Captain Kirk has broad, heavy leaves with bright gold centers and wide, dark green margins. It is an improved form of the classic Gold Standard, with much wider margins and thicker leaves.
The clump grows about 20 inches tall and 3 feet wide. Pale lavender flowers rise on 30-inch stems in midsummer. It holds a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit and makes a bright specimen or mass planting in shade.
What it looks like
A mounded clump about 20 inches tall and 36 inches wide of broad, heart-shaped leaves with heavy substance. Each leaf has a bright gold center framed by a wide, dark green margin. In midsummer, stems about 30 inches tall carry pale lavender bell flowers above the foliage. At peak the plant is a glowing gold-and-green mound with lavender spires above.
Growing it with lavender
It needs richer, moister soil and more shade than lavender, so give it a spot on the north side of the house or under a tree canopy with other shade plants.
Care
Grows best in part to full shade. Give it evenly moist, humus-rich soil that drains well, and water during dry spells; hardy in zones 3-9. Cut the foliage down after hard frost, and divide crowded clumps in spring as new shoots appear. Watch for slugs in damp springs.
At a glance
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Botanical name: Hosta
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Flower color: Pale lavender
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Foliage: Bright gold center with wide dark green margin
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Growth habit: Mounded clump
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Mature size: 20 in tall × 36 in wide
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USDA hardiness zones: 3–9
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Light: part sun to part shade, full shade
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Bloom start: Early-July
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Peak bloom: Mid-July
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Bloom pattern: Single Flush
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Deer resistance: Susceptible
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Pollinator value: Good
Sizes and shipping
Dormant bare-root plant, sold in boxes of 25 per variety (order in multiples of 25). Bare-root plants ship or are picked up March 1–May 31 only. They are soil-free, so they may ship to every state in that window. Dormant plants often show little or no top growth on arrival; plant or heel them in promptly.