniums. We were on our way to the cash register when my eye caught what looked like hostas in the next greenhouse and the hunt for a new hosta was on.
I have over 300 different varieties of hostas in my garden so I am happy to find just one that I don't already own. I walked along the first row saying "Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it." I'm thinking "bummer" as I started down the next row. I am about 5 plants from the end of the last row when I scored gold and that gold would be in the form of Saint Elmo's Fire. 
Then I scored again with Fragrant Blue. I already have 3 or 4 from the Fragrant line and they have everything that I like to see in a hosta. The flowers are white and fragrant and they have thick leaves. But this one is different in that it falls into the 'small' size category where as all my other Fragrant line hostas are tall and fall into the medium/large to large size category.
Hostas come in all sizes. From smallest to largest is miniature, dwarf, small, medium, large, extra large, and giant. The smallest hosta that I have in my garden is Pandora's Box and the largest is the giant size Empress Wu.
Buying hostas that stay small and short is what allows you to layer your hostas. There is nothing more striking than to have a tall blue hosta with a small short yellow hosta just ever so slightly tucked underneath the taller blue hosta. This combo will make the blue appear bluer and the yellow will pop even in deep shade.
I was so excited about finding these two that I forgot to put a 3rd hosta in my cart. So tomorrow I will head back and buy 'Barbara Ann'.
Just in case you haven't read any of my other posts on hostas and want to catch up, just type in HOSTA in the search bar at the top on the right side.
I snapped a couple of photos to show you which hosta to buy when you have the option to choose between two of the same hostas.
In the photo above of the hosta 'Barbara Ann', you can see that there is just one stem. There is nothing wrong with buying a single stem plant BUT if you can find a multi stemmed plant like the one below, you then can divide the plant before you put it in the ground. I wrote adetailed post on how to divide hostas several years ago so if you need info on how to divide, you can find that by using the search bar on this blog.
Why divide before you plant? I think the number 1 reason is that it is far easier to divide a small plant then it is to dig up a large, heavy plant and try to divide it without damaging the plant. Hostas are hardy plants and can take a lot of abuse. But my back can't handle the abuse of lifting a heavy plant out of the ground and then try and divide that plant into multiple plants.
The number 2 reason to divide a plant before you put it in the ground is that it lowers your per plant cost. If you buy a plant for $19.99 and you can divide it into 4 plants then the cost per plant went from $19.99 to 5 bucks per plant.
The hostas today cost $8.98 each and had I been able to find one with two stems, it would have lowered my per plant cost to $4.48 each.
My cousin Judy is responsible for my hosta addiction and until I saw all of her different hostas, I thought all hostas were green. How little did I know back then that hostas could be green, blue, yellow, and white and any combination of those colors, even within one leaf.
If after reading my posts on hostas and you find yourself with a hosta addiction, don't blame me. Blame my cousin Judy.
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