No flowers on this hosta yet. It's newly planted a few weeks ago.

doubt its the hosta .. rather than something about the disturbed soil ...

did you bare root??? ... and plant in native soil .... ken

I bought it in a pot at a local garden centre, where I've bought several other varieties over the past couple of years. I used the same bagged triple mix from Home Depot as I have used in other areas of the garden.

I had a good look at the flying insects yesterday and they were these tiny bee like insects - the size of a mosquito, maybe even smaller.

It is not the hosta. Either the bugs came with the pot, or the bagged mix, or your own soil. Check the internet for contaminated bagged soil. There was a surge of fungus gnats reported in some brands one year. Sometimes the bagged product gets a hole in the bag and that could have presented a perfect spot for a bug to lay eggs. Bugs LOVE compost.

-Babka

That makes sense. I opened up a new bag of soil for that hosta and I seem to have remembered tiny grey bugs scurrying around in it. But I remember thinking that once I poured it in the garden that they would probably disappear. I guess that's not true? So in future, should a bag of soil like that not be used?

Who knows if they are harmful critters or not?? If you could see something moving in a bagged product, I'd spread it out in the sun for a few days before using it. There was someone who posted here years ago who had a truck load of compost or bark or something that came contaminated with a fungus and they lost a LOT of plants, so it isn't just bagged products that might possibly be contaminated. Gee, it makes gardening so much fun when you get these surprises. Hope the bugs have flown off by now, and that your Orange Marmalade is happy.

-Babka