The Best Types of Hostas to Add Vibrancy to Any Landscape

Types of hostas in garden — (Image credit: Zwilling330 / Getty Images)

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Types of Hosta by Size
Mini - Up to 8 inches
Small - 9 to 14 inches
Medium - 15 to 22 inches
Large - 23 to 29 inches
Giant - 30 inches and above

Hostas are the go-to plant when landscaping in shade or part shade. And why not? With more than 2,000 cultivars and many different types of hostas, you can find favorites to fit most situations. Grown mostly for their vivid foliage in USDA hardiness zones 3-9, hosta leaf colors are blue, green, chartreuse, or yellow and shades in between. They often are variegated with white, blue, green, chartreuse, or yellow edging or streaking.

Growing hosta plants is easy once they are planted in fertile, slightly acidic soil in part shade to full shade. They can be massed as a groundcover, tucked into woodland gardens, or grown in containers. Planting several of the same cultivar or color combination looks striking en masse. Or, for a large, shady bed, combine several different types of hostas with other shade-loving plants such as ferns, astilbe, bleeding heart, hellebores, and coral bells.

You can edge a border with small or mini hostas, use large hostas for a dramatic background, or select a giant hosta to use as a focal point in a shady garden.

Hostas are revered for their attractive leaf forms, but they do flower in summer. The bell or tubular shaped flowers are pink, lavender, white, or even red in some newer cultivars. They dangle on erect stems and beckon the hummingbirds.

Leaves emerge in early spring and form a mounding shape from a few inches (centimeters) tall to 3 feet (0.9 m) or more. You can diversify your foliage collection with smooth, twisted, curly, wavy, puckered or even powdered types of hosta plants. Some hosta flowers are fragrant, but not all.

Types of Hosta by Size

Hosta can be divided by size, fragrance, texture, or leaf color. Here we categorize them by clump height, as defined by the American Hosta Growers Association in 2012. Note that hostas grow a few inches taller in the Northern part of the U.S. than they do in the South. Northern mature heights are shown here.

Mini - Up to 8 inches

Hosta plantaginea ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ - Leaves of mouse-ear hostas are a medium blue green and it's a fast spreader. The bell-shaped flowers are lavender with stripes. 2008 Hosta of the Year. Find a bareroot of 'Blue Mouse Ears' at Park Seed.
H. ‘Mighty Mouse’ - Leaves are blue-green with up to ½ inch (1.3 cm) wide creamy white margins. Flowers are tubular, lavender, with purple stripes inside.
H. ‘Curly Fries’ - Leaves are greenish yellow and narrow with wavy edges. The tubular flowers are lavender with purple stripes. 2016 Hosta of the Year.

Small - 9 to 14 inches

H. ‘Halcyon’ - Leaves are heart-shaped, blue. Flowers are white with lavender striping. 2026 Hosta of the Year. ‘Sunny Halcyon’ sports bright, yellowish-green leaves. You can purchase 5-pack of 'Halcyon' hosta bareroots from Daylily Nursery through Amazon.
H. ‘Fire and Ice’ - Leaves are pure white with 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide dark green margins. Flowers are lavender.
H. ‘Lakeside Paisley Print’ - Leaves are unusual, with cream markings in the center that emerge from the petiole, and dark green margins. Tubular, lavender flowers have a darker striping. 2019 Hosta of the Year.
H. ‘Autumn Frost’ - Deep blue-green leaves are surrounded by yellow margins that change to creamy white during the season. Tubular shaped flowers are lavender.

Medium - 15 to 22 inches

H. ‘Patriot’ - Leaves are dark green with 1-inch wide (2.5 cm) white margin. The flowers are tubular, with violet stripes. 1997 Hosta of the Year.
H. ‘Loyalist’ - Leaves are creamy white, with dark green margins. Flowers are pale lavender and tubular shaped.
H. ‘Miss America’ - White leaves with 2 inch (5.1 cm) green margins. The flower is pale lavender with darker stripes down the center. A 1-gallon 'Miss America' hosta can be found at Lowe's.

Large - 23 to 29 inches

H. ‘Stained Glass’ - Leaves are golden yellow with a 2-inch (5 cm) dark green margin that tolerates sun. Flowers are tubular, white, with purple stripes and are fragrant. 2006 Hosta of the Year. Find 'Stained' Glass' from Garden Goods Direct.
H. ‘Dancing Queen’ - Large yellow to pale yellow leaves with piecrusted edges. Tolerates sun well. Flowers are lavender. 2020 Hosta of the Year.
H. ‘Neptune’ - Blue leaves with wavy margins. Foliage is bluest in spring. The tubular flowers are pale lavender. 2023 Hosta of the Year.
H. ‘Blue Perfection’ - Large, soft blue leaves with very fragrant lavender flowers.

Giant - 30 inches and above

H. ‘Empress Wu’ - Gigantic green leaves in a clump that reaches 50 inches (127 cm) tall and 108 inches (274 cm) wide. Tubular-shaped flowers are lavender. Find 'Empress Wu' at Home Depot.
H. ‘Sum and Substance’ - Large, light-green-to-chartreuse-to-gold leaves in a clump 60 inches wide (152 cm) and 36 inches (91 cm) tall. Tolerates sun well. 2004 Hosta of the Year.
H. ‘Blue Angel’ - Heart-shaped blue-green leaves in a clump 48 inches (122 cm) wide and 36 inches (91 cm) tall. Flowers are glossy white.

Whether you need plants for full shade, full sun, a container garden, or want to fill some bare patches in your cottage garden, hostas are a fabulous species to grow. There are even some wonderful cold-hardy varieties! They are easy, hardy and gorgeous.

After graduating from Oklahoma State University with a degree in English, Susan pursued a career in communications. In addition, she wrote garden articles for magazines and authored a newspaper gardening column for many years. She contributed South-Central regional gardening columns for four years to Lowes.com. While living in Oklahoma, she served as a master gardener for 17 years.