Hottsy Tottsy Plantain Lily

Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. For a neat appearance, remove old foliage before new leaves emerge. Divide clumps every 2 to 3 years in early spring.

Bright Hosta like this one bring light into deeply shaded gardens. Try this taller variety behind shorter plants and amidst ones with emerald green foliage for contrast. Plant as clumps among acid-loving flowering shrubs. Excellent in shaded rock gardens, on slopes and in low, moist pockets. Later in the season, enjoy its bright flower spikes that add interest and variety to the foliage.

Plant golden Hottsy Tottsy in front of Hydrangea to cover up their "legs". This yellow plant will blend best with Penny Mac Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Penny Mac') and Betty Sette Ice Angels Camellia (Camellia x japonica 'Bette Sette'). Accentuates the speckled and variegated foliage of Mr. Goldstrike Aucuba (Aucuba japonica'Mr. Goldstrike'). Also gorgeous with the deep puprple Palace Purple Coral Bells, (Heuchera x 'Palace Purple') and Ebony Knight Mondo Grass, (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Ebknizam')

For the early 19th century this group of plants was known under the genus Funkia, as classified by German botanist, Kurt Sprengel. It has since been named Hosta by the Austrian Leopold Trattinick who honored his fellow countryman, Dr. Host. The genus contains over 40 species mostly native to China and Japan. These plants reached Europe in the 1780s with introduction of H. plantaginea from which most of our modern hybrds descend.

Hostas appeared little in gardens until about the 1960s when tissue culture allowed the expansion of cultivars to the astonishing numbers there are today.