Medium hostas are one of the best and most versatile plants for your garden. A medium hosta generally can be defined as having a clump height of between ten and eighteen inches in height. Depending on the layout of your garden and the height of the other plants in the area, you can plant these hostas anywhere in the space without them either getting lost or taking over the space. Because of the vibrancy of the colors of varieties like ‘June or First Frost’, mediums can be a focal point for the garden. If you decide to plant hostas toward the front of the planting area, I would suggest using mediums as a border plant. If you like symmetry, you can plant a line of the same hostas such as ‘Patriot’, or do an alternating pattern of light and dark hostas such as ‘Blue Cadet’ and ‘ August Moon’. Of course, just using the front of your planting bed to showcase the large variety of medium hostas can be very interesting.  Because some hostas have a significant amount of white and yellow, you can use these hostas to brighten an area. I would suggest ‘Fire and Ice’ or ‘ Pineapple Upsidedown Cake’ to add some color and shape to the space. To soften an area, hostas  such as ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ or ‘Teatime’ are nice mediums because of the more muted colors in the leaves. Medium hostas can also be used on both sides of a pathway through your garden or woods to define the thoroughfare. A clearly defined but meandering hosta path through the woods is a striking focal point. However, a sidewalk lined with medium hostas is equally nice.

You will continue to hear me talk about using hostas in containers and using medium sized hostas for containers is a great way to add interest to a space. Picking any of the tiara series such as ‘Golden Tiara’ or ‘Grand Tiara’ for a container on your deck will provide color to the area. Additionally, since hostas are somewhat drought resistant, you do not have to necessarily worry about watering the planter every day. If you use a more upright plant such as’ Praying Hands’ in a planter, you can then add additional trailing and flowering plants around the base of the hosta. You will then have both a lasting hosta perennial to use as a foundation for the planter year after year and you can switch up the trailing plants each year depending on what color scheme you may want to create each season. I also find that using medium hostas in planters on each side of an entrance to a garden space creates a defined gateway to that particular garden. And of course, the color of the planter can add considerable interest and color on top of the plantings you use. Check out our pictures to help you to visualize the versatility and usefulness of medium hostas in your garden. And remember that the Hosta Hideaway of York Springs sells a wide variety of hostas for your garden needs…