After keeping hostas in zone 3 in Canada for the last twenty years, it has been my observation that come fall, they do not withstand a lot of frost. The leaves turn brown pretty quickly and then wither or turn to mush. Our first frost is typically around the 22nd of September. By the end of September most of the hostas are looking pretty lousy. We had a pretty nice fall this year and by the 13th of October we had only a touch of frost twice. At that point most varieties were showing signs of “summer is over” but one variety was hanging in there pretty well – a hosta called June. The first picture was taken the day after the second touch of frost.

Then on October 22nd we got the third touch of frost and we got over 20 cm (8 inches) of snow. Hosta June disappeared under the snow for the next three nights while the average low was minus 4.6 Celsius (23.7 F). With the weather warmer today (October 27th), I removed the snow and took the second picture. I was impressed with how well the hosta survived. It goes to show what a good insulator snow is.