Everybody likes to know the Top Ten of this or that in all walks of life and hosta gardening is no exception. The American Hosta Society has been polling its membership periodically to assess the relative popularity of hosta cultivars.

This started sporadically as far back as 1975 and has been a yearly activity of the AHS since 1992. Society members were asked to fill out a form naming their top hostas. Each ranking was rated and tabulated by someone in the AHS. For the past decade or two, that person was the late Dr. Bob Olson, a past President of The American Hosta Society. The results are published in an edition of The Hosta Journal.

As the popularity of smaller hostas began to climb, it became apparent that a separate poll was needed for small and miniature hostas. So, in 2003, a separate poll was started in order to identify the top five to ten "small" hostas for that year.

We have compiled Hosta Popularity Poll listings from the AHS website and from our old copies of The Hosta Journal. If you happen to be aware of any polls that we have missed, please let us know.

According to the polls we have accumulated, 118 different hostas have been named at least once as being in the top 20 or 25 hostas in a particular year. There have been well over 600 placements so that means that many hostas have been listed multiple times over the years. For instance H. montana 'Aureomarginata' has been listed in 28 polls while H. 'Sagae' and H. 'Sum and Substance' have each appeared for 27 years of the 29 years for which we have poll data.

For more on the individual hostas and their placements on the polls...click here.

Small Hosta Poll - Beginning in 2003, a second poll has been taken which includes only "small" hostas. For a summary of results...click here.

Popular Hostas in Russia - We came across a small poll taken in Russia.