OP: hope these tips help you. I'm not sure when they'll wake up for you, but in my zone 7B garden in western WA we have frost until late April mid May, so after Mother's Day I can assume no more frost. In my shaded gardens they wake up slower than the sunny spots so YES, put them in the shade to keep them from wakening early since out of the soil. When you see the pips emerge that is the time to get them planted quickly. If you wait until pips are finger length you damage leaves easier. I try to be careful, but I'm clumsy when I get cold & wet. Our springs are always cold & wet except for a day here & there. ASAP -- poke drainage holes in the bags using a chop stick or pencil -- even if not fully thawed the holes will help it drain. The stick won't damage the hosta, but the standing water will. ... or better yet slip them out of the bags & put inside free cardboard banana or any size boxes from grocery store to then surround with insulating mulch. Be sure to bait for voles, mice, slugs, etc. If you also set the boxes on top of folded cardboard boxes it will be easier to remove as the bottoms will stay mostly intact if not a long time setting there. If boxes are on bare ground they fall apart more. I have experience doing this method. If you are still going to have to move the hosta from location now back in car or truck to new home, you can slip boxes back into garbage bags to haul them. I've used a flat shovel to slip under boxes to lift if they're falling apart. The hosta don't fall apart. The banana boxes have handles, so I like them & can get several plants in the same box. Did you get some type of insulating mulch for them? Here are some of my freebie/cheapie ideas. 1. compost Maybe in your local area you can haul yourself if they don't deliver. Use contractor garbage bags if you don't have a truck. Some municipalities offer compost from kitchen waste free or inexpensively as compared to plastic bagged compost. TIP: if you make friends with someone who raises horses or livestock you might get access to their partially composted manure piles. Place a want ad on Craigslist, inquire at your county agricultural extension or 4-H office, place ad at a local feed store, attend your county fair, etc. to locate them. One contact keeps it covered in her circular driveway where a pond used to be & I can come anytime to load up, but usually let her know 1st to find out if she has much there. With 4 horses she has more than enough for her gardens, just wants me to put tarp back in place & is glad she gets rid of it instead of having to place ads for it. Her husband wants the pile gone anytime it becomes much of a pile instead of an empty pond. She doesn't mind if it gets large. I try to keep both happy & get over there for as many loads as my back can take in fall or early spring. I am not afraid of her stuff at all since it's manure plus bedding & has aged some before I get it. I try to snoop around the pile & get the oldest stuff. Another gal keeps it in neat concrete bays. Hers isn't open anytime, but will let me come if I inquire & is quite easy to load. You don't want horses fed with weed free hay as that has a herbicide in it that persists. I prefer those that feed less grain & just oats or beet pulp like my pond friend, but the sunflowers fed by the other gal are easy enough to remove & feed to the chickens or just let the slugs get them since they prefer the seedlings over my mature plants. 2. bagged soil conditioner sold at big box home stores as PEP (mostly fine shredded pine bark plus a bit of fertilizer I think, 2 cu ft for $4) I've used this even as temporary potting soil with good results. Great drainage & we have 60-80" rain October - June, so drainage important. 3. loose straw/hay sweepings (free from feed store, some store it out back in a trailer, others in a dumpster, others let you gather in their for sale stack area if you're near the end of the day you save the workers the effort. Reward with Christmas candy if you can gather it when dry as it's easier to haul, but dusty. May take several trips to get what you need over time.) Don't be afraid of weed seeds in this mix as you will be covering the plants with soil when they're in final position. Or mulch over the hay & you'll never know it was there. I've used lots of hay. Be careful if it's a lot of alfalfa hay as that heats up quickly in the spring when the soil warms. If mixed it isn't a problem. Can get stinky if concentrated. 4. used coffee grounds (coffee shop, friends, neighbors, churches?) 5. used guinea pig or rabbit bedding (check with 4-H office, animal rescue groups, etc. -- mostly the sawdust pellets that expand into sawdust when wet with urine & manure that I've used myself as light mulch layer that didn't burn anything. I'm fortunate to have found a guinea pig rescue nearby that cleans out cages Sunday afternoons. If you get a contact, save that info. It's a great source of organic matter if you give it time. 6. shredded leaves (from a garden friend who may have stashed for leaf mold & willing to share) 7. arborist wood chips (free delivery if in your area, timing is everything. Check Craigslist. Look in phone listings for a tree trimming, arborist company.) 8. bamboo trimmings (one year I got the canes & cut off the leaves that was slow to decompose, but made an interesting path material at our camp's children's garden area. After 2 years it's still nice looking.) MIX whatever you get together on a tarp or garden cart, then spread around the hosta roots, but not smothered on top of them. Hope that helps ~ Corrine

Thank you for your concern Sofla and may flowers . I am not done with my bathroom yet because I have a crappy GC . Every step is delayed and has problems in it . I got delayed in the marble for the vanity because he didn't finish the vanity on time to take the template . So I got my marble for the tub deck and two weeks later I got the marble for the vanity . The tower was delivered a week after the vanity only to find out that he made it 18 " deep while I asked it to be 12" . He argued with me that 12" is too small so he made it 15" and delivered it a week later . My husband and I hated it , so he took it back on Tuesday to make it 12" and it's not back yet . Meanwhile , he is still working on the wood for the side panels of the tub deck , baseboards and door and window frames . The tile guy is waiting for the tower so he could do the backsplash and grout around the tub . My shower door is ordered and should be here according to him soon . All the walls have dents and scratches , so the painter should be back too . I can't tell you how frustrated I am with this GC . He is so unorganized , irresponsible , it's always not his fault if something goes wrong . He screwed up my drawers , made me two premade u cut drawers with a 13" cut in the middle ( which is making me loose 1/3 of each drawer ) for the four bottom drawers under each sink . I have a yellow stain on my shower threshold from the splash of yellow water that was in the pipes when they installed the shower fixtures . I discovered the yellow droplets 4 hours after his workers left without cleaning after themselves . For the drawers I am thinking of making him get me regular drawers and I will get somebody else to cut them for me . For the stain , he said that he will use something like an acid to remove it . I hope that God will give me the patience to finish up this project that this GC made me hate .

Wow, 55 posts - hope I'm not posting on the wrong thread again. I like the QOD's. For clothes, I don't have much now. I have one leopard-print top that I've worn to shreds. I don't feel stronger or faster, but I feel safe in it for some reason, like I can face people easier. When I was young and still had a good body, I had a few things that I felt great in. I had a matching raincoat and umbrella that was a fall print with leaves. I felt perfect in it, like everything was okay. I had some jackets that I felt safe and good in - one was purple velvet and one was a plaid beach jacket with big pockets. For shoes, I rarely have more than three wearable pair. Right now I have a pair of moccasins, a pair of black sandals, and a pair of those Hawaiian clogs, but most of the time I go barefoot, lol. For childhood cereals, my favorites were cream of wheat with brown sugar and cheerios, either dry or with milk and sugar. I liked sugar crisp, too, when it came out and back in the days when it was still okay to call something sugar crisp. For cartoons, my first attachment was to Mighty Mouse. I loved the way he was a puny little mouse, but could get strong and save people in trouble. Then I think I liked all the hero ones - The Lone Ranger, Superman, etc. I've been saying for awhile that I'd put up pictures of Second Life, the virtual reality world I'm playing in. I have a few on my blog now. It's at wwwjoy.agelessserenity.org, and I'll add the link below for anyone who might be curious. I'm permanently low-carbing now, though not as low as I probably should be. It is better for my fibromyalgia as well as for my weight. I recently got that new power chair I've been working on getting for a couple of years now, so I can get to the post office and the mini mall again, though I haven't tried it yet. Heather is still fine and as good and sweet as always. My son and granddaughters are planning to come and visit this summer. My son recently started working with a game company who makes a product called Realmcrafters. Seems like we are all into the virtual reality scene. Seems like people here are doing okay over all, and I'm glad for that. I know I miss a lot, but at least I come by and catch up. I'm into the Oprah presentations of Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth." Anyone here have ideas on that, and on the expectation that we are in a process of catalytic evolution? I had more, but lost it. At least I saved to this point, fortunately, as I couldn't write it all over, lol. I'm glad to see so many staying with it and new people coming on board, too. Take care and eat healthy! Amy Here is a link that might be useful: My blog

Beverly, et al: What is "lightweight potting soil"? I'd like to know so I can order some from Amazon before I start digging up hostas. I have no idea when my place will sell so I can complete my purchase of the Baltimore condo, but I think I should start potting up the hostas and heuchies I intend to take with me. I intended to dig up all my hostas, like I said, before the ground freezes and snow covers the ground, so the I.D. tags would not get separated and I don't have to freeze my behind off out there digging. For one of my largest hostas, Paradise Island, could I get away with a 12" plastic growers pot? My huge Paisley Print is already in a pot. Right next to it is a very big Blue Jay. Also a 12" pot? Some of the teeniest minis, like Pure Heart, are already in groups in an 18" ceramic pot. I guess Marilyn Monroe, a big girl, should also be put into a 12" pot? Ripple Effect is a bit smaller, but still biggish---a 10" pot? Now, I have Virginia Reel, High Society, Hyura Urijiro, and a couple of other small hostas---should they be put into a BIG plastic pot as a group? Then I have Raspberry Sundae, got very big this year--10" pot? THANKS to all, very much, for your advice in this. I don't want to lose my 36 lovingly selected and cared for hostababies!