Andrea, I'm an old wife . . .so I believe that. Old gardening books are full of advice that is obsolete or impossible, like the 28 pages of things we're supposed to be doing in April.

How about if you feed cornmeal to to cutworms, they will eat so much their stomachs will explode?

LOL...good point on the April "tips" Maryann!

Lynnem, I haven't heard that one...but that's funny. That reminds me of the one that if you feed birds rice, it will expand in their stomachs and they will explode.

maybe there is something to the rice thing Andrea....people don't throw rice at weddings anymore. Anyone out there that could weigh in with some expertise on rice?

I worked w/ exotic animals for several years and worked in two vet clinics...it's a buncha malarky. LOL

Let's see...lemme find "hard proof" for you:

Here is a link that might be useful: Buncha malarky

This one debunks the water/burning myth and also, ken, check out the one about oak trees - I remember you saying that before (the answer, not the myth)!

Here is a link that might be useful: Debunker

Yep, that was some of the advise actually given on this forum a couple of years ago when someone was asking for cutworm advice.

I believed the water thing, we grew a lot of african violets commerically and thought that when we watered under direct sunlight it caused problems. This is what leads to old wives tales, it seemed to work so we believed it.

It would seem to be simple physics and could be proven?

Aw, shucks, there goes everything I read in garden books. No wonder those things didn't work for me. Everytime I planted those pest repelling marigolds, they'd get skeletonized by the pests.

LOL...Poor Maryann! Don't you hate that?

I agree esther. The truth is, it probably was something else causing the problems but you wrote it off to the direct sunlight. Hey wait...aren't they a filtered light plant? LOL

It's interesting how gardening rules change so much year to year. I remember when you were supposed to plant everything deep and now you are supposed to only plant to the crown or you smother it. Wonder how everything lived prior to this enlightenment....

I agree esther. The truth is, it probably was something else causing the problems but you wrote it off to the direct sunlight. Hey wait...aren't they a filtered light plant? LOL
Adamink

Nearly all plants are sun plants, the question is how much, when, etc. Violets grow well with some sun so we arranged the shade cloth so the plants got quite a lot of direct sun in the morning and afternoon.
Hosta love sun and will grow like weeds in full sun, they may burn later in the year but you will have a lot of big roots for next year. With hosta it is the lack of water that is a bigger problem and heat trumps water.

Some may remember the experiments I did with the types of misters used to cool people around a swimming pool. I ran the mister 24/7 on plants in full sun. They showed no ill effects period from sun or heat, they had a lot of water (I mean soggy) and no heat, the mister reduced the temp by as much as 20 degrees.

good info, but aren't you (weren't you) just creating an impossible scenario?
I water the heck out of my Hostas, but most folks don't. Having a mister spraying creates an environment that is not real, anywhere. In the tropics, it is wet all the time, but Hostas need cold, and dormancy. Can't have both.
Hostas will get tons of leaves and root systems in full sun, if given adequate water, but to have a huge specimen plant that has huge leaves as well, you need shade. Leaves get much larger in shade, proven fact. You need a balance of both.

Leaves get much larger in shade, proven fact.
Hostarox

Ain't so about leaf size! Old Wives tale!

Well drained soil for hosta, another old wives tale. Mucky wet soil like a bog is best if the soil is fairly loose.

The mist thing can be done as much or as little as you like with timers just like watering. Now if your interest is growing the largest and most spectacular hosta then mist is the way.

The work I did was basic science not landscaping.

Violets are a little like hosta in that shade helps with water retention, we grew them in special media I designed that kept the roots constantly moist without the rot problems associated with overwatering violets. If you ever kept violets and got the African Violet Magazine you may have seen ads, "Texas Growing Media", we sold it all over the country.

Ain't so about leaf size! Old Wives tale!

I have no proof other than personal observation, but some of the largest leaves I've seen were in deep, dark shade. Big leaves and few divisions. It seems logical that the plant would try to maximize the amount of light it could capture. I bet if you grew two plants...one in bright shade, the other in very deep shade...there would be a noticeable difference.

Won't change the genetics.
Plants that evolve in the shade will have big leaves in many cases genetically. It could be that the plant will make more divisions in your yard interfering with leaf size but it doesn't change the basic plant.

How many times have you heard of plants getting smaller as trees get larger? This is what I've found in my front yard, none of the plants have larger leaves the whole plant is smaller.

Years ago I took an ugly leaf into a garden center and asked, "What did I do wrong"?
I was told I had watered at the wrong time of day, the water drops caused a magnifying effect and the leaf had burned.....I believed her and decided that flower was too picky for me. No other plant was affected. I cannot remember the name of the flower off hand, as I do not have any, anymore!

oaks are not slow growing.. growing 3 to 5 feet per year after establishement ...

why bother with a poplar or any other trash tree ...

ken