Your best bet would be to dig and divide.

either divide and replant... removing all the old material in the center ...

or dig out the middle.. and refill with fresh soil.. and the hosta will grow back into the center .....

some peeps have been known to use a bulb planter to carve out the interior ....

the addition of new soil will wildly stimulate new growth ... next year

of course.. water like heck ...

i dont see why you can do this right now in z7 ... just do it.. and dont worry how they look for the rest of what is left of this season ....

i dont know why you would waste money on new plants.. to plant in the middle of old plants ... but that is how new ideas come along ... if you need more hosta.. so be it... expand your beds.. and carpe hostum .... but take the opportunity to work on these .... and learn about hosta... since you have more than one... try a bunch of things... and see which system worked best ... and send us a pic if you plant one inside the other...

dig one up and divide...
dig the center and resoil it on another...
and plant a different plant in fresh soil in the middle ...

will await your results next summer ..

now go seize the day ....

ken

Thanks much for the pics on the fairy ring treatment. I appreciate the info and will give it a try.

"Thanks much for the pics on the fairy ring treatment. I appreciate the info and will give it a try."
summer

I've been hoping that others will try this method and report the results, if you can take photos before you start even a hosta looking bad and in decline that will show the fairy ring prior. I didn't think to take a photo of the plant prior to trying the "Volcano" of mulch.

I have to believe that as little as 8-10 inches instead of the little mountain I used may work, if not the first year it may work over 2 years.

EO--Why shredded leaves--how about a pile of compost or really rich dirt in the center--it seems to me that they would have more nutrients in them? Mary

"EO--Why shredded leaves"

I used leaves and was talking about the leaves and through in the shredded leaves point because a thick mulch of un-shredded leaves can be a problem. They will stack up a bit like bricks keeping out air leading to anaerobic compost (a bad thing).

More depth of the mulch the more attention to air movement is needed. I think any mulch would work, don't know about soil because it is so dense. Since I've piled ground leaves deep many times I was comfortable with trying a deep pile.

Back to using dirt, I would not put it very deep until you have learned how deep you can go.

EO Thanks for the info. Mary

I had fairy ring in a 5 gallon pot of a 7 year old guacamole. Not a darn thing growing in the middle, just dead crowns. So I divided it into 4, gave away 3 and kept one and it is almost as large as the original one year later. Ken had it right. Butch just has a different approach. Either way, the middle is dead. Do what you wish with it...add soil/leaves/kitchen compost/whatever or cut it out. Hostas grow where there is room to grow, in or outward depending on the restrictions.

-Babka

Before anyone volcano mulches there plants please google it.

Just type in "too much mulch on a plant"

see for yourself before you try this

Kens approach is the best way. Divide it or dig out the middle. Easier than possibly killing the hosta.

"Either way, the middle is dead."

This is not what I found!

Butch-

When I pulled the old h.Guacamole out of its pot and cut into the middle, the crown was dead with a capital "D". Obviously the centers of yours weren't really-o truly-o dead......yet.

-Babka

"too much mulch on a plant"

Good advice re trees, I searched and found much about trees and woody shrubs but little about other perennials and nothing about hosta.

It is true that mulch deep enough to go into a serious heat can be a problem, yet I have spread ground up tree leaves as much as 15 inches deep without any problem on hosta many times.

Here is a link that might be useful: More on ground leaf mulch

It's fantastic when somebody has an excitement for something and shares that excitement but that doesn't make them an expert but it's even worse when they share bad information.

So I'll make it easier for you EO.
and if you can't believe W. George Schmid then who will you believe?

http://www.gahosta.org/george.htm

and more

http://clark.osu.edu/hort/juneart04.htm

and more

http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/archive/x218385732/Urban-Gardener-Too-much-mulch-a-bad-idea

Do you honestly believe even knowing what can happen to a tree, besides heat problems, fugis, pest problems (rodents and slugs and such) lack of air to the roots. Do I have to go on! would be any better for a hosta.

You haven't done harm that you know of. Smaller roots=smaller hostas then eventual death, slugs mean more slugs and not pretty hostas, rodents mean more rodents... and such

Keep sharing the pictures and your experiences but I'd leave the advice part alone.

"Keep sharing the pictures and your experiences but I'd leave the advice part alone."
bear

I've read the references and none show the basis for what I believe is bad advice about slugs, separate from your references I did an exhaustive search on slugs and could find no reference to show a causal relationship between slugs and mulch beyond many ref advising that mulch causes slugs.

There is a massive amount of information showing the positive relationship between mulch and soil health including my personal field work on the effects of mulch.

My advise stands re mulch and the effect of mulch on fairy rings.

If you don't like my advice or the results of my work in these areas don't use it.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I did a little experimenting and dug up some hostas and divided and replanted and planted some new hostas right in the middle of some of the plants. The hostas were quite inexpensive at Lowes so I thought I'd give it a try. What I'm mad about is not taking pictures. Next year I will be very curious on the turnout.

I've had many 'fairy rings' and am very familiar with how to get them to once again grow in the center. I piled leaves into the center every time and was always rewarded in the Spring with eyes growing back into the middle. I thought it was dumb luck, but after reading these posts, and becoming totally confused about these opinions, I decided to run it all past one of the Morton Arboretum horticulturists here in Lisle, Illinois where they have an enormous hosta garden. I am a student in two of their certificate programs - Natural History and Botanical Illustration, so I am acquainted with many of the staff. This is what I got back today: "Finely shredded leaves filter down through the soil and easily decompose by spring, providing minerals and nutrients plants require. We have ground all different kinds and amounts (of leaves) into both turf and plants and the benefit of incorporating this back into the soil is the microbes and the type of nutrition provided. Maple leaves, high in calcium and potassium, break down easily as do Oak leaves. Oak leaves are especially beneficial to acid-loving plants, even though the composting process neutralizes the acidic nature. It is, however, crucial that the leaves be finely shredded. As regards your problem of the 'fairy ring' what is occurring over winter is the development of new eyes growing into the middle again, as well as growing out, as these nutrients have provided superior nutrition to the 'inside' of the 'fairy ring'. Therefore, the inside is not 'dead' - rather it is simply sending out eyes into the middle to reach the newly-provided nutrients." She went on to tell me that this middle 'space' cannot be referred to as 'dead' -- it is simply devoid of eyes because the plant has 'grown outward' trying to reach nutrients. She added that the height of the leaves piled in the center matters little, but the more the better - as long as they are removed in Spring.

I hope that settles it!

Westy

Except that my Guacamole middle was dead, like dry rotted. The crown material there crumbled between my fingers. So one size doesn't fit all.

-Babka

So one size doesn't fit all.
-Babka

The primary new growth I found was the dormant non-producing eyes on the inside of the ring, the small number of new eyes more in the center area was a surprise.

Just to clarify for you Babka, what this horticulturist said was that the 'dead middle' eventually decomposes along with the other materials into the soil and the new eyes grow into the middle 'on top of the part that WAS dead and is now decomposing'. This, according to her, takes time. So cutting out the middle or digging it up early at this stage is naturally going to show the beginning of the process of decomposition. Or no decompositon at an early point in time. I hope that explains that part.

In my experience, I can vouch for this because the ones I left alone (some are 20 years old) eventually filled in with eyes in the middle. Some, where I didn't want to wait, I dug up as soon as I noticed the ring and divided it the same year, not wanting to wait for nature to take its course or even wait another year.

Westy

Westy-

We are on the same page here. Good.

-Babka