Same here in Illinois Phil, Usually the hurricanes in the gulf bring us rains in September but it is too late. Most of my display Hostas have long gone dormant or are headed that direction. Extreme heat with dry wind have really been hard on the Hosta this year. I started watering the bins in July and haven't stopped .Even the well watered ones look like they have taken a beating.Have a great hibernation and build up energy and high hopes for next spring!

Take Care,
Denny

No reain here in Oregon Illinois either, hi Denny.

hey phil

mine seem to be going down rather early also ... i think it was those 6 weeks near 100 .. when the nights stayed in the mid 70 ... they just look so tired ...

oh well ... what can we do.. besides complain

ken

Hey cAROL!How is my favorite troll doing?

All of mine came through the heatwave just fine as I kept everything well watered but now that the high heat has broken many af my hostas have started going to sleep. A great many still look decent but it won't be for much longer until they are all done for the year. I has a sad. :*(

Phil, there was also another song way back in the 50s, I think by Peggy Lee. "Is that all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing."

So don't forsake us when the garden goes belly up, we'll still be out there dancing. Heck, I just discovered I can grow hostas in Alabama, and it's started raining down there again. I'll be moving the hostas from zone 5B to 8B by Thanksgiving....if I can still find them in this garden.

Hey Phil,

Actually, they are saying this weather pattern is similar to the 50's. Hopefully, the drought won't last as long as it did then.

bkay

Phil, could I ask you, before you are gone, what did the best for you under these conditions? I have been following your posts and lack of rain. Here too. if certain hostas did well for you I may have good luck here in Florida. Thank you. Paula

Phil, here in upstate NY we had water enough, so hostas look still good except for some. You were writing about not able to water because your garden is too far from the house and you have a well. Did you ever think about creating some water works? For example, place a light-weight plastic tank (old, used one, delivered) in the woods and pump water into it from creek and well when available. Then you would have some water for the real bad times like last summer.
Only a thought. Bernd

Paula,if you have been looking at my recent post,Parhelion is doing the best of all,sitting out there at the entrance of my garden in almost full sun,looks almost the same as always. The only difference you can see is close-up,where the white edge has faded away,but otherwise,it's standing right up. Another still looking good is Olive Bailey Langdon,although sagging down,because of lack of water. All of them are sagging down,as they would if it were October,with lots of yellow leaves showing up. Bernd,I know you mean well,but lack of rain,also translates to barely any creek left. It is barely trickling now. It never was a big creek to start with,but it is even worse now. This tropical storm down in the gulf shows promise for bringing us some rain,and some is predicted for this weekend,but,even then,it really is too late for this year! They will be back next year,and probably better than ever. I have had droughts in the past,but never lost a hosta. Hope that answers ya'lls questions? Phil

I'm with you Phil. It has been so hot here that no matter how much you water it did no good. For the past 2 months they have been predicting rain and we have got none. It's been raining everywhere but in my neighborhood. My plants looked great in Spring with all that rain.

Phil,
I didn't realize that the hurricane missed you. Everyone thinks NC was washed away.

Its a swamp here in Eastern PA. After 8" last weekend, its constant rain again.

Yet, some of my hosta are showing fall colors. The drought of June and July wasn't offset by the record rainfall in August.

I no longer think drought, now its figuring out drainage. I am sinking into the ground in two spots in the back yard, might lose two hostas. Irene brought 6 inches, got the last day 3 inches, more to come. One creek valley had water flow through it equivalent to the American and Canadian Niagara Falls together. Maps I saw today show that, Phil, you will be getting a lot of inches of rain.
Bernd

Yeah,we finally got 3 inches of rain over the last few days,but it was from the tropical depression that went through here,that dumped lots of rain on Lousiana recently. Too bad it couldn't have gone farther west and extinguished Texas fires. I think it's too late for hostas,as they are going down fast,but everything here needed rain. Phil

Oh, Phil I am so sorry for your shortened season. My hosta are starting to look weary, too! We had a long dry spell, not as long as yours and we've just had some decent rain this week so they are perking up, albeit with a combo of yellow and green waving!

BTW---Another 'Kingston Trio' fan I presume? Steve and I definitely are--have all their music as well as the 'Chad Mitchell Trio', and 'Ian and Sylvia'--heard of any of those others?

Here are all the lyrics to the song I think you're referring to:

'They're Rioting in Africa'size>
(no offense to anyone's nationality intended)

"They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles

Italians hate Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much

But we can be grateful
And thankful and proud
That man's been endowed
With a mushroom shaped cloud

And we know for certain
That some happy day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away

They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man."

Those lyrics are very current, even today aren't they--Wow!!

Uh, I did mention hosta didn't I?

I'm surprised you found the lyrics! I can only remember some of them. It was supposed to be a parable,but it still applies today,doesn't it? Hostas are going down here at a rapid rate,but you have to remember,my hostas come up two months before yours up north! Oh well,it was a good year hosta-wise anyhow. Phil

We've had a cooler than average Summer here. The only hostas that are turning Fall colors, are the ones that unfurled in early March, and that is just on maybe one or two leaves. I just pull those off, so everything still looks pretty good.

Regarding the Kingston Trio...I was a BIG fan in 1960 and saw them live in Chicago. When we moved out here (Northern CA 15 years later, I met a neighbor who said she would frequently see Dave Guard, Nick Reynolds, or Bob Shane at the local food store in Palo Alto back in the late 50's when they were performing locally in San Francisco. Wow...I was walking on the same ground...

Thanks for invoking the memories. Think I'll go play a few of their albums. I have them all. Badly worn.

-Babka

It'll soon be late February/early March and you'll be posting pics of fully leafed out Hostas while the rest of us are looking at snow.

The Zone giveth and the Zone taketh away.

Steve

It's been really dry here. We started watering at camp a couple times a week back in July and it's not really rained since then. There are no hostas there because of the deer, but that's still a lot of water to haul by hand. I've only done a deep watering here at home every three weeks or so. The water bill shocks me otherwise. And this is the U.P. not Texas :-)

Thank you for all your "hosta wisdom!" This was my first year, in zone 6/Connecticut, to grow Empress Wu hostas. They started out with a "bang"...grew to a height of 5 feet, at least, spread in both direction width-wise, and created a wonderful display right in front of my porch! I was very, very proud! Then, one night, recently, we had frost, and wilt my EW hostas did! So, I cut back all the extremely wilted ones, leaving an acceptable display of hostas, which I am trying to decide what to do with. Should I put the remaining ones in a pot? Should I pot some, and leave some in the ground? Any advice that's offered would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

Akiba...best that you start a new thread because this one is an oldie...

If your hostas are in the ground, leave them in the ground.

DON'T pot them up for the winter. If you pot them, you'll lose some of the roots when you dig, disturb the other roots and generally set the hosta back. That & you'll have to put the pots somewhere to keep them from getting too wet & then have to remember to give them a tiny little sip of water a time or two during the winter to keep them from getting too dry.

In late fall, all of my potted hostas get popped out of their pots & put into the ground...a well-drained spot (I learned that the hard way). In the spring, some of 'em might get potted back up...or left where they are 'til I decide where to put 'em...or planted proper into the hosta garden. The reason I plop them into the ground is so I don't worry about them thawing & refreezing, getting too wet, too dry, etc.

I know a lot of other people very successfully hold their potted hostas over the winter & they'll chime in...ESPECIALLY if you start a new thread...but I've not been brave enough to try. Yet.

I'm suprised that you resurected this old post of mine,but if you haven't learned anything about hostas,remember this. Hostas are perrennials,and always disappear this time of year. I have many that are completely gone already,and we still haven't had a frost yet! Do not dig them up and pot them for winter. They will come back just fine next year,bigger and even better than this year. They need the dormant period to survive,just as ci lantro said. Phil