As a beginner, search the web for soil food web and start reading.

What I got from my study is that I add nothing but organic matter to the surface of the soil.

You have just entered a dark zone of many vitrolic opposing views.

Click on this thread for further reading!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/msg051333326665.html?45

i have no experience with clay .. so i will skip that part ....

but don't be too disappointed if you get no flowers this year .... both are fairly aggressive hosta.... but they don't always generate the root mass needed to flower the first year ....

one caveat .... WE KILL MORE PLANTS WITH TOO MUCH LOVE RATEHER THAN BENIGN NEGLECT .....

with hosta... WATER >>>>> WATER>>>> WATER ..... and with decent soil ... you need NOTHING else .... too much fert would be worse than too little.. without the water ...

can you insure there was no fert in the potting soil you planted it in??? if there was.. you surely need no more this year ....

just try to drown them ... and you should be fine... leaving the clay issue to those with experience ... ken

When I first began my garden journey, I was under the impression that fertiliser was a cure all. I have since learned the error of my ways.
Hosta aren't heavy feeding plants, so they really don't need fertilisers if they are in decent soil. Often, just adding compost and mulch will yield very healthy hosta. If you think you should use fertilisers, Miracle grow in a hose sprayer will give you decent results. If you have acces to an organic fertiliser, even better. Apply it lightly once a month in May, June, and July, then no more after that.
Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions. I wish I had this forum when I first started my gardens!

can you insure there was no fert in the potting soil you planted it in??? if there was.. you surely need no more this year ....
Ken

Potting soils are not soils a better term is media, I only make this nit picking point because it leads to such confusion. Potting media is inert; in fact they go to great lengths to make sure it isn't soil. Real soil in the ground is like a coral reef; the soil is a living organism. Using soil in a pot can be done but it is very difficult. We take a plant out of the soil and put it in a pot, like leaving the earth and going into outer space, in the pot we must provide the water and the soil must not hold to much water or to little, etc, etc. We must provide all of the food and not too much, etc, etc. Pot culture is very complicated and has been studied to death but pots are not the soil and much of what we know about growing in pots does not apply in the soil.

Vermiculite, perlite, sphagnum and "I" believe fertilizer doesnÂt work in the soil. IÂm not talking about organic amendments such as alfalfa meal, Milorganite, etc, the soil can utilize organic amendments.

I think Ken has it right; we do more harm thinking we can help the soil that has figured out how to support billions of life forms.

Some will read this as preachy and what I am saying is it is just practical and by the way fairly easy.

Well,Kristy,I have red clay soil,also(that's all there is in western NC),and all I do is plant the hosta,mulch,water in,and that's it! Hostas aren't fussy,and they do better leaving them alone,than fussing over them a lot. Phil

ok ester.. got me on the use of 'soil' .... typing before the coffee fully engaged.. lol ...

dirt is what on you and in your house after you work in the soil in the yard.. and media is what you put in a pot ...

dirt is free.. and ever present ... and nothing grows in it....

soil is more expensive ... and your garden is full of it ....

and medium/media is the most expensive ... and what you fill pots with ...

you will usually fail by filling a pot with soil and trying to grow stuff in it .... it is easier to manipulate water content in an engineered medium ...

better ester??

ken

Throw some alfalfa pellets at the plants, mulch with sheredded or chipped wood, water often and well....and repeat next year.
Soon you won't have clay anymore and your hosta will be huge.
Linda C

Dear Kristy,
you have not said anything about the size of your hosta bed, and the amount of potting soil.
Many, many years ago, my dear daughter decided that we should grow something else, other than weeds, along our northern border, under the trees which I started 10 or so years earlier. The area in question is on average 15 feet wide, and about 50 feet long. She came home with 3 bags of Michigan Peat. Before the day was over, I had picked up 40 more bags of the same stuff. Over the next several weeks in went another dozen 3.8 cfeet bales of spagnum, several yards of sand, later phosphate, green sand, alfalfa, millions of shredded leaves, neutra lime etc. etc. That was the start of our first hosta bed.
To your question, using chemical fertilizer, hold off until your soil is pretty much in shape, and you are able to grow hostas. After a year or so, if you want faster growth, start adding small quantities of a cheap 12-12-12 from your local feed and grain.
Kristy, don't give up, you are ALMOST there.
Manfred

Manfred has a way mine is dig a hole, put it in and walk away unless you need a lot of exercise.

Try both and give me a report in 3 years.

I guess we all have diff views what to do, and we should! No one has the same soil to grow in, unless maybe you live next door lol.

I do dig a hole, plant, maybe mulch now, probably later...and walk away. I am not dealing with sand, or clay soil. One thing I would like to stress is the water issue. Water the heck out of Hostas, if there's no rainfall. Their species roots are all from places that get more rainfall than most places in the US.

To address the original question, fragrant Hostas are always from plantagenia, in some form or another.
plantagenia Hostas grow like gangbusters if they get enough sun and moisture. If you want to fertilize them, do it in June, with 10-10-10, or something similar.