Plant Care Library

Other Names:  Plantain Lily, Funkia

Description:

This gorgeous variety has large leaves that are blue-green with a wide cream margin that turns more white later in the season; provides beautiful texture and contrast to other plants; lavender spikes of flowers on tall scapes in mid-summer

Ornamental Features

Formal Attire Hosta features dainty spikes of lavender tubular flowers rising above the foliage in mid summer. Its attractive large textured oval leaves emerge chartreuse in spring, turning dark green in color with distinctive creamy white edges and tinges of bluish-green throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Formal Attire Hosta is a dense herbaceous perennial with tall flower stalks held atop a low mound of foliage. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other garden plants with finer foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Insects

Formal Attire Hosta is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover

Planting & Growing

Formal Attire Hosta will grow to be about 28 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 4 feet. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 4 feet apart. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in partial shade to shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.