no it wont affect the leaves, just dead head the flower spike when finished. I actually like the flowers though some prefer to remove them so they just have the foliage.

Thanks Seaburngirl, I've always left them in the past but the slugs have ravaged the leaves so I neglected it a bit. I might take the flowers out and see how it goes.

well it wont hurt it and I suppose all its energy will go to either a new flower or leaf.

At the end of the season I remove the dead leaves and leave the finished flower spikes so as to mark their location -(my hosta are in ground and not in pots)-for next season to avoid that area should I want to dig in a new planting. I leave the whole plant alone and I like to watch the bumble bees pollinate the flower spikes. You will find that each growing season the hosta will grow larger and add more leaves on its own.

Thank you all, I've had this Hosta for a few years but the slugs always get to it. This year I found some fine grit and moved the pot so that when the leaves did grow they couldn't be reached by slugs from other leaves near to it and it's worked perfectly. I've removed the flower buds and it does seem to be getting bigger by the minute so I'm thrilled.