Might be helpful to include some photos.

don’t even have stalks yet, just some leaves coming up!!

==>>> planted too deep??? .. pull back the soil or dig one up.. and find out ...

way too late for z8 ... ken

Patriot and Minuteman tend to struggle in Z7 / Z8. That's based on personal experience, what I've heard from others, and what I've read from plant trials. Would still potentially be useful to have some pictures, though.

In this trial, one is listed as a slow grower and the other is listed as one that exhibits heat stress. I'll note that my personal experience in 7B/8A doesn't exactly match what they have in their study but it is similar:

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/lawn_garden/commercial_horticulture/ornamentals/thriving-hostas-for-southern-louisiana-landscapes

Yes, what Ken and Don said, too deep. Either planted that way or they sunk down later, which happens in my yard sometimes. See how your leaves are trying to unfurl close to the ground? You want your hosta to be able to shoot up a bit more before the leaves start to unfurl.

I am finding strange patterns here

"Patriot and Minuteman tend to struggle in Z7 / Z8."

I doubt you can attribute this to a zone specifically :-) A location, yes - a zone, no. ALL hostas thrive in my zone, which is even milder!! In fact, one of the better mail order sources for hostas is located just a few miles up the road :-)) But then, we do not have hot summers nor much summer humidity. And summer nights cool down very pleasantly. In milder areas of the country that don't have similar conditions, performance may be different. It is important to remember that the USDA zones ONLY apply to winter cold, nothing else!! Summer heat and humidity are NOT reflected in the zone designations and hardiness zones will have no bearing on how a plant will perform in various location that will share a similar winter cold temperature but little else climate-wise.

Patriot is the oldest hosta in my collection, shared with me by a gardening buddy maybe 25 years ago. And has accompanied me over the years through various different gardens :-)) Mine fills an 18" diameter, 15 gallon container.

I agree that the USDA zones don't do a good job of describing local climate, particularly in describing summer heat and humidity since they only describe the average winter minimum temperature. I guess I should have said that Patriot and Minuteman seem to struggle in Z7/Z8 in the Southeastern US. I seem to remember Sunset developing a system that takes both winter chill and summer heat into account but their system never really caught on outside of the Western states.

I have several of these (not sure if they are Patriot or Minuteman - they are very similar) and while most of them are tiny and haven't grown, one of them has inexplicably done extremely well and is now over 2 feet across. I guess the microclimate of my yard in the particular spot it is in suits that plant while other parts of my yard seem less suited. It's odd because these are pretty much the only varieties of Hosta that I've had trouble getting to grow well.

I would also agree with others that these look to be planted a bit too low - the second one in particular seems to be too deep.

I've also got a couple of Hostas that I need to reset to ground level that have settled for various reasons.

interesting, i will dig those up and re plant