St. Elmo's Fire Hosta

Other Names: Plantain Lily, Funkia

Ornamental Features:

St. Elmo's Fire Hosta features dainty spikes of lavender tubular flowers rising above the foliage in mid summer. It's attractive textured oval leaves remain gold in colour with showy creamy white variegation throughout the season. The fruit is not ornamentally significant.

Landscape Attributes:

St. Elmo's Fire Hosta is a dense herbaceous perennial with tall flower stalks held atop a low mound of foliage. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance perennial, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Insects

St. Elmo's Fire Hosta is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• General Garden Use
• Mass Planting
• Groundcover
• Border Edging

Plant Characteristics:

St. Elmo's Fire Hosta will grow to be about 10 inches tall at maturity extending to 18 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. Its foliage tends to remain low and dense right to the ground. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years.

This perennial does best in partial shade to shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This plant can be propagated by division.

This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.