Kabitan Hosta – A Small Shade Perennial

Kabitan Hosta is probably not written about very often. It has been around for some time, and maybe gets overlooked with all the new Hostas on the market now.
It is a small Hosta, maybe 8 to 10 inches tall. Kabitan has a thinner texture to the leaves and so makes it a wonderful salad for slugs.

The Kabitan Hosta is a bright chartreuse color, with a dark green border and brightens everything up in the whole bed. (The color fades somewhat with the summer, but always remains the brighter spot in the bed.)

Kabitan are stoloniferous so the clumps are enlarged on a regular basis. (They spread with underground runners rather than just the clump enlarging as most Hostas do).

Kabitan Hosta as a Border

This whole bed along the East side of the house used to be bordered with a long straight row of Kabitan, but as the other Hostas and perennials grew in size, a few years ago, I moved some of the Kabitan out, and made the bed wider and, this spring, it is a rewarding scene to say the least!

I love the unruly lines as they come down the slope. Certainly nothing in nature is perfect, so I thought why not work on wavy borders? (I am not that great at straight lines anyway.)

This bed is on the East side of our house and there are two large pines shading it, but it is on a slope with heavy clay soil and it gets the West Sun around the 12-2 o’clock time. I think maybe all the rain we had in May this year has helped them along this year, as well as the heavy snow cover last winter.

The other varieties I have in this area are Krossa Regal, which is not as blue looking as it is usually, when it is in more sun like this setting, and some years, even has a mottled appearance because of more sun in the afternoon than it needs.

Abiqua Drinking Gourd seems to be able to take some of the hot early afternoon sun okay too. I don’t have a problem with that one burning.

The gold Hyden Sunset is another bright spot in the bed. Very much a trooper like August Moon and can handle more sun. It has a heavier substanced leaf than August Moon.

Kabitan is often overlooked and is a bright chartreuse colored Hosta that is just what a shady spot needs.