Someone just posted about a YouTube video put out by New Hampshire Hostas....something like "Cleaning the Hosta Bed in Fall, Part 1" I thought it was good. It would be excellent for a beginner. One point made I really agree with: if you wait till after the first freeze you can just rake away the dead leaves. Much easier than cutting everything back. However, I cut the flower stems...or scapes....back as they finish flowering or as I have time. These stay woody and can't be raked out easily.

Congratulations on the new home....maybe there are lots of other plants besides hostas! Next year will be a year of discovery....

After many years of hosta in my garden, I do what Marie stated. Cut down the petioles and clear out the foliage after it dries up, SO much easier and quicker. Sometimes I don't get the cleanup done till spring, just depends on the weather.

sherry

Sherry I didn't say that last year was the first time I ever got the foliage out in the fall (25 years) I thought I should give a newbie a chance to learn good habits first. But it really made spring clean up easier.

I don't know if it's right or not, but I don't do anything to clean up my hostas in fall. I let the seeds stay to feed the birds or to possibly give me some seedlings to discover next spring. I always thought the hosta leaves are good for winter insulation, so I don't clean them up until spring.

I suppose if I had any in a prominent spot like the walkway to the front door, I would clean up a bit more. But soon enough it will all be covered in snow, anyhow.

Cleaning up/removing the hosta leaves and debris in the Fall could lessen the chance of slug eggs and leaf fungus overwintering in your garden.

I agree that it's easier to just rake it away after die back, but be gentle around the plant so you don't damage the crown with the rake.

I've used tree leaves in the past for insulation, but this year I have voles to contend with... There will be some leaves blow in around them anyway.

A light "spring rake" will do it. I'd try not to use a heavy plastic rake.

I watch as the snow falls, covers everything..at first thaw I get out my back pack blower and blow anything left, into the woods..DONE!! I tell myself the left behind foliage is a nice winter blanket for the crowns..16 years and so far so good!!

Oops, I get it Marie, should get the good habits established in new gardeners! Age tends to make me go the easiest route lately. Just don't have the energy I used to!

sherry

And I get that, Sherry! I am either semi retired or retired (depending on whether I can get a part time job) and actually have a bit more time to get it right, but not necessarily get it done.

after a fall ankle injury I didn't clean up the scapes. turns out da birds enjoyed da seeds dat winter, n bonus, most scapes fell down n decayed by spring, so less to clip next year. papa always said u wanna b smart, watch how a lazy person does it...

besides, HVX spread by dirty tools, so clipping best done on dried-up scapes

fwiw

I am in the fall clean up camp. No debris to foster potential pests and disease.

I'm in the spring cleanup camp but if I had problems with disease or critters I would change to fall.

When you cut off the petioles, then you have to clean your cutting tool after each hosta with 10% bleach, or you will spread any HVX and other viruses, fungus and nematodes around. This is a lot of work! When you leave the hosta leaves where they fall over winter after frosts, then slugs and voles will thank you, slugs laying eggs under the dead leaves and voles running under that nice thick leaf cover giving added access to those tasty hostas. I also lost dwarf conifers to voles.

I am fighting voles now for 2 months with poison pellets in PVC tunnels. Resident voles died and then neighbor tribes migrate in, a permanent cycle so far. For those and slugs I will have a clean landscape, with very few places to hide to next spring. But voles can still run under snow cover, you never win.

I let hosta leaves die back from frost and collect the dry or very soft hosta leaves, putting them into garbage, because they might have viruses in them. I do not have labels in front of my hostas, so my rake and boots have easy access to hosta beds, Thereafter I mulch any residing tree leaves and debris on the hosta bed with my lawn mower on a high setting giving a light cover. This way I also do not damage corms with my rake! I do not rake other tree leaves on my hosta bed, they go into paper bags for town pickup.

I need to add that you do not really know that your hostas have no viruses and therefore, you do need to be careful during the cleanup. HVX i.e., might show up in a hosta only several years after it got initially infected. During those years then you are spreading the virus unknowingly around.

Even If you are planning to remove the hosta leaves after a frost, you may want to leave the flower stalks in place to mark the location of each plant. The landscape looks very different in the spring and it is easy to lose track of where they are and accidentally damage the pips by stepping on them or raking them.

Conniemay, that is a good idea,especially if they are mixed with other plants. I suppose one does not need to leave all the flower stalks, just a couple per plant.

I do nothing. In the spring, I walk around and collect any scapes that are still standing and toss them in the yard waste. Bring on the new season.

I leave the scapes on until the new spring leaves are all the way up because it deters the rabbits and deer from eating the tender new growth. When it doesn't get too cold too fast in the fall I clean up the leaves...otherwise wait till spring. Either way I have a slug problem. Hostas have been there for 30 years. Going to try to clean up the leaves in the fall this year and take them to the dump. And hope the slugs are lessened.

Apparently I'm all alone in the no clean up camp. Either that or nobody else will admit to it.

I leave everything, including the 8-12 inches of oak leaves that routinely fall on my main hosta beds. After the first killing frost I simply walk away. The birds do love the scapes, checking those out all winter long, even when there is no hope that any seeds remain. It also gives me a nice number of volunteer seedlings every spring.

I have not had any problems with pests or disease in the 25+ years I've been doing this, and yes, even the mini hostas will come up through the oak leaves, which by spring have composted down to almost nothing. I do walk through regularly when the hostas start to show green, and manually remove any oak leaves that have pips coming through or showing underneath (alright, I mostly use my foot, but pedally just sounds odd).

This is for the hostas in my upper gardens, which are mostly for public viewing.

My lower garden a work in progess, and is mainly for growing out divided plants, lining out small divisions, but also has some more landscaped areas. And by landscaped, I mean 98% hostas, but grown more as specimens, with 2% astilbes, bleeding heart, ferns, and a few other perennials. This area gets no attention at all until I'm ready to start dividing hostas in the spring. Maybe a little weeding if I'm feeling up to it, but for the most part those hostas make it all on their own. That area gets some oak leaves and lots of walnut leaves.

My only slightly coddled hostas are some very small minis that live in a bed that generally doesn't get many oak leaves. Things like Manzo, Kifukirin Otome, and few other tinies live near cedar trees, but in a mostly sunny area, in a slightly raised bed, and they overwinter very well.

Haha, I have many more oak leaves that dhaven, because plants CANNOT get through the oak leaves come spring. Six mature oak trees on less than a quarter acre lot. The last two beds I got to in April had white plants growing sideways under the leaves.

Anyway, I've done cleanup different ways. Almost broke my ankle the first summer, so no leaf cleanup until spring. That was lots of work. Also found a few rabbit nests.

Next year, did leaf cleanup in the fall. Lots of work in the freezing cold. Had a few late transplants frost heave over winter.

Hired some guys one year, very easy on me, but they almost killed my evergreen groundcover. Also yanked a couple recent transplants out of the ground.

Last year, only removed leaves/acorns from the lawn. Had a ton of leaves still in the back yards both on and between the beds. I got lucky that we had an early spring; the leaves were abundant but easy to remove.

This year I'm planning on removing leaves/acorns from the lawn and in big areas between the beds in the back. This way the beds have some cover, while the leaf removal in spring will hopefully be manageable for me.

dhaven is not all alone in the no clean up camp. As I mentioned only a couple of posts up, I do nothing. I rarely have to mess with leaves in the spring although I have an untold number of various types of trees. I've never had a problem with leaves out in the yard, but sometimes the wind piles them up next to the house. The hostas still shoot up, but they are white until I get them some light.

arcy, I just bought a new Husky back pack blower and it does a terrific job on leaves, especially around shrubs and I am sure it will make quick work of dead hosta leaves. Great for cleaning paved walkways, paved borders and fantastic for cleaning out the 'Ravine', blasting out from between the rocks and around the perimeter. This will keep the rocks from 'sinking' and make short work of spring and fall sprucing up. It seemed heavy and awkward when I first put it on, but if you adjust the straps to even things out and strap the waist belt snug it is not bad at all.

Jon

It is great to have a very large yard where you can blow leaves to and be done with it. I have less than 1/2 acre and being a hostaholic have planted any available spots with hostas, etc. So i spent 3 1/2 hours last Saturday raking, bagging leaves and pine needles, though it is good exercise.

Hope you saved those pine needles to use as mulch next year. As for available space for hostas, do you still have lawn? If so, you may have more room for hostas. My entire 'yard' (and I use the term very loosely) is hosta beds and mulched paths. Nothing to mow and maximum room for plants. Not an option for everyone of course, but I'm seeing this done to varying degrees more and more often.

In my area it is fairly common to see hostas and other perennials planted in the easement space between the sidewalk and the street. The downside is that if the city decides to dig up that space, you have to move all your plants, or lose them, but the city is pretty good about giving 2 weeks notice on non-emergency projects. I've also noticed many homes that formerly had narrow, fairly formal landscaping areas right next to the house that now have much broader, less formal beds extending out from the house.

I think lawn is needed because for selling a house whenever needed and buyers have kids who want to romp around on a lawn. I raked the lawn, not the hostas. I usually wait until I can pull off all hosta leaves, then remove large accumulations of tree leaves around hostas, then run the mower without bagging over it. Pine needles stay there. In addition to 406 hostas I also have 65 different conifers on my 0.4 acres lot. Thick mulch and debris would protect voles and slugs, so my mulch is thin. We have no sidewalks at the road. Snow plows will create an up to 3 ft high and 6 ft wide pile of hard salty snow starting from the curb for many weeks - planting there is not good.

My hosta beds are surrounded by a hardwood
forest - predominately black cherry and maple.
At this time of year, I pull the identification signs from the gardens
and begin sweeping the endless supplies of leaves on to the gardens. In spring, the long stalks help serve as
signposts about the hostas’ location. In
spring, I try to wait till the last killing frost and then start removing the
leaves from around the hostas. The
leaves have settled to about 1’ in depth by spring. If I get the timing right – and that’s hard,
because I am eager to see the hostas in spring – then I removed them just when
the spring frosts have ended, leaving the hostas leaves untarnished and showy
for their new season.

It’s surprisingly easy to move the
leaves. Mostly, I just part them and
allow the hostas to grow threw. When the
stacks are too high, I just move them around the plants.

Cleanup time in spring is
insignificant. The thing is about all
those leaves, I can avoid watering and fertilizing and weeding is a matter of
minutes.

I grow about 350 hostas in various beds
this way, and clean up is a joy, because of the emerging hostas, not a
chore.

My soil is lovely and deep and rich and gets better every year. Hostas grow very quickly with this method. I use an ammonia solution for slugs as soon as I clean the leaves from the base of each hosta in spring.