Hi Uk,

You may have to figure out the art of root pruning to fit those beauties in your lush little garden.

bk

I have Titanic. A S&S sport. I only got it last year but it is a beauty. The picture doesn't do it justice. I recommend this one to you.

Here it is in May just emerging

Then in June

Then in July

And now in August with blooms

The variegation is subtle but puts on more definition as the season progresses.

UK, 'Titanic' is a beauty, but do not forget to buy 'Parhelion'. Sum of All, Sum it Up, etc. I just put pollen of a redstem hosta on S&S, perhaps get a red stemmed S&S. You will need a much larger garden then. I am too cheap to buy 'Gunther's Prize', need to look up 'Grand Canyon'.
Bernd

IMO, Final Summation is a better version of Titanic. My Titanic tries to revert to S&S regularly.

UK, you may want to try some of the S&S hybrids that are a bit smaller. Try Fat Cat and Hot Air Balloon. Also you may want to give Blizzard a try. You'll have to separate out the reverting sections, but that will keep it small.

And then there's always Gunther's Prize!

Steve

Yes Steve that was the picture that made me buy
a gunthers prize!...I did forget that I do have titanic,
Parhelion and sum of all as well!..all still young.. I'm hoping
to keep them alittle in check in pots! UK
Will post some pics later

My SS ..a year old this Sept. kiddie chair as ref.

A big WOW on your Gunther's Prize, Steve! How wide will he grow?

UK....I think your idea to grow more large/v. lge. ones is an exciting one - it'll be fun to hear how you're coping with their growth down the road...cannot imagine the agony of deciding what to sacrifice...but can imagine a garden known for its Land Of The Giants hosta!! Lol

Best of luck in your choices...to buy and to reduce.
Jo

This post was edited by josephines67 on Wed, Aug 21, 13 at 10:28

S&S was the first big hosta that I purchased back in 2010. It spent one year in the ground up in Massachusetts, then came south in 2011 after it went dormant. It is doing fine in a pot. I'd be repotting it IF I planned to leave it in a container.

Instead, I found a good spot for it to go in the ground in a new raised bed on the western side of my house, along the driveway. Have to bring home more composted cow manure and pine bark nuggets before the "chosen ones" are unpotted.

Here is a recent picture of it in the pot near where it will be located. Just testing how the sun patterns or shade patterns of August strike it. With all the torrential rain we've had this summer, and water standing in every low spot, I absolutely must keep the soil draining properly. We have wet winters too, a double whammy for dormancy when rot is a possibility.

While I'm doing this bed, the only three hosta which have been in the ground in a regular spot are being moved to this improved location where the planting is raised....something I did not know to do for them when I started loving hosta. So we have as companions for S&S my Blue Angel, Winter Snow, and Fragrant Queen. I sure hope the bed is up high enough to keep the roots healthy.

My taste is changing, too, and so is my understanding of hosta. How you deal with supersize hosta in containers in a small space, inquiring minds want to know. Please keep us posted on what you experience, UK.

PS. I'd also like to know how you overwinter in pots. That new display garden in Britain which was featured last year with all its containers, did not show how he dealt with winter dormancy in pots. If you know of that garden, do you know the answer to this question?

Can you see the S&S in this picture? The bed is taking shape, with a substrate of pine bark nuggets to help the water flow away.

{{gwi:1071310}}

Mocc, I missed that post about the container garden in Britain. How can I find it?

bk

ive got some work to do!

my winter snow

my new lady isobel barnett

my new gunthers prize

grand canyon in the forground

Oh my. Well you found something bigger to collect in your small space. Have you thought about a roof top garden? :)

These things get big. Here is my Sum and Substance, moved it this year and its still 5 feet across.

Beverly

BKay, I will have to look it up again. I'll get back with you when it comes to me......my memory is gone downhill, too many subjects to think about right now......

But it was a new British hosta society display garden that was containers primarily if not exclusively. Not the Hanging Gardens of Hampshire, which you know about already, right?
If not, that will keep you oooohhhhing and aaahhhing until I find the other for you. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Hanging Hosta of Hampshire (YouTube)

I take it you like challenges! Here's one of our s&s with a yardstick.

Olive Bailey Langdon dominating.

Parhelion says, "Mmmm, yummy, yardstick for supper".

As mentioned, Titanic does this too often.

a small Winter Snow

Lady Isobel Barnett is known to have taken prisoners.

I jest not, this Beauty Substance is in a pot.

Aw, heck, why hang around with the puny s&s kids - go for it with a Blue Angel !

You still like serrated edges, right? Queen of the Seas !

Hillbilly, you hold a royal flush of big hosta there. I put my S&S in the ground today. Good thing I guess, because if I HAD repotted it, no way could I have tumped it out of a bigger pot when it outgrew it.

Then the Empress Wu, which I put in a gallon pot in June some time late, I tumped it out and had a hard time doing it because its roots were already coming out the bottom, and had circled the pot inside quite well. I teased out the roots when I set her in the soil.

Both of these guys, I know they need lots of water, so I set close to each one an "olla" to fill with water when I don't want to water the nearby trees. DH cleared all sorts of roots out of this bed before I decided it was okay for my hosta. I've added I don't know how many bags of bark as a bottom for the bed, to promote drainage, maybe 8 inches of bark. Then about 8 inches of cow manure composted, mixed with crushed crabshells (to combat nematodes) some fire ant poison in the bottom of each hole and around each crown, and as soon as all the soil is in place, about 2 more inches of pine bark mininuggets. My city lot must be worth a great deal more now since I own more DIRT. :)

Here are a few pictures I took today, raising the beds, moving things around to get the right balance, checking the sun/shade patterns.

My shade is provided by some young palms, and tall shrubs. Fighting root rot is one thing, fighting fire ants in pots is another problem. Especially after it rains forever.

Let's hope that my venture growing in the soil has positive results.

S&S with its olla root watering jar

Maybe some of these seedpods will germinate when they fall on the ground. I hope.....open pollenated of course. With many fragrant hosta nearby while it bloomed.

and the elegant Empress Wu, holding tight to her potting mix, with roots extending out the bottom in less than 2 mos.

Here she goes, her hair all teased out, fireant poison in the hole....FIRE IN THE HOLE!!

'Alabama Gold' going out of a pot into the soil. It had a nest of fireants seeking shelter among its roots, so I dosed them with poison. I got this hosta about June 2012, the pot was slightly too large for it then. Sure wasn't when I removed it.

Alabama Gold with its roots teased out for planting, poison in the hole

Tomorrow we go back to Lowes and pick up more cow manure in bags, as well as more pine bark mininuggets. Those things are great. Don't hurt your feet, the dogs don't chew them nor bring them in the house. What more can one ask of a mulch. I think we need a bigger vehicle for gardening.

UK, your tastes may be changing, but they are impeccable always.

HH boasts size matters and some of the ladies seem to agree.

Thanks for the photo demos, Moc !

HH, did not think of it as a demo, but I guess that is about true. Other folks who grow hosta take it for granted how you put them in the ground. Not me. This is my first time to do it with a bit of knowledge about what to do. My poor Blue Angel, Winter Snow, and Fragrant Queen suffered two years in the ground with no prep at all, yet they grew and flourished, somewhat. I was inspired to move them because of the huge Blue Angels being shown here. After two years in the ground, they should be bigger than they are. I worked all the camphor tree roots out of them, and now they are good to go for another two years, in better circumstances.

And UK, you are going to have a magnificent garden very shortly. It is always beautiful, now it will be that and amazing too. May I ask, what diameter and height are your containers? Are you going into this with the biggest pots you will use? No UPpotting? Like I said with my 3 year old S&S, taking mine out of that 18x18x18deep pot today was all I could handle. The giants need placing and not disturbing ever again. I'll probably finish that bed tomorrow, pine bark on top, and wait to see if it sets any of the hosta back a wee bit.

You might say my taste is changing, but the focus is still on the fragrant flowered hosta. Not all of them are plain green. My last order of this year will be a cleanup order, to get multiples of a lot of my favorite fragrants, from different sources than the others, and a few that are hard to find (calling is more personal and gets better results than an anonymous internet order, IMHO). But, I save that for another day.

I try to never end a post with words, like to put in at least ONE picture. :)