lack of enough water ...

SS is nearly completely sun tolerant ...

BTW... what direction is the damage??? hot afternoon sun.. ????

also ... it looks really squat for the size of the leaves.. is it planted at the proper depth???

in your zone.. i would have figured this plant COMPLETELY bulletproof ....

ken

PS .. you know.. the damage is almost EXACTLY the same on each leaf.. like it was cut.. while still furled.. in early spring... how can the damage be so consistent ... any beer drinking and weed whipping ??? lol

I went out to look, and all the damanged leaves are away from the afternoon sun. All of the leaves were the ones that turned white, got paper thin and then folded over onto themselve during a 90 degree + heat spell in June. I also measured and its about 19" tall and about 24" across. I guess I don't know about the planting depth. I usually plant according to the pot depth, with some amending to my sandy soil. Is this wrong?

No weed whipping (even the weeds were struggling earlier this year) and no beer drinking from the hubby, can't account for the deer though. The picture sort of looks like a uniform cut but they are definately not uniform.

Only one other hosta near this one has the same look. Everything else looks good.

Thanks,

Jodi

poor thing....it's thirsty!

It's thirsty, mostly because all hostas are always thirsty, but as Ken said, it's most likely planted too deeply. Dig the entire clump, add some peat moss to the soil to help with water retention, and then set it back in the ground at a higher level. You want the first roots to be no more than an inch below the surface. The mulch, although good for holding in moisture, can also be a problem if it's too thick. A layer less than an inch thick is plenty.

Keep in mind that unless you bought the plant from a hosta specialist, there is no reason to think that the person doing the potting knew anything about hostas. Even some hosta specialty nurseries will occasionally pot a plant at the wrong depth. In addition, watering potted plants often causes dirt to splash from one pot to another, sometimes to the point of significantly changing soil depths. Basically this is a case of what you are trying not working as well as you would like, which means it's time to try something else.

As you probably already know, all those other hostas in the picture are going to have to be moved in the next few years--S&S at maturity will be 6-8 feet in diameter. I was on a garden tour a few weeks ago, and there were two gardens that had multiple very young S&S planted right at the front of their perennial borders. They looked great, about 18 inches tall with very large leaves and the color was striking, but in a couple of years the rest of those beds will be crowded out completely.

A large borrowed shade tree was taken down a few years back by my neighbor. My yard went from a beautiful hosta haven to full sun terror!

Some of our plants were shocked others adapted. We now have mostly full sun and our hostas went from a normal size to huge! They love the sun and adapted. (except for blues that need shade) We water every day...that is the key to keeping them looking fresh. You will get some discoloring at times but cut them off. Adding a small trees will provide shade were needed. Even adding flowering shrubs will help those hostas that don't like the sun. Planting the shrubs so the hottest part of the day shades some of the hostas will help. They adapt. Just remember to water, water, water.