Hosta Red October

 Hosta Red October is a nice medium sized Hosta plant.  This variety grows to 16 inches tall by 30 inches wide.  It has a good upright form which is important since it is a red stemmed Hosta.  The upright form of this plant is an important aspect and shows off its red leaf stems.

The leaf color of Red October is a medium green and the leaves are slightly shiny.  The leaves are kind of lance shaped and are 6 inches long by 3 inches wide.

This makes a good companion for Hosta June (Amazon picture of June off to the side and above) which is a green and yellow variegated plant that has streaks and spots.

As far as Hostas go this is a fairly boring green Hosta plant until you start digging a little deeper and asking questions such as “Do Hostas come in red?” which I’ll answer in a bit.

The answer to this question is… kind of. You will not (yet) find a red Hosta if by that you mean red leaves. The bloom stalks, seed pods, and leaf stems of Hosta plants do come in red or purple depending on your point of view.

Red October has such a feature. The lavender flowers that it has come on tall 24 inch red stalks which as the flowers disappear and the seed pods take over are also red. It is simply another unique and interesting Hosta habit which breeders are starting to try to breed into more of the plants. Hosta Red October has sterile seeds and cannot be used for crossing that way.

The more technical minded folks might want me to say that it is a Hosta with red stalks and scapes but being a more common person I can’t use the word scapes with a straight face.

You can call them red or purple stemmed Hostas but either way they are the same thing. There are a number of red stemmed Hosta plants available such as Hosta Little Red Rooster or Hosta One Mans Treasure. There are even more but those are the only 2 that Amazon sells.

I guess Red October could be called a green and red Hosta plant.  It IS kind of Christmassy but Hostas are normally pretty dead by Christmas in the Mid-West so you couldn’t really use them for decorating.

Red October Hosta is a beautiful medium sized solid Hosta plant that would be at home in most shade gardens.  Just give it some slug protection, a little fertilizer, and plenty of water and it will make a nice clump for you.

It is one of the best red stemmed Hostas out there.  More are coming every year but for the moment this one is doing pretty well for most people.