Ah, if only! An evergreen hosta would be a fabulous plant indeed. However, all hosta plants have a winter dormancy requirement...they simply have to sleep to live. :)

That said, one of our southernmost hosta gardeners, MoccasinLanding, has had at least on northern-grown hosta keep on through her zone 9 winter and do well. It then adjusted to the new climate and had the expected dormancy. That is of course the exception, not the rule.

Bottom line, they aren't evergreen, but buy some anyway!! :)

This post was edited by jadie88 on Tue, Sep 24, 13 at 7:57

Nope, no evergreen hostas here! Heucheras, yes, but not hostas :)

Hey there. Don't I wish! Evergreen would be a nice feature. But by the time cool weather arrives, the garden and the gardener need the winter down time. Hosta culture is intense and I think people in colder climates are as adjusted to being "dormant" in the winter as the hosta are.

The first mail order hosta I received included H. Stained Glass. Now, it put out its new leaves at the right time in 2011. However, when every other hosta went to sleep that winter, IT DID NOT. I worried about it, with its two or three leaves. I guess it still had memories of zone 7 where it came from, Bob Solberg's nursery, Green Hills.

Then along about May of 2012, it sort of couldn't stay awake any longer. And I ordered a 2nd Stained Glass, thinking it was dying. (Who knew...) The replacement arrived, I sat it beside the other SG pot which appeared empty actually.

But lo and behold, that week, without 40 days of dormancy, Stained Glass #1 emerged in a great rush, to become larger than its replacement, and it bloomed too.

Hosta need to go dormant, and in northern gardens that is not a problem, since snow can cover the bare beds for the duration. I am a container hosta grower though, and an empty pot is not a pretty sight. I know how you feel about a year round plant. I am currently preparing my winter dormancy location for the hundreds of hosta in pots, where they will be hopefully safe from predation by squirrels etc, and from the wet humid winters in our zone 9a garden.

I'd say if it was going to be evergreen, it would be in zone 9...but I don't see it happening in our lifetimes. It's not the nature of the beast.

I'm in zone 9b. We have many broad leaved evergreen plants here, and believe me I wouldn't want my hostas to be evergreen. Over the Summer they get bug/fungus/hard water spots/damage and I so look forward to those perfect Spring leaves that come with the first flush of leaves.

The hostas need to rest and so do I over winter. Good.

-Babka

I adore hostas and grew them in Michigan where they come back every year in spite of the winter temperatures. Wanting an evergreen leafy plant similar to a hosta, I recently found the heuchera. I can’t wait to get some! You may want to check them out.