Squash casserole isn’t just for your Thanksgiving table—it’s for your garden too. Hosta «Squash Casserole» is a large hosta with dramatic golden foliage. The leaves, which are wavy and rippled along the edges with prominent veins throughout, emerge with a bright chartreuse green hue and then turn golden yellow as they age.
According to the Chicago Botanic Garden, «Hostas are shade tolerant, easy to grow, and long-lived.» This hosta produces lavender-colored, tubular flowers on long stalks, but the showiest part of the plant is the foliage. It grows in a low, wide mound—to about 15 inches in height. In terms of spread, it is one of the larger hostas of its kind, and the mound of foliage can reach widths of three to four feet. «Squash Casserole» grows best in partial shade to full sunlight, and it likes a damp environment. Its lavender flowers appear as small blooms on tall stalks during the early to mid-summer.
The Chicago Botanic Garden explains, «Hosta cultivars range in size from several inches to several feet; it may take 3-8 years for hostas to reach their full size. They all prefer moist, loamy soil enriched with organic matter. Some leaf damage by slugs is to be expected. Deer find hosta delicious.» It’s a perennial that can be used in a bedding or as a border planting. It’s also great when grown in mass plantings and can work as leafy groundcover too.
You can learn more about hostas in The Grumpy Gardener’s Guide to Hostas. You can find your own «Squash Casserole» hostas online or at garden stores near you.
What’s your favorite type of hosta? Do you have any growing in your yard this season?
Sources
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- Chicago Botanic Garden. Hosta “squash casserole”.