New Miniature and Small Hostas for 2014
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
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Clockwise from upper left: ‘Lemon Frost’, ‘Alakazaam’, ‘Baby Booties’, ‘Neutrino’, ‘Kiwi Golden Thimble’, ‘Curly Fries’, ‘Thumbelina’, and ‘Cherish’.
My last post called New Mice for 2014 profiled the new additions to the adorable Mouse Ears Series of miniature hostas. In that post I talked about ‘Sunny Mouse Ears’, ‘Mouse Cheese’, ‘Ruffled Mouse Ears’, and ‘Church Mouse’. To see the photos and descriptions, click here. I extolled the virtues of their round, rubbery slug-repelling leaves in beautiful colors, their symmetrical habit, and their lovely proportional flowers.
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‘Alakazaam’ planted in the knot hole of a tree.
I have added a lot of new miniature and small hostas that are not mice to my offerings, and I want to profile a few of them here. But first I would like to answer the question what is a miniature hosta? The American Hosta Society defines miniature hostas by their leaf size. The leaf blade area, length x width, can be no greater than 6 square inches. Clump spread is irrelevant. Therefore, some of the hostas listed below are not technically “miniature”, but they are all little!
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‘Alakazaam’s’ unusual spiky habit makes it stand out from the crowd no matter where you place it. It forms a clump 5″ tall by 10″ wide, and its leaves are 6 1/2″ long and 3/4″ wide. They are bright green with gold ruffled margins changing to creamy white.
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‘Baby Booties’ departs from the usual gold and blue color scheme to give us a very cute green and white mini with oval leaves and a wide creamy white margin . It forms a 5″ tall by 19″ wide compact mound, and its oval leaves are 2 3/4″ long by 1 3/8″ wide.
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‘Cherish’ is an adorable tiny hosta, “child” of the wonderful ‘Baby Bunting’, with heart-shaped creamy yellow leaves and a wide blue margin streaking into the center. It has pixie-like, tiny flowers that are coming into bloom right now. It is 8″ tall by 12″ wide, and its leaves are 2 1/2 ” long by 1 1/2″ wide. It needs more sun due to its extensive variegation.
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‘Kiwi Golden Thimble’ is my most popular new mini hosta. Its unusual gold color and narrow, cupped leaves really stand out. Plus it rapidly produces an adorable mound of golden foliage. It is 5″ tall by 18″ wide, and its leaves are 2 3/4″ long by 1 1/4″ wide.
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Look for another post on four more new additions. If you would like to read more about little hostas, click on any of the following links:
2013 New Miniature and Small Hostas
Hostas Containers and Companions
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Carolyn
Nursery Happenings: The 2015 Miniature Hosta Availability for mail order and pick up at the nursery is here. You can sign up to receive emails by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
May 22, 2014 at 9:46 am
Please think of me if you have any Praying Hands Hosta “runts” that need TLC.
I’m sending energy to you for the 2 busloads!
Love, Bonnie
On Thu, May 22, 2014 at 8:35 AM, CAROLYN’S SHADE GARDENS wrote:
> Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens posted: “Nursery News: Carolyn’s > Shade Gardens’ Memorial Weekend open hours are scheduled for Friday, May > 24, and Saturday, May 25, from 10 am to 2 pm. To get all the details, > please sign up for our customer email list by sending your full name and > phone number”
May 22, 2014 at 9:50 am
Bonnie, Thanks for the good wishes. Sorry no runts, and I am almost sold out of Praying Hands. Carolyn
May 22, 2014 at 10:59 am
Where are you located?
I’m at i95 delaware Pennsylvania line.
When are you open….do we need an appointment?
CINDY BARKO
May 22, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Cindy, I am located in Bryn Mawr, PA. Directions are here: https://carolynsshadegardens.com/directions/. You do need an appointment unless you come to one of my events which you can find out about by signing up for my customer email list. To do that, email your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. I am open 5/23 & 24 from 10 am to 2 pm without an appointment. Carolyn
May 22, 2014 at 11:36 am
They are all so adorable, I would have to find somewhere special so that they aren’t over run by bigger ones!
May 22, 2014 at 4:52 pm
Pauline, Some of the spreaders like Kiwi Golden Thimble actually make great groundcover in front of bigger hostas or other plants. Minis are also great in containers, window boxes, and rock gardens. Carolyn
May 22, 2014 at 5:09 pm
Oh so cute! I love the look of Cherish with those rounded leaves. I don’t know if I’ll be growing many hostas in my new garden, as I don’t have a section fenced off from the rabbit and deer (other than the upcoming veggie garden), but I will look at pictures and drool..
May 22, 2014 at 5:42 pm
Indie, Hostas are the number one item on the buffet for deer. However, if you have deer and want hostas, the great thing about minis is that they can grow for years in a container and a lot will fit because they are so small. Carolyn
May 22, 2014 at 11:33 pm
I love those mini-Hostas. I keep thinking maybe I’ll plant some in pots or in the knot of a tree like you did. But I blew my budget on plants today. 😉 Maybe in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the inspiration!
May 23, 2014 at 6:10 am
Beth, Now I am curious as to what you bought with your budget. Carolyn
May 25, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Finally, finally I got here! I love that little hosta in the knot of the tree. It looks so precious and right at home. Just seeing your garden, I was really amazed at all the hosta you have growing. They love your garden for sure.
May 26, 2014 at 7:32 am
Donna, As you know, hostas are very easy to grow and thrive anywhere except full sun, dark, dark shade, and very dry sites. They are especially beautiful this year because of all the rain so far this spring. Carolyn
May 26, 2014 at 7:01 pm
These little hostas are adorable. I love the idea of planting one in a tree knot hole, definitely something I will do!
May 26, 2014 at 9:00 pm
Deb, If you do it, I would recommend that you use as large a hole as possible because my poor little hosta dries out all the time in its small hole. Carolyn
May 26, 2014 at 8:58 pm
Oh, they are so lovely, and I was meant to have some of these miniatures in my new white flowerbed, but I haven’t got around to buy any yet. I used to have ‘Stiletto’, I had 8 of them spread around the bottom of my garden, but they vanished one by one, just didn’t come up in the spring and after 5 years or so there were none left. Not sure if it was too wet or too dry, the winters vary a lot here. Could perhaps have been too shady? Definitely not too sunny, they were all in deep shade 🙂 I’d like to have another go at growing mini hostas, the white bed is also in deep shade apart from a few hours a day mid-summer.
Thanks for all the info, very useful as always.
May 27, 2014 at 6:39 am
Helene, The mini hostas are a lot of fun and would be great for your garden where you are trying to fit a lot in. Hostas do not like to be dry and they do not grow well in dark shade although they do fine in dappled shade. Carolyn
June 1, 2014 at 2:03 pm
I look forward to these posts to find new ways to display these beauties…mine have all returned again in their containers.
June 1, 2014 at 5:08 pm
Donna, I am so happy that your minis are thriving. They are a very satisfying group—-easy to grow, so adorable, and a lot of variety. Carolyn