Even though they originated in Japan, Hostas are a mainstay of the English cottage garden. They are also attractive to bees of all kinds.
Honey bees can’t fit inside a Hosta bloom, so they poke a hole in the flower to suck out the nectar. They have adapted to this exotic.
I love Hostas, and have many varieties. My favorites are the giants!
Related articles
- Hosta Containers and Companions (carolynsshadegardens.com)
- Hosta Update – it’s good news… (chickentales.wordpress.com)
- Oh to grow Hostas (chickentales.wordpress.com)
- Dividing Hostas, Bulbs, Tubers and Liriope (gardensandgarlic.wordpress.com)
I would never have thought of the hosta as a bee plant. We do have one hosta very common in this area (Hosta cordifolia) that gets enormous spires of huge purple blossoms in July; I definitely could see this as a bee plant!
My hostas flower a lot, and the bees do seem to love them!! 🙂
Love the hostas! And your garden in general!
Thank you so much!! 🙂
Interesting about the bees—I will have to look more closely at my flowers. Thanks for linking to my blog.
You are very welcome! 🙂
How bizarre! I never knew. My neighbors have lots of hostas, and we have a few ourselves (some have even sprouted up of their own accord in recent years) but I’ve never seen bees on any of them. Snails on the other hand, love them to death. Quite literally.
I think my bees scare the snails away!! 🙂
Lucky you! I have to go out in the rain to hunt for snails. My record is something like 16 in a day. Its obnoxious how many we have.
They do more damage to my dahlias. I think my giant hostas scare them too…
lol, you’ve got some scardy-cat snails over there. Mine eat everything, including the iris and even the rhodys. The snails in my yard are like fleas. They’re everywhere and chew on everything.
I guess I’m lucky my snails are so timid!! 🙂
Hostas are a favorite. I love them because they are easy to spilt for a new plant. My hostas were a split from my mother’s plants originally, and now they are thr mainstay of my gardens. 🙂
They are also great for shady areas!
You are right. 🙂
Thank you for the reference back to my blog. Love the post too!
You are very welcome! And thanks!! 🙂
I love the giant hostas too! I only have 1 though, not nearly enough!
I just planted two more. 🙂
[…] Favorite English Garden Bee Plants – Hosta (romancingthebee.com) […]