Other Names:  Plantain Lily, Funkia

Description:

A medium sized variety featuring mounds of very thick, heart-shaped blue-green foliage with streaky white margins; lavender flowers appear on tall scapes during the midsummer months; adds color, contrast and texture to shaded garden beds and borders

Ornamental Features

El Nino Hosta features dainty spikes of lavender bell-shaped flowers rising above the foliage in mid summer. Its attractive textured heart-shaped leaves remain powder blue in colour with showy white variegation throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

El Nino 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 plant, 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

El Nino Hosta is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover

Planting & Growing

El Nino Hosta will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity extending to 24 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 3 feet. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 30 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant 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 particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.