Purple Belles

You would think that hostas, like the shade plants with broad foliage that they are, would love nothing more than a rainy summer, right? Partially. They developed luxurious foliage, and yes, the large fragrant ones did bloom, but not as abundantly as they usually do. You are looking at a picture of very early variety here, I guess that’s the one that likes the rain.

The rest of them bloom much later summer, during what is usually the driest period of the year, so I should have realized that they don’t suffer for lack of moisture, but they do resent lack of sunshine, and given to the permanent cloud cover this season blessed us with, they were going to drag their feet this year. I’m patiently waiting to see if the small landscaping variety, which tends to bloom in compact masses of lavender bells towards the end of August will surprise me and prove me wrong.

Hostas kind of grew on me. I didn’t know how to care for them in the beginning, and as a result they looked sort of generic for a while. When properly attended to, it is hard to find fault with these plants, they bloom reliably, their flowers are spectacular, often delightfully fragrant, their foliage is lush and healthy, they’re exceptionally resilient and fill the void of the summer doldrums, after most of the summer perennials have already finished blooming.

I didn’t realize they’re just not that into rain, to my great surprise, and this is not their year. If I had to pick between the daisies and the hostas which ones were going to have a better season, I wouldn’t have hesitated to pick the hostas, but what do I know? Nature has its own wisdom.