Linnea: It's informally known as "The Baggie Thing" LOL passed on by a PSDA member and it works for her- working for me too, and Grannymarsh. Put a couple handsful of potting soil into a ziplock type baggie for smaller tubers, gallon size for larger/longer tubers. Add 1-2 tbsp of water (she used warm water, I do not) and moosh it up to moisten the soil. If it's too wet, I add more dry soil. Plop in your questionable tuber, leave the tops of bags open and place in bright light. I bet heat underneath would get things going even faster. I've got mine in south window sills/tables and eyes are popping in days, if they're going to show up at all. Just be careful the bag tops don't get shut or folded over too tightly or too much moisture might encourage rot. You don't even have to plant the tuber, just drop it in or tuck in slightly if your tuber is drying out. Give "the Baggie Thing" a try and see what you get.

Michelle, the following will be added to the Rhizomatous List, and in essence it is what was said by George Schmid as quoted in the link to the previous posting you provided: The Hosta Dictionary posted by the American Hosta Society describes rhizomatous hostas as those which have long-reaching, underground horizontal stems and a loosely spreading habit. When asked which hostas are rhizomatous, W. George Schmid provided the following information: "The short answer is that all hostas are rhizomatous plants." "A rhizome is a horizontal stem of a plant found underground, sending out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes may also be referred to as creeping rootstalks. If a rhizome is composed of several rhizomatous, interconnected creeping roots, each piece may be able to give rise to new plants. This is a process known as vegetative reproduction and is used by gardeners to propagate hostas because the resulting plants are clones of the original plant. This process is called root (or rhizome) division. When digging different cultivars, the rhizome is often one contiguous mass, but it may also be a mass of smaller interconnected tubular rhizomes that look like a mass of stolons, but these are not stolons in the strict sense. " "A stolon is similar to a rhizome, but, unlike a rhizome which is the main stem of the plant, a stolon is a branch that sprouts from an existing stem, has long internodes, and generates new shoots at the end. In general, rhizomes have short internodes; they send out roots from the bottom of the nodes and new upward-growing shoots from the top of the nodes. It is also a method of reproduction for plants." "Stolons, on the other hand, are branches of the plant which grow at the soil surface or below ground and can form new plants at the ends or at the nodes. Stolons are often called runners. Imprecisely, they are stems that run atop or just under the ground; more specifically, a stolon is a horizontal shoot from a plant that grows on top of or below the soil surface with the ability to produce new clones of the same plant from buds at the tip." "Some hostas have differently shaped rhizomes depending on which parent species is involved. In the case of 'Golden Tiara', H. nakaiana was the parent. This species has a rhizome that has a fast growth rate and quickly makes spreading interconnected runners, forming one rhizome. This is still called a rhizome, but one that is sending out smaller, usually elongated parts of stem roots and shoots. H. sieboldii is another example, which has a non-contiguous looking, spreading rhizome connected together. Looking like stolons, they are not, but are elongated rhizomes that produce plants from the nodes. Such spreading rhizomes seen in hostas often have a fast growth rate." "Rhizomes often grow into very large contiguous masses and the center part of such rhizomes dies, while the still living parts of the rhizome form a ring-shaped plant. Gardeners often replace the dead center part with a living rhizome to maintain the huge plant as a single clump. Eventually the ring-shaped rhizome breaks up and forms a ring on non-connected plants, all with their own rhizome." While all hosta are rhizomatous in the technical sense, this feature is more obvious in some species and cultivars that have proportionately long underground runners which extend for a considerable distance from one shoot to the next. At a glance, these plants are distinguishable from other clump-forming hostas in that they display a rather open, spreading habit. BTW, 'Abby' does NOT make this list. Pieter

Yes Sissy, it is too late, as I very carelessly dumped a bunch of roots in two different holes a couple of weeks ago, due to lack of time and energy. I think they may even be in 'layers' to a degree...and prolly not a very good thing...but just wanted to give them at least a chance of surviving. I just looked up adventitious buds that Al referred to above, and here is something I found. A remaining type of bud, ADVENTI-TIOUS (ad-ven-TISH-us), forms at any other location. Adventitious buds may form on the inter node of the stem, at the edge of a leaf or at the cut on a stem or root. Hopefully I will see some life come spring. If interested, please email me sometime in early March, and if there is life apparent, I may be able to trade or send for sase...but it will just depend upon time, energy, and life getting in the way of gardening...but I would love to share them if all goes well. Sue

While skimming through everybody else's answers, I saw several genes that I don't have ... but most of them, I don't miss. I can't sing on tune, but love to sing ... so I do it anyway. I can't visualize how to "pull a room together" decorating-wise, so I paint and buy curtains and that's about it. And the physical gene? Nahhhhhh ... doing physical stuff makes you hot and sweaty and I'd just as soon bypass that. The gene that I don't have, and really wish I did, is the nurturing gene. I tend to just be oblivious to the needs of loved ones & friends. I'll do just about anything for someone, but ya gotta TELL ME you want it done. Otherwise I just don't realize that you need it.