Your expectations of how a hosta should perform in your garden are pretty high, and what may be substandard to you might be normal to someone who is not a collector. I would not feel guilty about culling the ones I didn't care for any more, and giving them to someone who would just like to add a few plants to their garden and is not as fussy as you. I know lots of people like that who, (lets face it, there are people who are NOT gardeners) would love a pretty hosta or two even if it is not the best representation of its species.

I gave away a mature clump of Love Pat after pulling a small start off of it. I know that most people like it but I hated that it was a dirt collector. Then someone gives me an ADG that I have to keep since it was a gift. One hosta that I find completely hideous is Carnival with its' bad drawstring effect. I dug that one out and it has been sitting around in a pot awaiting my decision on what to do with it. I don't want to give away an ugly hosta. Maybe I will get lucky and it will just keel over and die in the pot then I won't have to put it out of its' misery.

I do have to start culling all of the hosta seedlings that have been sprouting up all over in the yard. In time it will get easier as it has with ripping out the ferns like weeds. It gets to the point when you have to let go or you end up with 50+ pots of unwanted extra hosta sitting around. The neighbors can only take so many off of your hands.

I have no growth problems with Great Expectations. If one hosta is not performing well in your garden, it might perform well in someone else's garden. That other person might just have the right sun exposure and soil for it.
In respect of culling, in 2009 I culled a lot of mature albo-marginatas and green ones, replaced them with more interesting cultivars. I used a sharpened stainless steel spade to save my back. Two days ago I culled 90 green ones out of 110 hosta seedlings. No problems here.
Bernd

The word is "ethics" Les. I inherited a yard full (maybe 30 clumps) of lancifolia and undulata erromena. In order to make room for more interesting varieties, I've thrown a few on the compost pile. However, I've been thinking about planting a little "bunny garden" down the street on some open undeveloped land nearby. That should be a good use for these greenies.

Steve

Hmmmm -- wish I lived next door to some of you. Since I don't, you could just pile the excess at the curb with a "free hostas" sign -- make some people happy and satisfy your conscience. (People who pick up that great discarded chair at your curb don't expect it to look as good as the one in your living room do they?)
Jan

I give some away to my churches bazaar every year,but mostly,I keep even the poor performers. Some of those even die out themselves,and them I won't replace them.I have lots of plain seedlings,but they are so small,it would take years to grow them out. Phil

We all have different environmental, financial, gardening skill/ effort factors that will determine how a plant performs. Nothing "unethical" about passing a plant along that you have not liked for whatever reason as long as you communicate that. GE does very well for me. I know it has not for others. That does not make it a dud but makes me happy that I have found a "Happy Place" for it to grow. I move, pot up, relocate, and at a last resort will admit some to my hosta hospital intensive care wing. From there some do go to the morgue and in their death life begins anew as compost.

My neighbor loves my no IDs! No ethical problems with me giving away hostas I don't want.

And, I love going over to her gardens and seeing how they are growing!

Gesila

would it be considered unethical to give it away to someone who is happy to "just get a free hosta"?

===>>> so to sum it up.. you feel guilty giving gifts?????

what does ethics have to do with gifting friends????

the recipient has two options.. which i have personally exercised over the years ...

be thrilled as heck.. and treasure the gift.. its value being the friendship.. rather than the value ... [and i think that is the key to your dilemma ... its the value of the friend.. not the gift itself ...]

versus... smiling.. thanking them.. and going home and throwing it in the compost pile .. because it is the invasive weed we know it is.. lol ... years later saying.. oh that didnt come up the next spring [this is an ethics issue.. lol] ...

as far as i am concerned.. there is no ethics in giving a gift ... [as compared to not gifting treasured friend]

its up to them to value it appropriately and that is the friendship.. not the gift itself .. OK.. enough belly button gazing this early in the morning ...

ken

Besides, most of us probably have some friends who would never say "What variety of hosta is that?", but rather "What kind of a plant is that?" So if it is green and growing and hard to kill we may have sparked a new interest. Win/win.
Jan

this is still bothering me...

what.. you dont want my gift ... crimminey .. smack them with the side of the shovel.. and bury them out behind the garage.. you ungrateful snot .. a pox on your house... pshaw ... one thing for sure.. dont invite them back ...

frankly.. i dont know who would not graciously accept something from your garden ...

what i dont get.. is why you place your concern over theirs ... that is where you are confusing the issue ...

what.. if i come to hate yucca ... and put a dozen out at the curb.. i am supposed to feel guilty that the peep who picked them up is getting .. in my opinion .. a sub par plant??? i am happy they are gone .. they are happy enough to take them.. whats do ethics have to do with it????

ken

ken - when is a "gift" not a "gift"? When it's garbage! I have often considered leaving a "gift" on a neighbors porch; a bag of what their large free roaming dog leaves in my yard almost every day. I guess that is where my ethics thoughts come from. It would not be a gift to them but it would satisfy me to give it.
If I am giving away culled hostas it is because I think them to be substandard - garbage.

But that is why I presented the question for conversation. Probably the best aapproach FOR ME would be to say "you can have it if you want it. I am giving it away because I don't like it and feel I can do better without it!" Then, when they take it, my conscious is clear! Otherwise I am not good with a "buyer beware" attitude, even if the buyer is getting it for free.

That's just me, and why I am not selling real estate:lol. I don't fault those who do; I just am not good at it. someone has to do it, right?

Les

Les, giving someone a plant that you no longer need or want and that they would be happy to receive....seems to be a non-issue....but......

If You feel it's not right, then don't do it. That's not ethics, that's integrity.

Paul

when is a "gift" not a "gift"? When it's garbage!

===>>> that was my point precisely .. i put garbage at the curb ... and my garbage is another gardeners treasure ...

of course i understand this is conceptual for the sake of conversation .. the only thing that would make it better was that we held it in a lawnchair in mid june while sitting on my cement veranda with adult beverages in hand ... below is a pic

ken

sitting right here.. snockered out of our heads debating hosta ethics ... i was sitting in the Adirondacks chair on the close side of the fire pit when i snapped the pic ... oh gawd.. i'm drooling. i dont know if its for an adult beverage.. or june.. lol ..
{{gwi:240153}}

since you dont ethically believe me on the chairs.. here are the chairs ... with a view of the hosta beds .. wonder what happened to the fire pit ...
{{gwi:370433}}

Put one of those conifers on the curb and I'll be right over. I love the way the deciduous trees frame the conifer beds in that first picture.

Steve

One unethical behavior is in my neighborhood that non-gardener people let their (male) dogs on long leashes pee on my dwarf conifers. Perhaps they do it at night? That what I suspect, because first my small (3 ft) Juniperus communis 'Compressa' died last year or 2010, now right now the 7 ft one is dead. My front of the house only has those little fences, backyard has 4 ft fence.
Bernd