Hostas starting to go over
Hello everyone, As the Hostas are starting to slowly die back now I was wondering...rather than take them out of their pots. could I just put some heathers on top of them over the top of the hostas? I assume I have to wait for them to completely die down - do they take their nutrition from the leaves dying back? or can I snip them back soon? 
am hoping to just get some small £1.99 heathers and pop 5 or 6 six straight in on top?
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I don't know how you would do that. The heathers would have to be tiny. The emerging'buds' of hostas are right at the top, so the only way to do that would be if you had a very big pot, and put a few round the edges, but the heathers would then be in the way of the emerging hostas in spring.
You'd be better potting the hostas up in plastic pots to put inside your nice pots. That way, you can remove them in autumn, and replace with other pots which have something else in them. Easy swap then.
oops!
I was thinking that once they had died down and were dormant...I have a 3-4 inch gap from soil to top of the pot so was going to take each heather out of plastic pot as they are not deep and simply place them on top without digging in (just for winter colour and to avoid a pot with 'nothing in' as such. I will follow your advice tho thanks Fairy and Verdun.
If you don't have another pot, you can pick up terracota ones quite cheaply almost anywhere. You could then pop your heathers into that for a winter display, and just tuck your hostas out the way for winter. It's all a learning curve, copperdog, so always worth asking the question.
A selection of pots for different times of year is always useful. I have some which I just move in and out of certain areas, depending on time of year and the effect I want
Hostas versus Heathers???? No contest.
Even as a proud Scot, I flippin' hate heathers.
Give your lovely hostas the TLC they deserve and let them have a nice restful winter.
I like heather on the hills Hosta - good to walk on when the grouse etc have nibbled it down - nice and springy!
I'm not keen on them in the garden either
they're horrid little blobby things which most folk don't prune properly and they end up all woody and even more horrid.
I think that's what copperdog was intending Lantana. Trouble is - they'll end up rooting into the hostas, and that's best case scenario. There's also a good chance the hostas will rot with the heathers beinon top of them . Better in a display on their own
You ain't convincing me either Verd....