well.. if you get snow.. you wont see anything but snow... dont ya think ... lol ...i havent seen anything under 2 feet tall for about 2 months now .. and i sure as heck havent been walking around out there .... pining at the bare earth.. since its been single digits temps ... bare ground in MI is just not an issue in winter .... as far as i am concerned... you are on your own with that problem .. lol ..

can you hear the mini violin wailing ... in the background .. lol ...

boy rose.. CA girl ... eh???

anyway ... i am guessing your first issue is who will mail to CA ... and i have no clue about that ..

google naylor creek ... in WA ... they are a good source.. good peeps .... etc ..

try hallsons .. though i dont know if he will ship from MI to CA .... also good peeps ...

there should be some old posts about vendors... if you read back thru the pages .... perhaps someone else has the link ...

your summer heat is irrelevant .. it gets hotter here ... your main issue is the length of cold for proper dormancy .... sooner or later.. that cruel mistress known as mother earth .. might give you a warm winter.. and you might lose some ... who knows ...

otherwise.. just start reading down thru the posts [there's like 65 pages of them].. we are good enablers ...

if you have any more specific questions.. do come back often ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: googled this one for you

The AHS awards the Benedict Garden Performance Medal for those plants that are the best performers in the garden. Sagae was the winner for 2010. Here's the list of Honorable Mentions:
2010 Benedict Garden Performance Honorable Mention Awards

1. H. 'Cathedral Windows' (H. Hansen)
2. H. 'Hanky Panky' (H. Hansen)
3. H. 'Popo' (R. O�Harra)
4. H. 'American Sweetheart' (H. Hansen)
5. H. 'Lemon Meringue' (P.Ruh)
6. H. 'Atlantis' (T. Avent & H. Hansen)
7. H. 'Lakeside Dragonfly' (M. Chastain)
8. H. 'Holy Moly' (H. Hansen)
9. H. 'Glory' (R. Savory)
10. H. 'Azure Snow' (P. Ruh)
11. H. 'Blue Hawaii' (O. Petryszyn)
12. H. 'Whiskey Sour' (R. Solberg)
13. H. 'Brave Amherst' (W & E Lachman)
14. H. 'Journey's End' (H. Hansen)
15. H. 'Ebb Tide' (E. Elslager)
16. H. 'Anna Kulpa' (J. Kulpa)
17. H. 'American Masterpiece' (V. Wade)

And below is the link.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Benedict Award Winners

I feel sorry for you, get out while you still can! I can say this after 275 hostas and still buying. Online retailers I use are Hosta guy (made in shade gardens) out of KS( excellent), Bridgewood Gardens out of VA (good) Hallson Gardens out of MI (excellent) and I used for the first time this year Sebright Nursery out of OR, Naylor Creek out WA, White Oak Nursery IL

Look at the lists on Plants Delights nursery. Tony Avent is a breeder who is in SC and has a list of best hosta for warmer climates. Be aware that many have complained about the shipping charges from PDN. Their plants are kind of pricey as well. I haven't bought there, so I'm just repeating what I've seen on this list.

The Dallas Arboretum has a list online of hosta that have done well for them. The other recommendation I've seen is to stick to anything fragrant. The hosta library has a list of fragrant hosta.

We also have a member who lives in zone 9 in CA. I believe they grow mainly in pots, as do I.

I have extensive lists of those that have done well in my area, but we're not talking the same temps. We get really hot in the summer and have to keep everything in pretty much full shade. If you are interested, I'll post them.

bkay

Look at posts from babka - he's in yor zone in CA and has shown us wonderful pics, so you too should talk . . .

methinks,

hh

Debbie wrote: "For any of you that don't get snow (please don't laugh), what do you plant in the same area so that the whole area doesn't look dead in the winter? Maybe some ground cover that stays green? "

THAT is a big reason for growing them in pots. You can tuck them out of sight for Winter when they are dormant. You cannot grow other plants on top of them during the winter. Their crowns need to be at the soil surface here.

I like to order from Naylor Creek and Hallsons and there is no problem shipping them to California. They come bare root, even after they have leafed out, and they do just fine and get here in 2 or 3 days. Order whichever ones make you swoon...

-Babka

Thanks for all the advice! I realize I'm not in a usual area for hostas but I just love them and so far, they're growing!

Babka, your post is especially helpful. You said that the crowns need to be at soil level in CA. I've just been planting the hostas at the same level as the soil that's in the pot. Is that wrong? Should I be doing it like I do peonies here - gently washing away the pot soil with a hose until I can see the crown then planting the crown at ground level? That could be pretty important! For the existing ones I have, should I replant them or leave them be? I looked last weekend - not a hint of the new growth yet. Still, it's early. We have freezing temps overnight this week so I'm glad the new growth isn't up yet. Last weekend's weather has confused my roses which show about an inch new growth. I may lose all that.

I'll check out the different mail order nurseries you recommended. Good excuse to buy more!

Bkay, I would be interested in your list. I've found that roses that do well in TX are great in my area as well as some perennials. The hot dry summers are enough of a match to mine to make TX a good predictor.

I checked out the Benedict Performance Winners. Maybe I should start there.

Debbie

i seem to recall that babka ='s grandma.. so billy.. she aint a he .. lol ...

anyway .. when my snow is finally gone.. and i can see soil ...

what i see is POTENTIAL ... i see the future ..

i dont see a plant label cemetery ...

the cycle of the seasons is precious here in z5 ... though it is really hard to be thinking about how tired i was of the garden late last august ... lol .... the wheels on the bus go round and round ....

i am having a hard time conceptualizing warmer zones where your seasons are green or brown .... hmmmmmmm

ken

Debbie- The ones you get in the pots should already be at soil level, so if you planted them that way you will be just fine. If they were happy all last year, then leave them alone, and see how they do when they emerge in the next few weeks. Although this cold wet weather wouldn't inspire me to wake up anytime soon...

-Babka

Here are the lists I promised.

This is from the Smith County (Smith County and is about 90 mi. east if Dallas) Extention service trials about 10 years ago. Smith county is in East Texas and is not as dry as the DFW area, but just as hot. I think it's 7b. Everything shifts when I post this. It's copied from a PDF, but you will be able to see the results, but it won't stay in columns. The hosta were evaluated by master gardeners in June, August, October and then averaged. There was a problem with the irrigation system in an area so �So Sweet�, �Sugar &
Cream�, �Royal Standard�, and �Albo-Marginata� didn't get sufficient water.

NAME DATE AVERAGE
June August October
Blue Angel 9.8 8.8 10 9.5
Sugar & Cream 9.2 9.4 9 9.2
Blue Cadet 8.7 8.8 10 9.2
Francee 6.0 8.8 10 8.3
Gold Standard 6.3 7.6 10 8.0
Honeybells 7.1 8.8 8 8.0
So Sweet 9.4 5.6 8.5 7.8
Royal Standard 7.4 9 7 7.8
Lancifolia 7.3 7.8 8 7.7
Grand Tiara 7.8 7.2 7 7.3
Albo-Marginata 7.6 5.8 7 6.8
September Sun 6.2 7 7 6.7
Sun Power 6.8 6.8 6 6.5
Elegans 6.0 7.4 6 6.5
Emerald Tiara 7.8 7.2 4 6.3
Patriot 4.6 6.2 7 5.9
Bold Ribbon 6.5 6.8 3 5.4
Guacamole 6.7 5.4 4 5.4
Gold Edger 7.1 6 3 5.4
Fragrant Bouquet 5.1 4.8 6 5.3
Sagae 5.2 4.6 6 5.3
Shade Fanfare 5.5 4.6 3 4.4
Summer Music 3.8 2.8 6 4.2
Undulata 6.3 3 3 4.1
Temple Bells 6.1 3.2 3 4.1
Krossa Regal 4.2 3.8 4 4.0
Resonance 4.3 5.2 2 3.8
H. fortunei 'Aureo Marginata' 4.3 3 2 3.1
Aphrodite 3.5 2.4 3 3.0
Colossal 4.3 2.6 2 3.0
Fried Green Tomatoes 3.8 3.4 1 2.7
Invincible 4.5 2.6 1 2.7
Halcyon 2.8 2.8 2 2.5
Big Daddy 2.3 2.8 1 2.0
Daybreak 1.7 2.4 2 2.0
Sum & Substance 2.1 1.8 2 2.0
Hadspen Heron 1.5 1 1 1.2
*Master Gardeners were asked to rank each variety from 1 to 10, with 1 = worst/almost dead, and 10 =
outstanding in every way.

These are the recommended varieties from a trial at the Dallas Arboretum. There is also a large trial in progress right now. I can hardly wait to see how they look this spring.

Invincible (plantaginea Hybrid)
Sugar & Cream (Honeybell sport)
Dixie Chick (Invincible x Masquerade)
Abba Ready
Sweet Standard (Honeybell sport)
Emily Dickinson (plantaginea hybrid)
Potomac Pride (H. 'Blue Umbrellas' x H. yingeri 'Treasure Island' cross)
Plantaginea
Honeybells
Royal Standard
Regal Splendor (Krossa Regal sport)
Krossa Regal
Francee
So Sweet (Green with cream edge- compact)
Blue Cadet (Blue green medium)
Patriot
September Sun (Chartreuse green/yellow with dark green edge)

The going theory is that certain "families" of hosta do better in warmer areas, which makes sense. If the parent plants are from warmer climates, then you would think that the progeny would do better in warm climates. It was explained to me that some varieties pass on their heat tolerance better than others. Sill, I don't think you can go wrong with anything fragrant, which comes from plantaginea. This is a recommended list:

The families of hostas that do well in southern gardens are:
clausa
gracillima
kikutii
longpipes
montana
Nakaiana
plantaginea
rupifraga
sieboldii
some species
tibae
ventricosa
venusta
yingeri
nakaiana

How I tell the parentage is to look it up on the Hosta library http://www.hostalibrary.org/. Then say you are interested in what "so sweet" looks like. Look in the S's on the hosta library. On the left above the first photos is a link to the the myhosta.net database. It will usually tell you how large the plant will be and what the parents are. Sometimes, they are many generations removed and this is no longer relevent, though.

Good Luck,

I'm not sure when the trial at the Dallas Arboretum concludes. However, when it does, I'll post the results.

bkay