If your cutting includes a piece of the crown then you can. I have done it with a couple leaves attached to a fingertip-sized chunk of crown, extracted with a pocket knife.

So it's basically like a division without roots.

But I'm pretty sure that if you don't get any crown, your cutting won't grow its own roots.

you can can NOT root a leaf ..

leaves on top.. roots below.. the interface is the crown ... you must have a leaf.. some crown and some roots ...

to make it easier ... cut cut individual eyes out of a mature clump.. having each of the requisite 3 parts ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=propagating+hostas&t=ffcm&ia=web

I too have rooted a hosta leaf. I put root hormone on it and struck it in a pot just as an experiment with really no thought it would work but it did....and yes dhaven it was in the spring. Not knowing that was the key I tried it at different times during growing season and they all rotted.

Meristem (tiny tiny bit of crown cells) required for making roots. Cut that leaf off mid petiole and show me some roots and THEN I will become a true believer. Show me???????? I'm ready to stand corrected! But until then....

-Babka

Babka--meristem would usually be required, but not always. The overall higher level of growth hormones in the spring seems to overcome the lack of meristem. Some of the Blue Boy leaves were cut off midstem, and those were the last to grow roots, but they did so eventually.

A number of species can also be propagated by using only leaves, with African Violets being a prime example. A leaf is cut off, no stem, and either slits are cut across the larger veins, or the top third of the leaf is cut off. The leaf is then placed on damp potting medium, pinned down to assure contact, and tiny little plantlets will grow in the areas that have been cut. Works for begonias as well. I haven't tried it with hostas, but intend to someday.

Some plants can also be propagated by root stem fusion. This involves putting 2 varieties of bare root plants in water and allowing them to add root growth. Eventually some will form root fusions with both plants involved. These fusions can then be removed, grown into plants, and genetically tested along with both parent plants to make sure the fusion plants are actual hybrids. Nowadays this would be done with DNA testing, back when I did this experiment with African Violets, all that was available to determine genetic makeup differentiation was columnar chromatography.

African Violets and a number of other plants can also be propagated with runner sectioning and even from bloom stems. The hosta Clausa will grow from a 1 inch piece of runner. It's amazing how plants will find a way to reproduce.

Thank you Dhaven! I had read that was possible with hostas. Now I am a believer.

-Babka

This is very interesting. I'm going to try it myself next spring. Do I tear a leaf off rather than cutting it? I guess the stem should be rather short and the leaf small? When should I start - in early April?

Dhaven, right on! Many years ago I started new African Violets from a piece of leaf by inserting it into damp vermiculite...the fastest rooting medium I know of.

Can you tell me by looking at this photo (I'm still learning about the anatomy of hostas) whether there is any meristem (?) to this Orange Marmalade my daughter gave me? The roots you see are new - the bottom was cleanly slashed right off with no roots whatsoever - it took about ten days to grow these roots. Thank you.

Cicely--the stem should be as long as possible, better to cut than to tear. You can take a leaf as soon as the leaf is up enough to cut off and include a good length of stem. Do keep in mind that some hostas will root, some will not, this should not be used as a mass propagation technique. This is also sensitive to weather conditions, if it gets very hot, rooting leaves may go dormant, which stops the process completely.

Josephine--looks to me like some crown material was included when the division was sliced off. Meristematic cells occur anywhere in the plant where growth can take place, but they are seasonal and being individual cells, can't be detected visually. So meristem cells in the petioles and leaves would be found mainly in the spring. This is why many plants can be propagated in so many ways, most parts of a plant have growth areas at one time or another throughout the season. However, some things work better than others--I've never succeeded in getting a hosta bloom stalk to root, even if it is cut as soon as it emerges.

Thank you.