Give it some Alfalfa.

do you use the pellets or a tea?

My plants are seriously lacking nutrients due to sandy soil.
I try to give compost and other "goodies" to help them grow.

Terese, I use the pellets. Just toss them on top of the ground, it breaks down quickly. You can also mix some in the hole when you plant them, I do the same with daylilies, they both love it!

Thanks..I may look into that.

I have 3 EW's and all are doing great and they will be three years old this year-- I dont feed them anything but I am goign to start... alfalfa seems easy. I love that layered look too!!

TCS look online for Wild & Sons. They were selling them for 6.95

Thanks Sylvia.

And i'd been thinking of you lately... I got a Wheaton Blue from you yrs back... It certainly "leaped" this year. IT is enormous.... bigger than my Sagae.

It was always insignificant, and a very late riser.... noticed it when I got home early June.

Try Venero Gardens - www.venerogardens.com - excellent hosta source. They are near me and absolutely worth a visit if you are ever in Minnesota. A couple owns the place and it is their home, so you need to make an appointment. The yard and gardens cover an acre and they are unbelievable beautiful. They sell very good quality hosta and other plants for very reasonable prices.

I have an Empress Wu that I planted last summer. The leaves are enormous already. Unfortunately got some hail damage early this year, but it just started blooming. The stalks are almost shoulder high, and I'm 5/8" tall.

They have a nice selection. I just gave away an 'Embroidery' because I didn't like the looks of it as the season went on...$50.00? I hope my friend likes it!

Rose

Rose......I don't think Embroidery is very stable. A friend grows it and it changed quickly over a couple of years to just a big green plain Hosta. I would love to see a large mature plant of it. Will check the Hosta Library.

Paul,

Mine looked really puckered when it came up, but quickly changed to just a boring green clump. I had it for several years and just got tired of it. It was a short, ugly mound of no interest.

This plant is HUGE. I Knew it got large, but it is bigger than some of my Hydrangeas. Lol.

Terese the last I saw my little Empress Wu it had grown about six inches. I just hope it makes it thru the Summer. Now I am moving, i hope I find a place with more shade.

I have one, hopefully it comes back with this cold winter we are having! Anyway its readily available everywhere.

I am having quite a battle with my hostas up in Wisconsin. My soil is sandy crap, and I am finding many of my plants are getting smaller - and after 7 years, I'm starting to lose some. So far, Empress Wu is holding her own - we shall see what shape she is in this May when I get back up there. I have started a flower bed across the street from my property which has better soil, I am considering moving many of my favorites over there.

Terese,

I live in sand too, so I know the fun you're having trying to get big, beautiful plants! I do use a lot of potting soil when I plant them and pine mulch to hold the moisture. I still have to water a lot, even with the mulch. I see retirement in my near future, so I'm looking forward to some quality time in my flower beds!

Rose

Terese, add a lot of compost to your soil and that should help alot. Just dig up one plant at a time and mix it into the hole and replant. You don't have to do it all at once as a big project. This will help it so much.

thanks Frilly -- I did start that about 2 yrs ago with some of the plants.... Last year for some reason - I do not recall spending much time on my flower beds. It was a really busy summer and it just slipped away. We lost some big trees in a storm, so I have a lot more sun this coming season... should be interesting. I'm actually going to try tomatoes.

Hi there tcs1366,

I, too, grow Empress Wu and 35 other cultivars of hosta... even further north in Manitoba (zone 2b-3a). It grows slowly here but by year 3 she was starting to show nicely. As for the alfalfa, I have a large plastic green garbage can that I use when making the "tea" for my green "kids". I found that when I used just the pellets in my garden I was attracting rabbits and deer. Now I use the garbage can and ferment the tea with some iron, fish emulsion, and epsom salts... it stinks a bit but the rabbits and deer do not like the smell of the fish emulsion (mind you, beagles and cats seem to like it).

Here is the recipe I use:

16 cups of alfalfa pellets (2 coffee cans worth) in a 55 gallon can filled with water (allowing about 8 inches for the pellets to expand). After 2 days in the heat, add 1 cup of fish emulsion, 1 cup of Epsom salt, and 1/4 cup of chelated iron powder. Mix and then add to base of plants. I do this in early spring and at the beginning of July. The beautiful thing about this "tea" is that it does not burn my irises or other plants even in the scorching Prairie summer heat waves.

Best of luck,
Sarah from Manitoba