Hostas are tough. I would bet that most if not all will bounce back without too much difficulty if they aren't buried several inches deeper than they were.

Good luck to your friend!

Alexa

I wouldmake sure thereisn'ta build up of silt....and then justlettham be....I believe they will be fine...if the durned river stays inside it's banks!
Did her house get flooded?
Linda C

They will be ok. I have grown hostas directly in water in my bog area of my pond. Sometimes they slip underwater and disappear for a week before I notice they're gone. I drag them out and the leaves are nasty (and funky!) but after pulling off the dead stuff, they start coming back again!

Best of luck and cool story on Praying Hands.:)

A friend suffered a flood covering his hosta with 6+ inches of silt and they were under this silt and water for a couple of weeks, they all came back better. AND, he did not uncover them in any way.

This silt of course, was specific to him, the plants were established.

Don't draw broad sweeping conclusions from this but it would be interesting to know what happens to a number of gardens?

It depends on how much silt was deposited in your friends' yard. Here's a few pics of homes a few blocks from here I took a couple days ago, after the water receded. I doubt a Hosta could vome back up through all this!! It's over 3ft. deep in spots. I don't know how the silt could be specific to your area. For all you know what has ended up in yard could have come from quite aways away! We used to live on this block, and the soil was not sandy.
This was a true 500 yr. flood, and I heard the other day that clean up was going to take years, not months.
Most of the roads here are trashed in one spot or another as well. ;-((

Here's the road I normally take to leave town. The bridge up ahead is not the river bridge, but a creek. The river is a half mile away.

"I don't know how the silt could be specific to your area. For all you know what has ended up in yard could have come from quite always away!"
hostarox

I know the entire water shed that was washed on to those particular hosta.

A general flood could bring anything from anywhere, so I didn't want anyone to jump off to an erroneous conclusion.

Roxanne, I'm glad you have that great camera and are sharing those pictures with us.

Isn't silt mineral rich and could actually benefit the soil in some way? Grasping into the unknown . . . .

Mary Ann, you are probably correct about the silt being mineral rich, the problem it is it's so deep. It's going to take a skidloader...or an endloader to clean up some of those yards. A friend of ours 6 miles from here had their house collapse and the entire basement filled up with the mucky junk. When the fema official showed up 2 days ago to take a look-see to assess the damage, He said, "this is nothing. I have seen far worse already."
That home was less than 15 years old, and they bought another already because it isn't worth fixing.
another thing that bothers me about the flooding mess left behind is all the run off from the farm fields, sewage treatment plants were also breached farther upstream.
The river has different stuff in it than it did 100 years ago. So, maybe the silt isn't so great to have sitting in your yard. I dunno.

Roxanne, aren't you just north of CR?
That sand looks like it came all the way from northern Minnesota!
People who don't live here don't really know how bad it was/is....even those of us who do live, don't really know how bad it was....
I hope your yard doesn't look like that picture!!
Linda C

Linda, we are high and dry. That is the other end of town.
I am NE of CR. Watching the news the last few nights of all the debris stacked in front of homes waiting to be picked up made me sick. They said they anticipate the amount of trash in the next couple of weeks to equal what the town generates in an entire year. Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa.... Plus all the mold to be dealt with, even if your home can be saved.
I have taken at least 100 pictures since it started, just so I never forget how bad it really is/was

Roxanne I'm glad your home wasn't affected so badly. The picture of the road was shocking to me, seeing it all in pieces like that. I had forgotten how much a damage a flood can do.

I don't see anything wrong with some of us sending divisions to hostalovers there who may have had theirs washed away or buried under sludge, or whatever else could happen. I'd be happy to share.

Lainey

Brenda,
Thanks so much for starting this thread. I, too, have been hit hard by the flood. I got about 18" on the first floor of my house and lost at least 20' of the foundation wall. We also lost 3 cars and a truck. We were on vacation and the water came up so fast that even if we had been home we could only have saved the vehicles. Before we left on vacation, the prediction was only for the crest to be 2' higher than the flood of '93. We were high and dry then without even anything in the basement. Anyway, my hostas all appear to be doing okay other than the nasty film that covers almost all of the plants. Actually Queen Josephine is bright and shiny and representing her royal position very well. My problem is, though, I am going to have to dig all of them up (around 100) and find a place for them until we can get a different home or rebuild on our present lot. Either way it could take months. We are trying to be patient but the stress is incredible. FEMA, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other groups and organizations have been way beyond helpful but the city doesn't seem to know which way to go. I realize that none of us have been in this position before but the lack of communication and misinformation is very disheartening. Anyway, back to the hostas - would it be better to try to pot them all and hope we have a home by fall or have some friends take them until next spring and then bring them to where ever we are? Either way I will worry about frost heave or finding a place to over winter them in pots. I have done that successfully before but not with 100. I certainly don't have the space for that many. Any and all advice would be helpful!

Roxanne, where is that road? I haven't seen anything like that but then again I have been in my own little world for the past two weeks.

Thanks so much for the comments. It is sad and I am so sorry for you also Roxanne. My friend has the best attitude even though her basement was flooded and flowing out the windows and her husband put a hole in the back of the garage to release the water. She has to replace the furnace,water heater , washer and dryer. She had no flood insurance and to proud to get help from FEMA and other agencies.The yuck covering the Hosta's is more than silt (if you can read between the lines) the stink is horrible.We are hopeful if left alone they will return if not we will help her replace all that was lost. I met her Hosta Swapping.

Save some em ail addresses and let us know either this fall or next spring.
I can always pry a couple of eyes off of whatever.
Linda c

Good Gawd, Don't feel sorry for me!! I said I was high and dry, just having to drive farther to get to work. I do have co-workers affected by flooding directly, though.

The road pictured is my route out of town, (usually) in Oxford Junction.

The news didn't show all the flooding here, concentrating on Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.....where more people live so it's a no-brainer, but us more rural folks have alot to deal with as well, but as I said, We were unaffected as far as our home goes, so the extra drive is trivial in comparison.
If it were me with Hostas comprimised, they would be last thing on mind, but I would pot them if I could, was able, so inclined..., and move forward. Put them in shade somewhere and make sure they get watered.