Floppy Hostas? - Night Before Christmas

16 years ago

Ok, I will admit to hosta abuse. I bought several that have remained in thier containers dappled shade and watered a bit everyday.

I planted them all yesterday, but some of them look a little worse for the wear:

Night before Christmas: all the leaves laying on the ground, but not broken or wilted. I have this problem with a couple others too.

Sum of All: Came from the nursery having grown crooked. Did my best to prop it up... planted it with eyes straight... it should come back straight next year, right?

What do y'all think?

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Comments (4)

lindac
16 years ago
I think you should worry about the hosta you paid money for....
They were sadly neglected, needed lots of water during their time in the pots.
Plant them at the proper depth and water water and they should be fine.
Linda C
goldedger
16 years ago
Hi Melissa (? is that right) + welcome to the Hosta forum.
They should be fine, if you want to help them out, you could hold the leaves up and stake them using twigs with a piece of garden twine or wrap a piece of masking tape lightly around the stems (just enough to give the leaves a little support), this will keep the hosta from expending energy trying to support it's foliage and put it into the roots instead. You can remove the "support" in a week or so when the leaves seem "perkier". Oh and don't forget to water, water, water!!

June
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Hmmm... In checking out the photos from the suggestions, I'm thinking it looks most like Paleface or Kiwi Spearmint, both of which have undulata parentage. It also looks like undulata Mediovariegata (or Variegata?). After googling undulata Variegata, I came across the following from the Missouri Botanical Garden website: "The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) currently breaks down Hosta undulata into four separate varieties (var. albomarginata, var. erromena, var. undulata and var. univittata). Under RHS designation, the within plant is synonymous with Hosta undulata var. undulata." Well, one thing's for sure - it's definitely not NBC. Thanks for the guidance. I think I'll label it undulata Variegata in the hopes that it's at least close to accurate.
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Hosta_Haven
16 years ago
You just keep watering; not a spritz or squirt every day, but a long, deep drink every couple of days. They will perk up. Gold Edger's suggestion with the masking tape is a good one. They will all perk up eventually and start sending up new leaves. In the meantime, don't be concerned if a few leaves turn a little yellow. After the new leaves are up awhile, you can carefully pull off "a couple" of bad looking ones.

"Sum of All: Came from the nursery having grown crooked. Did my best to prop it up... planted it with eyes straight... it should come back straight next year, right?" Melissa

Yes it will. The beauty of spring is that they all get another chance to start anew...no matter how tattered they looked the fall before! Having said this, I have my Sum of All and a Jewel of the Nile planted at the edge of dense shade and they are both leaning toward the light. I have a feeling that if I want them to stop doing that, I'll have to move them to the middle of the bed.

Char
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
16 years ago
you should have taped the petioles .. as noted in my post on moving mature clumps...

you have to support the leaves for the period that the roots are interfered with ...

once the roots start pumping water again.. they will fill the petioles with water.. and hold them up ...

the term is 'turgid' ... the water pressure in the plant ...

i don't know if it will recover if you tape them now ... but what do you have to lose??

ken

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Floppy Hostas? - Night Before Christmas

Comments (4)

lindac

goldedger

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Hosta_Haven

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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