Did you know that blue is the rarest color in the garden? Blue hostas will give your garden a real blue shade. Choose a blue-green, green-blue, blue-gray, dark blue or azure-blue cultivar... Fragrant, or not, small, medium, or a huge one. We all love blue hostas just for their beautiful blue color. Why are they blue and how to care for them?

The blue color is highly prized by gardeners and plant collectors. A blue hosta is a true jewel of every garden. However, not everybody knows that the leaves of the blue hostas are basically dark green and the blue effect is visible only thanks to a layer of wax on their surface. This phenomenon is unique in the plant world since hostas are shade tolerant, and most plants with a blue surface coating, as seen in many cacti, yuccas, agaves, etc., have it as protection against the sun.

Most of blue hostas are resistant to slugs, because wax is bitter and slugs and snails do not like it.

Some hosta cultivars have a thick wax layer, while in other cultivars it is thinner. The thicker the wax layer, the more intense the blue color that the hosta develops, and the color is also longer lasting. In the direct sun – under the influence of heat, the wax layer degrades and gradually disappears. That is why most blue hostas are green-blue or just dark green from mid-summer until autumn. Try it yourself - slightly wipe the wax layer from the leaf with your finger and the leaf will become green. It is that easy to remove.

Blue hostas perform best in temperate climates, with a wet and long spring and cooler summer. In very warm regions, in the south, where the year goes straight from mild winter to hot summer, the blue color lasts for just a short while. Blue hostas generally perform better in somewhat colder climates. In our Central European conditions, blue hostas are brightest from the end of May until the middle of June. Then the blue color slowly disappears.

Blue hosta cultivars are shade tolerant plants. The more sun they have, the sooner they lose their wax coating and keep their blue color for a shorter time. Extensive irrigation can increase the duration of their nice blue color. Be careful not to irrigate from above, as water can wash the wax layer down from the leaves - apply water carefully close around the roots if you want to keep your hostas’ wonderful bright blue color as long as possible. 

Older plants have a thicker wax coating, so that older, well rooted clumps of the hosta are more intensely blue than the young plants of the same cultivar.

The green parts of the leaves are wax-free. The green parts of the leaves are wax-free. This blue hosta was exposed to the full sun for a long time and the protective wax layer on its leaves was burned by sun. Leaves that were in shad, remained blue.

Hosta Skylight (Stegeman, 2001). Thick heart-shaped blue leaves.
Exceptional, delicate blue color

Hosta Blue Vision

 It is not true that there are no beautiful blue cultivars among the older cultivars, or that all of the new blue cultivars are ideally blue. Between the older and the new hosta cultivars we can find plenty of truly beautiful blue types that are worthy of having adding to your garden. Therefore, we did not divide the blue hosta cultivars according to the year of registration but according to color. We offer the following three categories: REALLY BLUE HOSTAS, GREEN-BLUE HOSTAS with a prevalence of blue and BLUE-GREEN HOSTAS with a prevalence of green color. Our division is clearly highly subjective and you do not need to agree with it. Anyone of you can have different experiences in your garden... It is often the case that in certain circumstances and under specific, suitable light conditions, the BLUE-GREEN HOSTA may develop a wonderful blue color - the nicest in the garden! As a rule, such a hosta will hold a beautiful blue color a bit shorter than those from the REALLY BLUE HOSTAS category.

Why are my “blue” hostas not blue?

(1) Maybe because you grow them in full sun. A bit of sunlight does not injure any cultivar (especially morning sun), but intense afternoon sun quickly melts the wax layer and the blue hostas soon lose their color.
(2) You irrigate the plants too often over the foliage. Frequent irrigation from above can wash the wax layer from the leaves and this can make your blue hostas lose their color. It’s very easy to damage this layer. Drag your hand over the sheet and see that you can easily damage the wax layer.

Hosta Venetian Blue (M. Zilis 2003) has blue gleaves, that turns green as the season progress. Wavy margins. 

REALLY BLUE HOSTAS
In this category, we included those hosta cultivars that keep a beautiful blue color from the beginning of spring. The intensity of the blue color culminates in the period from the end of May to the middle of June, after which the color gradually weakens. In many cases, these cultivars are almost blue until the autumn. Every one of you for sure has your own favorite among them. We think that the cultivar H. Halcyon deserves your attention due its price, growth rate and beauty of the blue color. The huge, heavily corrugated leaves of the cultivar Hosta sieboldiana Elegans definitively make it our favorite among the blue giants. Additionally, H. Skylight has probably one of the most brilliant blue hues. And of course, no hosta garden can be complete without H. Big Daddy…

Hosta Hadspen Blue

Hosta Abiqua Drinking Gourd

To the question of a specialized magazine: “Which hosta is the bluest? “, 80% of respondents answered - Halcyon!!!

GREEN-BLUE HOSTAS
Under suitable conditions, these cultivars are often very beautifully blue. Their color may last a little shorter than that of the REALLY BLUE HOSTAS, and after the culmination of the blue color intensity in June, the color of their leaves turns to a blue-green or greenish-blue. Many of these hosta cultivars are real blue jewels, and their beauty should not be underestimated. We would include into this category most of the blue hosta cultivars. It’s hard to find our favorite among them. I think H. Krossa Regal and H. Blue Angel will surely not disappoint you. You might be amazed by the true blue color of H. Lakeside Beach Bum or the uniqueness of the blue color of H. Mystic Star at the end of May. You may appreciate the upright leaves of H. Salute or the beautiful, blue clump of H. Neptune with lanceolate, wavy leaves. The choice is yours...

BLUE-GREEN HOSTAS
These cultivars have a thinner protective wax coating, which breaks down faster even in colder and less sunny conditions. Therefore, they show a blue color only for a short time and most of the year they are a nice blue-green. They are not completely green, as the blue shade is always apparent on their leaves. They are a beautiful addition to every garden and are often exceptional in their shape, with red petioles or wavy edges. There are many true jewels among them. We love Red Cadet due to its vitality and red “legs”, or the gorgeous, delicate shade of blue-green of the cultivar Phantom, or the wrinkled, restless form of the cultivar Frisian Waving Steel. And what about you?

Hosta Frisian Waving Steel

REALLY BLUE HOSTAS

Abiqua Drinking Gourd
Big Daddy
Blue Jay
Blue Vision
Blue Wedgewood
Camelot
Canadian Blue
Deep Blue See
Flemisch Sky
Fragrant Blue  
Hadspen Blue
Halcyon
Hosta sieboldiana Elegans
Love Pat
Prairie Sky
Skylight
Winfield Blue

GREEN-BLUE HOSTAS

Beauty Little Blue
Big Mamma
Blue Angel
Blue Arrow
Blue Cadet
Blue Diamond
Blue Mouse Ears
Blue Umbrellas
Blueberry Muffin
High Tide
Krossa Regal
Lakeside Beach Bum
Lederhosen
Millenium
Mystic Star
Neptune
Queen of the Seas
Salute
Sapphire Pillows
Sky Dancer
Yankee Blue

BLUE-GREEN HOSTAS

Blue Lady
Frisian Waving Steel
Church Mouse
Mikawa-no-Yuki
Party Favor
Phantom
Red Cadet
Restless Sea
Ruffled Mouse Ears
Snowden

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