Planting Spring Bulbs With Hostas
- John Plant
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
We revisit the topic of companion planting spring bulbs with your Hostas
Hostas are a wonderful source of and colour and form for several months of the year. They fill your garden with a mass of different coloured and different sized and shaped leaves forming a matt of foliage.
What about the rest of the year? Hostas are a hardy perennial, which means that the foliage dies down towards the end of the year, and then the new shoots start re-emerging in the spring.
The foliage will die down completely in most varieties around about mid to end of October, some sooner than that. Once established, Hostas are all hardy, so they will survive whatever the winter will throw at them, to start emerging in March, in most cases, when the weather starts to warm up a little.
They will be quite happy in their dormant state for several months.
So, whilst your Hostas are in their dormant state what can you use to extend the interest in your garden, when your Hostas are not giving us their usual grandeur.
What about this then? Fill your area with a multitude of colourful Spring bulbs. Put your mind to it and you could produce a display like this one. Well, not really!
The Dutch know exactly how to create a magical display with the simplest of bulbs. Who doesn’t love a windmill.
Last year, we discussed using some spring bulbs with Hostas in our blog from September 2024. There we covered the most usual Spring bulbs. We talked about using Snowdrops, Bluebells, Narcissus, Aconite, Fritillaria and Alliums. I suggest you have a quick read of this blog as well.
In this blog, a continuation of last year's blog, we will discuss a few other spring bulbs that can be used to brighten your Hosta borders.
A short, easily spreading, some say invasive, spring bulb is Muscari. These now come in several colour from dark blue to white. They will fill an area easily and give good colour for weeks. These are not always everyone’s favourite but they do put on a decent show.
We can’t forget the wonderful, early flowering Crocus, in a large range of colours from the bright yellow through to purple. They are one of the first Spring bulbs to emerge and will stay in flower for a few weeks, providing they don’t get rained on.
Then we have the less well known Leucojum. A bit like a tall snowdrop, and just as beautiful. They range from 7-8cm tall, Leucojum vernum, up to 65cm tall, Leucojum gravetye Giant. These flowers are all in white.
Not quite a Spring bulb but often seen a Spring bedding is the Ranunculus. Related to the common Buttercup, but much more ornamental. They are technically a perennial, but nevertheless fabulous at this time of year. Try and get a double flowering variety.
Do not forget Scilla. A spreading bulb that comes in blue or white or sometimes pink. Not dissimilar to a small Camassia or a larger Muscari. A lovely plant with few problems and great joy.
So why not take a trip to the garden centre and and some spring interest to your garden?
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John Plant
Rewela Hostas
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