Need to divide mature Sum & Substance Hosta
bettylu_zone6a
14 years ago
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talynnp
14 years agoHey bettylu, I too had a mature S&S and last year I decided I was going to have more than 5 or 6 hostas, so I dug this one up and divided it in to 6 divisions. In July, in North Carolina where it is HOT! I kept the largest of the six and planted it in the new hosta garden. It was originally in too much sun, and even though it was HUGE, the leaves curled and burned by the middle of summer. It is now planted under a dreaded maple, but is was the only shade I had. I think it still looks pretty good, even though it has been TOTALLY neglected this year.
Sum and Sumstance
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HAVE: Drwarf Alberta/Sum and Substance hosta
Comments (9)Hi Jim, Yes I do still want some black bamboo. I'm wondering if I should dig up the hosta to divide now or wait until the end of the month? If I did would it be safe to put the roots in a brown bag and store them in the shed until the swap? Kendal...See MoreMoving a mature Sum & Substance
Comments (8)I moved an S&S that size last fall to a different bed, no problem. It looks fine this year. I also moved a Queen of the Seas this spring (not quite fully unfurled) that was a little easier. And a large Journey's End, Paradigm, and Inniswood a couple years ago, just a few feet, and they were so much easier. Water the plant a day or two before. Dig your hole where the plant is being moved. If they're that close, go ahead and dig out the soil between the new hole and the existing plant. Just use a shovel to slice a line about where the leaf drip line is. Since S&S has such big floppy leaves, you can probably be okay going a foot in under the leaves. Remove some of the soil until you see roots. Then dig your shovel deeper and start lifting up each side of the root ball, all the way around. Angle your shovel mostly horizontal and go deeper the next time around. Eventually you'll get directly under the center of the plant and shovel through the last piece of connected soil. Dig out the rest of the soil in the trench between holes. Use your hands to wipe away some extra soil if you want, so it weighs less. Then I just manhandle the root ball across the trench to the new hole, often using the shovel as a lever. Position the plant, fill in the soil, and water. S&S didn't matter, since it was late in the fall. QotS finished unfurling this spring and looks great. Inniswood looked perfectly happy even in mid summer. Journey's End and Paradigm were in more sun, it was full summer, and I forgot to water as much. They had some outer leaves yellow and dry but were also okay....See More2004 Hosta of the Year Sum and Substance
Comments (14)For what it's worth here is my experience with Sum and Substance. My plant had been in place and doing great until 2007 when I decided to divide some of it off to share. It was huge and there was lots. I did the cutting as a pie shaped section out and did not dig up the entire plant. I decided it had to be moved to try to bring it back to it's beautiful self. I didn't have any individual pictures from 2009 and 2010. I don't take pictures when things don't look good and it was steadily getting smaller and more deformed. I prepared the site as well as I could and it now had lots of water and lots of sun. In spite of that it looked smaller for the next couple years. I tried to 'help' it by giving it compost, better soil (on top). I only succeeded in making it worse since the crown was being burried more and more. Meanwhile my sister (who got that division) talked to Jack and Gary from Naylor. The division did not live by the way. They said in their experience Sum and Substance hates to be moved or divided. Great. I'd done both! They have a huge plant in a barrell where they intend to leave it forever. So... in 2011 I risked moving it again since it was going backwards anyway. I made the depth of the hole at least twice the size and made sure the crown was just about at the surface. So far so good and it seems to be coming back. I'm looking forward to seeing it next year. So from now on I make every effort to plant any Sum and Substance offspring in the place they will live forever and not too deep....See MoreDoes anyone grow Sum and Substance hosta?
Comments (13)Thank you SCG! I am glad to hear you have good experiences with Fundy Beauties/Hostageek, their prices are quite reasonable for their hosta collections! If I could go back in time, I would have exclusively bought a hosta collection from them. Unfortunately I started growing hostas before knowing about hvx, almost all of mine are already from big box stores. Perhaps one day when the symptoms show, I may similarity wipe them all and start fresh. At least I only have six varieties, it's not a big deal to remove them if needed....See More
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