Saturday, June 5, 2010

Drawstring Effect in Hostas

Carnival
Did you ever buy a really cool looking hosta, and the next year it was one of he ugliest things you ever saw?  You were hoping it was just a one year thing, but the next spring....there is that ugly hosta again.  The leaves look all cupped (not in a good way) and usually the edges start to almost melt away.  Well that ugly hosta might be suffering from drawstring effect.  Drawstring effect happens to certain hostas, especially in the north where summers are cold and wet.  Drawstringing is where the center of the hosta actually grows faster than the edge of the hosta.  There is nothing that can be done to fix the problem completely, but you can cut the first flush of spring leaves off, as the summer leaves won't drawstring.  For a complete list of hostas that are known to drawstring, click here.
Whirling Dervish

St Elmo's Fire

3 comments:

Jeff Branch said...

I have this problem with a few of mine - I am seeing it for the first time on my bullet proof Bressingham Blue.

Thanks for the post, some good info.

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

I've never seen or heard of that problem, fortunately. I hope I never do.

Hosta Nerd said...

Just don't buy any of the hosta on the list and you'll never see it:) LOL