Quick Hosta question

[Bluntness100]

Hi there

Does anyone know what's happening with my Hosta please? It seems to have either a mini Hosta or a flower growing in the middle of it. I've a few of them dotted about but never seen any do this before.

There are actually two of these growths, the second is buried beneath the leaves, I can't work out of it's a flower or it's in some way growing a mini Hosta!

It’s the flower spike. Will grow about another 15 VM’s and produce a purple flower.

Its about to flower. I see your slugs are also well fed!!

Oh thank you! I kept looking at it and couldn't work it out and google didn't help.

Yes, significant slug problem sigh. Nothing keeps rhe buggers off.

Hosta's are like steak for slugs. They've had an all night buffet on mine!

One of my hostas right now.

Also a slug buffet...

Once it's finished flowering and the blooms fade, you can cut the flowers off.

That's a nice Hosta.. I love them. Ok, I will do. Is it better to cut the flowers off?

I can't keep slugs off of mine. I've got to the stage I don't think there is any point trying.😔

Nemaslug is great against slugs, and not toxic to anything that might eat the infected slugs, so better than slug pellets.

Oh I've not heard of that. I will have a look for it. I've four hostas and the slugs are a pain. Thank you 😁

Have a look on iPlayer for last weeks Gardeners world - towards the end, Monty Don was showing off his hostas and talking about how to keep slugs away.

If I remember rightly, garlic spray was part of it!

Well I have got toads...don't ask. One keeps trying to live in my garden shoes. Have now learned to check before I put my foot in... 🤣

Will do on gardeners world, husband usually watches that, think he missed last weeks,

My garden is organic and I've given up with stopping the slugs from snacking on the hosta. Ditto, the fight against ground elder. It'd take napalm. I keep it to a minimum which is the best I can do.

Yes to chopping off the flowers once they're past their best.

I second garlic spray! No holes in my hostas. Recommended by sue proctor who produces thousands of hostas each year

An easy way to make garlic spray is to buy the garlic paste and squirt loads in a jug, mix with just boiled water, cool and stick in a sprayer. I have my hostas in pots, and have pretty stones around the top to deter the slugs.

Had to cut mine right back last year as the puppy took a fancy to it. Garlic spray might keep him off too. So far this year he’s ignored it thankfully.

Will give the garlic spray a go. A couple of the stems on mine have snapped, do I cut them off?

Interestingly my husband came home and said "I think garlic keeps them off" eh so why were you going on about slug pellets then?

Going to try it see if it helps.

We have wild garlic in the garden, it's a total pain, as it spreads like wildfire, but rhe Hosta near that doesn't get touched by slugs, so I suspect there is truth in it.

@showofhands one of the geraniums, macrorhiza I think, gives off a chemical that is toxic to ground elder.

Thank you @ohyesiam I'll look into it. I sift the soil as much as possible but the elder is under my choisya and comes through from the neighbour who likes the bloody stuff. Ditto bindweed which they allow to grow everywhere.

Because of snails and slugs I grow all my hostas in pots now. They still get a certain amount of shredding, but this year I have placed the two biggest ones higher up by standing their pots on top of another upside down pot, so that the base of the hosta pot is about a foot off the ground. Success! The snails don't seem to have found them and they have remained pristine.Perhaps they can't smell them? I don't know how they find them, but they certainly home in on them and I don't know how they know, other than by smell (even though they don't to us of course).
Because they are potted I have to split them every few years, so lots of plants for free or to give away.