Announcing the 3rd Annual

Wild Paws Hosta Plant Sale Fundraiser

Friday, September 11

2:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Saturday. September 12

11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

15790 Juniper Ridge Drive

Anoka, MN 55303

Prices range from $5 - $35 for various sizes of plants.

Wide variety of colors, leaf shapes, growth habits,

and flower colors will be available.

Due to the pandemic, there will be hand sanitizer and masks available. All potted plants will be spaced for safe distancing and wearing a mask is encouraged.

Sale will be held Outside rain or shine

All proceeds and donations will help build Wild Paws Midwest Animal Sanctuary

You will help us provide a home for life for displaced wildlife

Hostas – “The Friendship Plant”

We are hosting the 3rd Annual Wild Paws Hosta Plant Sale Fundraiser Friday and Saturday, September 11-12. If you've attended the sale in the past, there will be totally different plants available for this year’s sale. The goal once again is to offer a variety of sizes and types of plants from the mini to the monstrous, and from some of the old reliable varieties, lovingly referred to as “The Dirty Dozen,” to some of the newer varieties. Many different colors, patterns and leaf shapes will be offered as well.

Hostas are called “The Friendship Plant” by the American Hosta Society, because of the friends that are made as people share their hostas and visit each other’s gardens. While Daryle Hamlin, an avid gardener who has been growing hostas for 35 years, was working this past week digging and dividing hosta plants to get ready for this year’s sale, she was asked advice about moving plants in the fall. “I then realized many hosta lovers might be wondering the same thing.”

It is most definitely a great time to do this. It may be a little easier in the spring because the foliage is so small when the hostas are just beginning to sprout up, but usually there are many other projects happening in the spring. The timing to move is favorable in late summer, as most of the plants have probably just finished flowering and growing a second flush of foliage, and now are starting to put all their energy into making roots for next year. Just be sure to keep your transplants really well watered right away. Continue to keep them well hydrated throughout the fall until the ground freezes. Adding some mulch in the fall after freeze up will keep them protected through the winter. You can leave all the mulch or leaves on your beds, and wait to rake until spring. This practice is also encouraged to help pollinators. Fall weather offers the cooler conditions that help plants adjust to their new locations so the plants settle in nicely to their new homes and are ready for healthy growth come next spring.

As the growing season comes to an end, there are lots of variations of how these plants get ready for winter. Some succumb to the earliest light frost, and others will turn lovely shades of yellow and gold and keep looking good until late into autumn. Others will start to have what hosta growers refer to as “the summer uglies” in late summer.

An important thing to consider, if you need to move hosta plants anytime during the growing season, is what amount of shade or sun will be available in their new location? Most hostas can tolerate a lot more sun than we think they can. Hostas are plants that have adapted to shade. If they have yellow or light green foliage they actually do better with more sun than shade throughout the day. It is the hosta types with blue foliage that do not do very well in heat, or all day direct sunlight. This is because the blue color is really a coating of wax on the leaves that melts away in full sun or with lots of heavy rain and overhead watering. There is no blue pigment in the actual foliage. The color is due to the blue wavelength of light that is being reflected from their waxy surface, much like birds with blue feathers appear blue due to this same natural phenomena. Blue hostas will get “bluer” with age.

Some hosta growers believe that when the plants first emerge in the spring they somehow figure out how much sun exposure they will have during the coming growing season, and grow accordingly. This may account for why some do not do well if moved in the summer to a drastically different sun condition then when they started out their life cycle in the spring. 

In the spring, some hostas emerge early and some are very slow to break their winter dormancy. Be patient. Once things have warmed up enough, new growth can occur at the rate of 1/2” per day!

Furthermore, some hostas will produce their flowers early while others do not bloom until the middle of August. As with the foliage, there are lots of types of flowers as well, and a range of colors from white to various shades of purple, and some even with streaks. While not a plant native to North America, many hosta varieties have fragrant flowers that will attract pollinators and even hummingbirds.

For more information about hostas, consider joining the Minnesota Hosta Society, the Midwest Regional Hosta Society, the American Hosta Society, or all three. You can find these nonprofit organizations on Facebook as well. Hosta Library is a great resource for photos of hosta varieties A to Z that you can browse.