ViolaAnn said:Oh yes, mulch. Go ahead and mulch. It will hold moisture in and keep your lovely hosta leaves from getting muddy if it ever rains, but don't put the mulch right up to the base of the hosta. It can also harbour slugs and in places where crown rot is a problem, could encourage it. But use it between plants for sure and up to a couple of inches from the crown. If you've got a source of pine needles, they work well. Otherwise, my favourite mulch is composted pine bark. The owner of my local hosta nursery uses that horrible dyed-red cedar mulch and he's got a WONDERFUL private garden, but I wish he'd use a different colour.

I have pine needles by the shovel full. They help acidify soil so I can put those on. I don't think slugs like pine needles. Too pokey.

I have no doubt I'll be gardening and landscaping at 70. 😉😉

Betsy, my oldest is near Salt Lake. She has a sprinkler system but no shade. I would love to send her hosta, but I am leaning more to some older daylilies and TB iris to try. Utah would be a challenge for me. Good luck!

The crown is the hard mass just below the surface that the eyes grow out of. You'll only see it when dividing or in early Spring if soil is brushed away.

See where the brown in middle and where eyes touch the dirt level. The eyes are growing out of the crown



Again crown is just below where you see a bit of soil. Eye(which becomes the stem), then crown, then roots)

Pandora said:The crown is the hard mass just below the surface that the eyes grow out of. You'll only see it when dividing or in early Spring if soil is brushed away.

See where the brown in middle and where eyes touch the dirt level. The eyes are growing out of the crown



Again crown is just below where you see a bit of soil. Eye(which becomes the stem), then crown, then roots)

Thank you! That helped. I was afraid to move any dirt to look at the crown because it says the Hosta grows better if the crown is undisturbed. Professora sent me a picture of an eye she trimmed and washed but I couldn't quite put it together as a whole.

If I cut the bad foilage of the crowns I got in the mail will it grow leaves from the same eye next year or does it have to grow another eye?

And how will I know if the roots are alive?

bluegrassmom said:Betsy, my oldest is near Salt Lake. She has a sprinkler system but no shade. I would love to send her hosta, but I am leaning more to some older daylilies and TB iris to try. Utah would be a challenge for me. Good luck!

Your daughter lives 10 minutes from Crestwood Growers wholesale tree lot. She can get a fast growing shade tree for about $15. (A silver maple or Swedish Aspen?) In Utah if you live on a valley floor the first thing you want to plant is a nice shade tree on the west side of the yard. I live in a canyon with a stream and natural water springs so it will be a little easier for me at this point.

5 hours of Utah sunlight is equivant to 10 hours of sunlight in Oregon or Canada. It's very harsh. She also has the alkaline soil. Iris will do great here. Iris does better here than in the cooler wetter regions.

If you leave a few inches on the stems of the hostas from NH, it should not need a new eye. A few inches of stems may show you the roots are stable, otherwise just trust Mother Nature to surprise you.

Your previous situation (not the NH hostas ). When trying to get rid of a couple green leaves on variegated plant you don't want to leave any stem. Get right down to crown and hopefully the next stem will have a leaf that will be variegated like the rest of the plant.

****Edited to clarify 2 different scenarios.

Pandora said:It should grow a new eye, thus maybe not a green one this time.

What color will it be if it's not green?

Edited my previous post to clarify.

Lol. Oh for heavens sake my minuteman scapes are growing leaves on them.....
😄

It's cute!

A lot of hostas have leafy scapes. And it can be an important point in making an ID of a plant.

Does the same eye grow leaves every year?

Wednsday I called the Garden manager at Lowe's to see if I could special order...He told me not this year but that I could do it in the spring and if that variety was available he would bring it in for me. He told me that he had another shipment arriving Thursday. He had no clue what was in the shipment but told me to come by and see.The entire shipment was quart pots of "Great Expectations" marked at $4.99 (plus tax)
I purchased 3. The cool thing is that I checked the pots and each pot had 3 or 4 divisions in them so I carefully chose those pots with 4 divisions. The instructions say this Hosta is slow growing and finicky as to location so I planted them near "Loyalist" my other super finicky about it's location Hosta.

'Great Expectations' generally likes quite a bit more sun than many others do.

ViolaAnn said:'Great Expectations' generally likes quite a bit more sun than many others do.

How much more?
Would it be classified as a sun tolerant Hosta?

See if you can find a post by Paul - he lives in Utah and LOVES GE. He had some health problems and hasn't posted much this summer, but you may be able to PM him.

Thank you. I have searched his comments and I only find that he loves them and has great pictures. I sent him a message so hopefully he will respond soon.

In the meantime I replanted them on the east side where they get 2 hours direct sunlight then sprinkled sunlight until 1pm and shade throughout the afternoon. Paul's pics showed them planted next to a house so I copied that.

I found out it pays to be a chatterbox. I have stopped to visit with Lowe's garden center manager each morning I went in. He told me that they like to give discounts to people who buy large quantities. He told me that because I had been buying so many Hosta from him that he would give me 40% off anything I purchased from here on out. Also he told me to come back for end of season clearance because he sells stock and even trees at $2 to clear the lot for winter.

He says if I come back he will give me whatever Hosta are left for $1 each no matter the size of the pot and to see what else I might like that he can make me a good deal on.

I suppose for $1 it wouldn't hurt to try getting whatever is left to establish for winter. Don't know if it would be too late.

I think he just made a friend out of me and he likes that I have been posting pictures of his stock on Garden.org.

I CANT BELIEVE HOW EXCITED I AM ABOUT MY HOSTA GARDENS. ❤️❤️❤️🌺🌺
I just can't wait to see what everything looks like in 3 years.

Good grief, I wish I could find those kinds of deals!

bluegrassmom said:Good grief, I wish I could find those kinds of deals!

In all my endeavors... even in the garden. I ask the Lord to help me. Then I work hard. I make mistakes... but the Lord always prepares the way and brings me to those folks he knows can keep me on course.

That's part of how I found garden.org. 😊

There are good folks here. I'm thankful for a sight like this one. It is immensely helpful.