One of your biggest concerns will be proper drainage of your planting medium. You may wish to check out the container gardening forum for recommended blends, you'll find them quite different from what is available commercially.

Pieter

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening Forum

I have excellent results with 50/50 miracle gro potting mix and shredded pine bark mulch. It holds moisture well.

I use 80% fine fir bark (sold as orchid mix) and 20% coarse organic compost, but my growing conditions are way different from yours. We don't get the summer heat here and it is always cool at night, so I don't need to retain as much moisture. Use what other folks have had success with in your neck of the woods with similar conditions. Do you have a local Hosta Society?

-Babka

Hi Beverly,

Like you, I've admired the photos of potted hostas on this forum. And like you, I now want to grow some. I'm in zone 5, and from what I've read, growing them here could be tricky. So if I grow them on a porch or covered patio, would that improve my chances at success?

hey bev ...

go to your best upscale nursery.. which still has a greenhouse... and ask them what they use.. and have in giant sacks ... and then buy one dry ...

then get a garbage can with a lid .. and dump it all into it..

and put it in the garage ...

and you will have a stock of potting soil for a few years ...

and that giant bag will cost less than a couple small bags retail ...

think about it this way...

you have gotten cell packs with annuals.. the peat base mix is nearly spongy in its ability to hold a wad of water ...

perennials in 3 inch pots.. usually have some bigger pieces in the mix ... the peat to hold the water.. but some bigger elements to allow increased drainage ...

when we get to hosta .. you know that their roots are much more course than annuals.. and some perennials ... so we need more air in there .. and that is why many peeps add either shredded bark.. or mini chunks ... etc ..

we want water to flow into the top.. and trap a good amount in the peat.. but a courser mix will allow a good bit of it to drain out ...

make sense ..

ken

Beverly, sorry. I was thinking in terms of wintering hostas over. I didn't mean to corrupt the thread. I think I'd just been reading a thread about getting potted hostass through the winter someplace else.

I hope you have great success with your potted hostas. Again, I think they're very pretty.

TEMPUSFLITS, I don't think you can corrupt a thread here, besides the question was for any container advise people have. I plan on burying my hosta pots in my vegetable patch over winter, this has worked for other perennials for me.

Ken, Babka and Swmogaredens, thanks for your experience, I think I will be adding bark to my mix. I do quite a bit of containers (16 including 2 hanging baskets). However this is my first attempt at hostas. I use potting soil from Linders, a local nursery that sells out there stuff at half price at the end of June. I buy and save it for the next year. I mix new potting soil, old (saved from the previous year), and compost I get free. This has been successful so far because I use fertilizer. It sounds like I should add some pine bark fines to this mix. I don't think I need the "gritty mix" discussed on the container thread because I will probably repot the hosta next year and the year after unitl they reach mature size.

I usually just use liquid fertilizer every other week. Adequate for Hosta?

Beverly - I grew quite a few in pots for the first time this past year on my deck, and were stored in my 3 season porch for the winter. Don't have much of a story to tell yet on successes or failures overwintering this way. Brought a couple in to force under lights for fun in late Feb and early March - they all responded quickly and look good so far. Have been checking pots in porch for dry soil and added a couple of ice cubes to a few pots, most seem ok for moisture.

Paul

with the carrot-like roots.. it is IMPERATIVE that all fert'g end in august .. and wash out the bottom .. before is start getting cold ..

NOTHING will be worse .. than the crowns and roots not properly hardening off in fall ... they will just rot ...

so be careful about that ... and IMHO.. never use a time release ... since you can not guarantee when the last release will be ...

otherwise.. its a perennial like anything else ....

after that ... in z5 or colder ...... and for any plants .... just move the pots to full shade for winter.. to insure no sun on the pot itself.. and lay them on their sides to avoid water accumulating on frozen media ...

ken