The History of Hostas

Hostas are natives of the East and of Japan in particular, and when they were first discovered by Westerners, their correct place in the plant kingdom was not at all clear. Englebert Kaempfer (1651-1715), a doctor and botanist with the Dutch East India Company, was the first Westerner ever to see a hosta and certainly the first to draw and describe one.

The generic name Hosta was first proposed by the Austrian botanist Leopold Trattinick (1761-1848) in 1812. It honors an Austrian, Nicholas Thomas Host (1761-1834), who was not only a botanist,  but a physician to the Emperor Frances II.

The main influx of hostas to the West started in the early-1800's by Philipp von Siebold (1791-1866), another of the several doctor and botanists who worked in Japan.  His first shipment of Japanese hostas reached Europe in 1829. He was subsequently followed by other famous plant collectors such as Robert Fortune (1813 -1880) and the American Thomas Hogg Jr (1819 -1892).
The practice of introducing hostas from their native countries to the West still continues to this day.