My first hosta were unknown. I bought a package of hosta at Sam's Club. I made a new raised bed and planted them there. Unfortunately, that was where my neighbor gave my dogs their treats. I finally gave up and removed the raised bed. I stuck the hosta in pots and just watered them with my annuals in pots. The hosta did great in pots. All I did was throw a handful of lawn fertilizer in them each spring.

A couple of years later, I found a Sum and Substance at Lowe's. That's when I realized hosta came in all sizes, shapes and colors. Then, I found the hosta forum.

I was then officially hooked.

bkay

I know there was a big hosta on the side of the house when we moved in almost 40 years ago and maybe some Fortunie Aureo-marginatas……I didn’t know anything about hostas. But a woman I worked with was over at the house one day and talking to me about making a garden. She knew what the hostas were and explained they did well in shade, which I had at the time. So I started buying different ones I would find from big box stores and local nurseries and people selling in odd places around the area. Well a few years ago, I found the HL and gardenweb and I was hooked.

The big hosta from the side of the house turned out to be Robert Frost which someone on the forum identified.

debra

My first hostas were a couple of divisions I Got from my youngest brother, my guess is about 30-35 years ago. He didn't know what they were, originally got them from a neighbor across the road and he figured it might quite possibly be a specie. Turned out it was 'Fortunei Hyacintha", courtesy of Bruce B's ID at the time, which eventually ended up sporting for me. Can't remember what came next, could have been clausa, which I did get from him many moons ago. Having always had a penchant for plants with fragrant flowers I was thrilled to discover 'So Sweet' at a grower 26 odd years ago and from there on in the bug really bit me..... Haven't been the same since....

Pieter

My first hosta was plataginea (We called it August Lily) that I got from my mother who in turn got hers from her mother, It was in the 70's when I got mine and I believe my mother got hers in the early 60's. I still have the original plant that has been divided multiple times.

I moved to this house with no landscaping and lots of shade. I’d never heard of hostas before. I ordered from a random catalog advertising plants for shade where you buy four, get four free types of deals.

They came in a bag, no leaves, just the roots. Thinking they looked like very ugly bulbs, I dug deep holes and threw them in. I don’t know how, but some of them survived. All were common undulatas but so pretty.

As a new gardener I was happy something came back for me, so I wanted more information about these plants. I stumbled into the hosta forum when it was still Garden Web. That’s when I found out there’s a whole big world of hostas with different named varieties, and I got hooked!

In the early 80's I put in U. Albomarginata, Halcyon & Gold Standard. Like everyone else here my obsession continued. There are far worse addictions to have lol!

fun question!..late 80’s? early 90’s? at my previous house I remember buying Montana Aureomarginata..I thought the name was crazy..they were Martha Stewart brand in cute sage green plastic pots embossed like wicker..I wish I’d kept those pots..I bought salvias too but they died..

the hosta did well..I bought more..I’m still buying..

I think my firsts were in the early 80's sometime. I bought a half dozed ventricosa to line a path to my vegetable garden and got some lancifolia from my MIL for the other side. I had no idea what they were, only that they would do OK in the shade.

ventricosa - today

lancifolia - a few years ago

Several years later when the trees around the garden grew up and there wasn't enough sunshine for vegetables, I jumped on the hosta train and never looked back.

My local Lowes is pretty good. About 12 years ago, I tried growing hostas with Moonstruck, June Fever, Francee, Queen Josephine, So Sweet, and Lakeside Cupcake. The voles really like my choices….
I took a couple years off of gardening out of disappointment. 2014 brought a renewed interest with growing tomatoes and peppers from seed, and growing berry bushes. I even planted grape vines. I revisited the shady side of the yard with an eye toward flood/erosion control. I planted ferns of various types. My Lowes had a luminous Paul’s Glory that begged to come home with me. And then I was hooked. The voles and rabbits enjoyed the Paul’s Glory. To this day, I still have trouble growing Paul’s Glory, lol.

Not much was available back then. I go way back to 1968. No big box stores, only local nurseries. Didn't have $$ to buy plants for outside, so my Grandmother gave me some clumps of plant that grew next to the narrow sidewalk between her Chicago bungalow and the one next door. Best name I could find then was "plantain lily". They were all just green, and grew in the shade where other stuff didn't. Great plant, came up bigger every year. A few years later my Grandmother had some with white edges, but she wouldn't share those!!! (The AHS, American Hosta Society was just being formed in 1968), so named hostas weren't redily available to most of us.

My son gave us a WebTV to try in 1996, and I discovered some gardening websites. One later became Garden Web and someone actually was growing more than one variety of hostas. !!!! Imagine that....................

-Babka

Got a Frances Williams in the mid 1980's. The leaves turned brown so we didn't buy any more for a long time. After all, who wants a plant with brown crinkled edges in July? It still lives in a bed under some pin oaks and a large star magnolia shrub. The magnolia leaves keep it pretty well covered and out of the sun. Many years later I bought a Linda Sue from Wade and Gatton and it too needed lots of shade until it died a couple of years ago. Naturally, Linda Sue is related to Frances Williams. I've been able to grow most hostas but I wouldn't recommend those 2 to anyone, especially if they are new to hostas.