We may be a little bias, but we think hostas are great! Despite their popularity, hostas are massively underrated and underused when you consider their diversity, versatility and beauty. There is so much diversity in the hosta world that we have built our nursery around them. Here at Sienna Hosta we only grow hostas! We say only, we grow over 1000 different varieties, from tiny miniatures up to monstrous giants.
We're going to take a closer look at why hostas are so underrated and tell you why they really are the best!
Hosta suffer from what we like to call over-familiarity. Because they're easy to grow and widely available, they're often dismissed as boring and old-fashioned. Add in the inevitable slug jokes, and suddenly one of the most diverse and beautiful genera in cultivation is reduced to a garden cliché.
Look closer and a completely different picture emerges.
There are thousands of registered hosta cultivars, and with such differences in sizes, shapes and colours. Tiny miniatures with leaves the size of a postage stamp. Architectural giants that rival some large shrubs. Power-blue foliage, heart-stopping golds, smoky greens, ripples, twists, puckers, margins, streaks and stripes.
Some hostas shimmer in low light. Others change colour through the seasons. Many produce elegant, nectar-rich flowers loved by bees, often fragrant and occasionally spectacular.
Yet most garden centres stock the same handful of varieties, reinforcing the idea that "a hosta is just a hosta".
It isn't.
Another reason hostas deserve more credit? They're genuinely useful plants.
They thrive where many others struggle:
They're handy, love-lived, and once established remarkably resilient. In a world where gardeners are increasingly time-poor and gardens are more likely to be small, shaded, or urban, that matters.
Hostas don't demand perfection. They reward care, but they don't punish neglect.
That combination is rare.
Yes, slugs like hostas.
But here's the part that often gets left out: not all hostas are equally affected. Leaf thickness, texture, waxiness, and colour all play a role. Some varieties are far more resistant than their reputation suggests, especially when grown well and sited thoughtfully.
Good plant health, balanced soil, and sensible planting make a huge difference and so does choosing the right varieties. One of the joys of specialising in hostas is helping people find cultivars that actually work in their gardens, rather than writing the whole genus off.
We didn't choose hostas because they were fashionable. We chose them because they're misunderstood.
We saw a plant with extraordinary diversity, quiet beauty, and huge untapped potential reduced to a handful of mass-produced options and an unfair reputation. We wanted to do better by them.
By growing hostas properly, labelling them accurately, and talking honestly about their strengths and limitations, we could:
In many ways, hostas represent everything we value in gardening: patience, subtlety, and long-term reward.
