Container growing hosta and your climate are two seperate issues. Generally crown root is the leading failure of hostas in containers. The problem with your climate is the plant needs a period of dormancy with temps below 40 degrees. Shade is easy. I would try an inexpensive smaller variety. Im sure Mom would love to see one of the lush huge ones but thats more problematic. You'll need to water daily at least during your brutal summer...keep the soil moist not soggy. You'll also need a weak feed since you'll be watering out the soils nutrients. The dorminacy issue you'll have to get creative with if you want it to live long. Mom might be happy to see it for a short period..but some avid gardeners also really mourn the loss of a plant. If your mom misses the midwest so desperately letting the plant die off may make matters worse. No, it will never thrive there but its not impossible. Try contacting the universities extension Master Gardeners. There has to be hosta enthusists doing this with some measure of success. There are excellent hosta books you can find. I would try to make this a challenge for both of you. Research the plant and its history together. Engage your mom rather than surprise her. Your time and interest is a greater gift. This project could keep her hands and her mind busy. She could take notes on your success and failures and share that knowledge too. Look at this as an adventure..a challenge...engage her in that with you. Good medicine. Blessings Sha

Thank you all for the nice comments. It's very encouraging. Hostafrenzy, this one is a little bit in between the natural way (let the bees do the work) and real hybridizing (making deliberate crosses by hand). I started out with a hosta that had a lot of features I like, H. 'Grand Slam'. Put it apart and surrounded it with other plants I like, such as H. 'Sky Dancer'. Harvested the seeds from Grand Slam and got a whole bunch of very different seedlings from them. Some look more like mom, others probably like that. I've learned some hostas give a very diverse offspring, while others produce rather uniform seedlings. None of the seedlings however look the same as the motherplant. Hope this helps you a bit. Greetings from Belgium, Rob

I have had good luck with Knockout, Cherry Berry, FW, & Patriot. Was about to give up on Cadillac until I moved it. Doing that really helped. Sea Thunder seems to be growing well, but early high heat burned some of the leaves last year. A later flush covered up the damage and it looked ok. My new Sultana is so dinky I can't comment yet. My first Great Expectations looks decent, but of course is s-l-o-w to grow. Like a dope, I ordered 2 others from 2 different sources to try in different locations. One now looks just like Dream Weaver, which would be ok except I already have 3 of those. And the other one looks like it is heading in the same direction. I have one August Mooon that after years is not much bigger than a mini. The others are large. Same problem with So Sweet. It won't grow. They must be poor specimens. I note that hostas in certain areas suffer from vole predation. I can keep them under control in most of my woodsy gardens, but am losing the battle in a few areas. Minor damage must cause the hosta's growth rate to suffer somewhat. I'm sure that I don't find all of the telltale holes and tunnels, and later wonder what happened to a particular hosta. Sometimes it is really obvious that a hosta has been attacked, and it is no surprise to see it shrink in size the following spring. I don't have many on your list, Papou. If too many list members have problems with a hosta, I now avoid it like the plague. ~Bunnycat

Ken and others Yes, I have been by Gus's place in Livonia with my mother years ago but did not go in for a visit. Did not meet Gus in any hosta meetings or at my mother's garden as I don't remember him being active in the small circle of local hosta people at the time. Just a note for those interested in saving the date, I have been invited by the Metro Detroit Hosta Society to speak next Feb 22, 2016 in Birmingham MI. The meeting is at 7 PM at the First United Methodist Church of Birmingham, 1589 W. Maple Rd. Birmingham MI Title will be "Pauline Banyai: The Hosta Lady - Revisited." Plan to show some of the video of my mother in her last years(the same one I have used at the Hosta College) and also bring an update on Gold Standard and its progeny. Bruce