Fire Island Hosta

Size

Liven up the shade under a tree or on the side of your home with Fire Island Hosta. This and other hosta hybrids are grown for their foliage, and with Fire Island, you get brilliant yellow leaves with red speckling on their stems. As summer warms, the leaves darken to a rich chartreuse. These short perennial evergreens are the foundation of any shade garden. Fire Island reaches only 10 to 14 inches tall and about 15 to 30 inches around. The hostas leaves, or fronds, are large and shaped like elongated hearts. Though grown for its leaves, this hosta produces tiny purple flowers on a stem rising a foot or less above the leaves. This easy-care plant performs best in mostly shade in zones 3 through 9, so it is perfect in groupings for shady borders or a mass of evergreen color under trees. For shaded entryways and patios, add Fire Island Hosta as a container filler. Fire Island Hosta Care Although your hosta loves shade, it does best in dappled shade, which usually comes from trees. In other areas of the landscape, it will perform best with morning sun for a couple of hours and then shade the rest of the day (typically on the east side of the house). It can grow in average to fertile soil and prefers slightly acidic pH. Adding organic matter to poor or sandy soil can help retain some moisture, which hostas prefer. Mulching around the plants also helps keep water in the ground longer. You also can add some granular fertilizer in spring, but it is best to do so only after testing the soil pH. Regular watering is important when growing these small plants with big leaves. If you plant a group under a tree, be sure to give them a little extra water because the nearby tree will compete with the hosta for water. The plants need very little care or trimming, just removal of dead or damaged leaves in late winter to prevent diseases. You can remove the flower scape after the blooms fade. Fire Island Hosta Spacing These bright little hostas will look great spaced far apart for a mass planting or closer together in a border. Give them some room to grow, spacing them from 15 to 30 inches from center to center.