Hostas are edible. The deer, rabbits, and slugs that make frequent visits to gardens even know this. That’s why many hosta growers add a little spice to their gardens with products like Liquid Fence, or other homemade concoctions containing various type of hot sauce to give them a little different flavor. But hostas can be eaten by us humans as well. If fact, if you search for ‘hosta recipe’ on the internet you will find many different recipes. One site even tells you when to harvest the leaves – they taste best young, just as the leaves are emerging. No wonder you see so much varmint damage in the spring if you don’t take step to protect the plants. On top of that, they have been eating bark and twigs all winter – those emerging hostas are just irresistible!

So, what is the best tasting hosta? Deer, rabbits, and slugs seem to have their favorites, so you may want to try those that are nearly all eaten first. Unfortunately the Hosta Treasury isn’t any help in this area – no descriptions yet for flavor. And the hosta hybridizers, if anything, are trying to make them more varmint resistant. Seriously, what gardener could take a hosta like ‘Smash Hit’ and harvest the leaves? Maybe if the leaves come from a few divisions planted in the vegetable garden. Hmm.

Thirty-eight NWHS members were treated to a wonderful luncheon on March 1st at Cowboy Jacks before our 2026 Planning Meeting. What a great turnout and productive meeting to establish this year’s upcoming events! We elected Tami Gillis as Vice President and look forward the additional ideas and activities she is planning. We talked extensively about our annual plant sale – we need lots of member plant donations! We were given the opportunity to purchase at club prices some of the newer varieties of hostas that John ordered. Any hostas not purchased will be sold at the plant sale.

There were many ideas and dates tossed around for this year’s bus trip. John will try to set up a trip to the Minnesota Hosta Society plant sale and Savory’s Gardens on June 6th. We also set up three member gardens to tour and determined the date for the annual auction. More information on these events can be found on this site’s calendar. Finally, as at all our events, we enjoyed the conversations and comradery that hostas, the “Friendship Plant,” brings.