I have always divided in the spring as soon as the sprouts appear big enough to be seen properly. Interesting info keesha! I am going to have to look closer at the hosta this year and see how they look. Maybe I will have to give it a try. I never really thought about whether they were nicely rounded mounds.....I am kind of a 'plant it and be grateful it grows' kind of gardener,:) so unless something is extremely unruly or floppy, I don't really think about it, although I am always impressed when I do see a beautifully shaped plant in the garden. gg

Jonny, I am sure you remembered the Sports Illustrated swim suit shoot for its great dialog, as well as its gorgeous examples. Ah, Jon-Boy, you left yourself open for that one. ...... ....but I know what you mean. These days, my hands shake more. Not so easy to hold steady. There comes a breeze just at the wrong time, and the scapes wiggle on me. My back gets a twitch in it. I suddenly forget everything I knew about operating my camera, for some reason. Guess I should try reading the manual again. I have three things I take pictures with, depending on where I am. My smarty phone is Atrix 4g, which I use in a pinch--I can upload direct and immediately to Flickr from its WiFi connection to my account at Flickr. The ASUS TF201 Android tablet takes pictures nicely, but I have a hard time composing the picture since the brightness function with daylight sort of fades out the screen and what I'm focused on. I regard it as a point and shoot camera. Then my Nikon Coolpix or whatever it is, does fine, but I don't know how to stop it from turning spots of sunlight into burnt out spots in the photo. I have broken shade in my Back40 hosta area, and waiting for a cloudy overcast day could take a long time. I take my shots when I can get em, for better or worse. In the month of May, I took over 1200 garden shots, mostly of the hosta. I mean EVERYTHING was picture worthy in my eyes. In June so far, 2/3 over with, I've taken 800 garden shots. Averaging 400 shots every 10 days it seems. Could not begin to do that (or afford to do that) if it were a film camera. I'm more likely to keep less of the shots that are bad though. Although uploading direct from the cameras is a good thing, it can also lead to out of focus and blurry images if not reviewed before uploading. And shooting in the rain can lead to unexpected problems. I took a lot of pictures and they looked fine normal size. But when I viewed them in slideshow full screen, I saw that there was a spot of dirty water or something similar, in the same spot on a series of photos. Oh boy. That was irritating. Someone mentioned a little before this happened, be sure to clean your camera lens. And the lesson came home to me, loud and clear. Those spots on the lens can ruin all your beautiful photos, and flowers and leaves do not stay the same for very long. It might be the only chance you get to shoot a fantastic plant.

So what did your mom think? I moved a large Krossa yesterday, it was just too darn big where it was. Moved it whole. Today I have some dividing and moving to do to add different color where all I see is dark green. Hosta are like furniture at my house. If all goes well the ones I move today will need less babying than the Krossa. #1 the plant is smaller, easier to deal with #2 I will remove all the dirt before dividing so I will have little root loss. I baby mine for a week or two. All summer Paul? That is a lot of babying. My only issue is what to do with the ones that are where the new divisions will go. I really don't like putting the time into potting and hate to lose my pots and dirt for such common specimens.

But then as long as it is not in a hot week and not in July/August, as long as you feel good, are up to lifting out and planting large plants and willing to work several hours outside, simply do it when you can. In my case it will be tomorrow, temp will be less than 80, my worry of HVX on 2 plants was unfounded, they tested NO HVX, so I feel good. I will dig out and divide a large 'Gold Standard' for a society sale, Then I have to plant 2 large ones I bought in April/May, and will check (lifting out completely) 3 hostas which are shrinking. Yes, I will be using masking tape to not destroy leaves, per Ken. Bernd