mscottw2 I did not catch the winterizer fertilizer part so disregard my balanced fertilizer recommendation from earlier. Just out of curiosity have you done a soil test recently? That would tell you if you need anything like P, K, and PH adjustment. My advice on those is apply once a year either in Fall for the last application, or the first Spring application. OK you got me a little confused with your questions of when to start what because you mention Halts, Urea, CGM, and Blood Meal. So I will try to sort things out best as I can, but are you organic, semi-organic, or synthetic organic? I am confused. If you want to do organic get the CGM down now as it is a pre-emergence and fertilizer. If you can afford it, just use CGM all year round as a fertilizer, I do on my personal lawn. That way you do not have to worry about timing of anything. Not sure about pre-emergence timing in your area Z9, it may still be to early for chemical treatment. Do you have a means to take soil temperature? If you do you are looking for temp of 55 degrees, or if Forsythia grows in your area you can tell by it being in full bloom. So here is the deal if using chemical pre-emergence wait until the soil reaches 55 or you see Forsythia in full bloom , if using CGM it needs to go down about a week or two earlier as it takes time for it to work One last word on pre-emergence. If you go the chemical route I would suggest looking for Dimension rather than Halts. Dimension last longer and targets a larger spectrum of weeds. Regardless of which you choose, make two applications spaced 8-weeks apart. Finally a few words on fertilizers. Yes I think it is OK for you to start now. Officially there are 5 weeks of winter left, but not for your area. Its possible you might get a light frost, but doubtful. It wonÂt hurt the grass, like I said just water if you hear a cold snap is coming. Next either go organic or synthetic organic. Like I said earlier just use CGM all year round if you can afford it, and then just forget about pre-m. Or use CGM for the first two applications, then switch to Soy Bean Meal rather than Blood Meal. For synthetic organic use a slow release urea product. Either start the year off or end the year off with a balanced urea like 20-5-10, and then use straight nitrogen for the rest of the growing season. Hope that helps, but I was confused.

I have them all in pots. Thanks Ken for that link. Lakeside Cupcake had one new growing eye. The rest are dormant. This situation was actually a blessing in disguise. Seven of those hostas were planted at the base of a maple tree (commence the "I-told-you-so's") I figured since this bed was only created in August that I could just "pop" the hosta ball out and pot it up. Yeah, right. The flippin maple tree had already entwined all its new roots around those hostas. I may have lost a couple cuz I dont know if I pulled out the hosta or a ball of maple roots. Lesson learned and Im not in love with that tree any longer.

Thank you! So glad I found this board last year because I'm pretty sure I drive my friends crazy on facebook bombarding them with pics of my hostas every other day! HA! I am very impressed with Wolverine so far. He's a studly looking guy, I must say! Grand Tiara has 3 dormant eyes coming through now. She's on her way to recovering.

I have them both ways, in pots and in the ground. I had to dig some up because they were in the wrong place (too hot) and put in pots. I still have some in their original nursery pots after 4, 5, maybe longer years. Won't grow to their full potential but they are doing just fine. I have this June in a big glazed pot for years and it shaded out its smaller cousins. These are still in their original pots. One day I promise to find a proper spot for them.