Why do hostas have to flower?

I love hostas. At least the greyish thick leaved type, which with a little help from slug pellets (organic, of course) stay looking great all summer, then die in glorious colour.

Though, kept carefully away from the slug slaughter in a pot, there’s one (name unknown, sorry) which cheers up spring like this:

Glorious!

My favourite might be Krossa Regal:

But see that droopy thing up at the top? That is the remains of a useless flower.

I love hostas enough to have made a short walk of them, and I’ve added Nectaroscordum siculum to them, because that has manky leaves by the time it flowers, which the hostas kindly hide.

So the Hosta Walk looks like this:

This is a photo by a professional, Charles Hawes, unlike the rest which are by me...

Those are the kind of flowers hostas ought to have. But the hostas I have all have dumpy little nothing flowers after the Nectaroscordum, which are then a real pain to get rid of. They look like this:

Strange what photos and different light does to colour!

It helps to have one of my favourite tools when it comes to getting rid of these miserable monstrosities -

This version of the wonder tool has no blade. You cannot buy one like this. My amazing husband, Charles Hawes, adapted it like this for me to make it into a wonderful weeder. No bending, and pulls many weeds clean out. Huzzah!

Disclosure: I will not make a single penny if you buy one of these. It claims to be for pruning but it chops and holds horrible hosta flowers so you can cut them off without bending down. How about that!? And it has so many other useful uses that I cannot currently find mine. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002W6YYXY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Of course the other downside of hostas is them slugs.

If you wonder what to do about slugs, and indeed other garden pests, including small children, you need a copy of ‘Outwitting Squirrels’.

Which has sold so well that you probably don’t need to buy it, because your best friend can probably lend you their copy.

Perhaps the glory of unslugged hostas, with flowers carefully removed, is their colourful decay.

Grow old colourfully!