Transplanting Hostas

October 2, 2024

If you’re thinking of transplanting any of your hostas, now is a great time to do it, when the soil is still warm from summer.

I decided to redo a couple of my perennial garden beds - in particular, the two beds in front of my main greenhouse. These gardens had been planted with hostas and white lilies, but they started declining over recent years and needed changing. Hostas are hardy plants that can be easily transplanted and divided, so I instructed my gardening team to move them down to my giant hosta bed behind the chicken coops and under the shade of my stately dawn redwoods, Metasequoia, where they could spread and flourish.

Enjoy these photos.

: This year, I noticed the hosta gardens in front of my greenhouse didn’t look their best. While still green and lush, the hostas needed more room and the lilies had started to disappear, so I decided it was time to redesign the gardens and move the plants elsewhere.

: I had the garden crew start moving the hostas first. To move one, use a sharp spade, cutting into soil in a circle surrounding the entire plant and then carefully pry the plant out of the ground.

: Alex digs out each hosta plant making sure to keep the root ball intact.

: Each hosta was moved onto a nearby tarp.

: The plants were then carefully moved into the back of a pick up and brought down to the hosta garden.

: This hosta garden was first planted in 2020. I got the hostas as bare-root cuttings and kept them in a cold frame for several months until they were big enough to transplant. In all, more than 700 hostas were planted that first year. I’ve added plants every year since, and it’s grown beautifully under the shade of the tall Metasequoias.

: Dawn redwoods are a “living fossil” that was rediscovered in China in 1941 after being thought to be extinct. They are a relic from the age of dinosaurs. Dawn redwood trunks are reddish-brown with vertical, shredding bark.

: The dawn redwood has feathery, fine-textured needles that are opposite each other and approximately a half-inch long. Don’t confuse them with the bald cypress needles, which grow alternately. These dawn redwood needles will turn shades of red and brown before falling – it is one of the few deciduous conifers.

: The hostas in this large garden are planted in groups by variety including ‘Wide Brim,’ ‘Francee,’ ‘Regal Splendor,’ ‘Elegans,’ and ‘Blue Angel.’

: They vary in color, markings, shape and texture. My plan was to plant lots and lots of hostas in this garden bed. Their lush green foliage and their easy care requirements make them ideal for many areas.

: The hostas are strategically placed, so like plants are together.

: When planting hostas, one should dig a hole that is at least twice as wide as the root ball and just as deep.

: And don’t forget to feed – I always say, if you eat, so should your plants. Here is Alex sprinkling Scotts Osmocote – an all-in-one plant solution containing essential nutrients and a unique resin that controls nutritional release.

: Alex sprinkles some into the hole and also in the surrounding soil.

: Osmocote particles include a core of nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

: Alex works in an assembly line process preparing several holes at a time before planting.

: Then he plants each specimen properly so that the eye is just at soil level. A hosta eye is a growing shoot that emerges from the crown supports up to 12 leaves. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies, and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi.

: This time of year, hosta leaves typically turn yellow, die back, and go dormant for the winter.

: Once planted, Alex spreads the existing mulch around them, so they look tidy.

: Vigorous growing hostas can reach mature sizes in three to five years. Giant and slower growing hostas can take a little longer. I am so pleased with how well they’re doing.

: Hostas thrive in sites where filtered or dappled shade is available for much of the day, but they can survive in deep shade. If you have the space and the right conditions in your yard, plant some hostas – you’ll love them for years to come.