what got at SS?

Deer early. Other smaller ones are fine. Location, location.

TOP GUN II

Sagae 40"

UM, UH. 29" Junior league

Dream Queen 48"

Great expectations 48"

I missed a couple.

Sherry

Nice to see the monsters, Jon!

Sherry

Jon..I'll take some measurements..curious to see the numbers on my big ones..my Great Expectations is not even close to yours..

Sherry..your garden looks great 🙂..I'm not sure if any of my Elegans are 58"..we'll see..

I generally never measure mine as for size . I usually do a pip count to know they have grown.

After 5 days of hard freezes, a lot of the hostas are either stunted or have deformed leaves. Happily, all but one recovered - they're just not as big as usual.

Guardian Angel was safely underground during the big freeze. 69 x 30

Squash Casserole never looks all that big to me, but measures 70 x 24.

Humpback Whale is a youngster but already 65 x 31. That blue thing is a whale cutout.

I'm not sure Krossa Regal should count. It's a very old plant and has fairy ringed, so the center is empty. 60 x 30

Two for one - Night Before Christmas is 62 x 24, and Dancing Queen is 47 x 23. They've gotten bigger than expected and are growing into each other. I think it might be easier to cut off a chunk or two than move them.

Empress Wu got frozen to the ground. The first leaves were distorted, but she still checks in at 62 x 36.

Blue Angel looks like the biggest because she's in the newest bed and dwarves everything around her. 69 x 30.

Those are some nice looking hostas, but the damage to S&S has got to be deer I am guessing or some HUMONGOUS slugs and cutworms. :-) :-)

My largest hosta is my Blue Angel at 60 inches. Not sure she will get bigger in her location. I don’t think there’s room for her to expand. Blueberry Muffins is about 45 inches across coming in second for me. My Sum & Substance is about 42 inches wide and 4 or 5 years old. She’s much larger this year than last.

debra

60 inches, that's a keeper. Deer usually eat right down to the stalks. Kind of tattered edges. Maybe Shasta dragged me over it and I just don't want to think about it.

My Big Daddy is 60 inches wide! edit, got the image loaded. yes, that is 5 feet wide! All my others are a bit behind, but this one is always early and amazing. The mower chewed up some of the leaves.

Great looking hosta’s everyone. None of my hosta’s are as big as last year but hopefully they will be so by the end of the month. One early and two late freezes really did a number on them this spring. Here‘s how they looked last year.

Devils Adovate in front at 62”. S&S at 80”. Guardian Angel at 72”. All That Jazz at 72” in the back.

Mac48, love that Devil's Advocate. Mine is 4 or 5 years old, getting bigger, but yours puts it to shame. Maybe in another 5 years......

Thanks MadPlanter, I would think yours will explode any time now. Mine didn‘t grow much the first 3 years but exploded last year ( its fourth year).

I have my hosta’s in raised beds of compost mixed with mulch and I water heavily. After visiting Van Wade and seeing his jumbo hosta’s I realized how important good drainage and abundant water are in growing huge hosta’s. Mine aren’t nearly the size of his but in my small yard they look it.

Mac48 - I have been watering my babies regularly and getting better results. I used to just put them in and leave them to fend for themselves.

My largest is a Guacamole which is 55 across. The guys at Wade & Gatton always said they had a "special soil" mix and i bet he fertilized a lot. When visiting him, it was always easy to underestimate how big everything was because he had so much room in his gardens. Sort of like buying a live Christmas tree, they always seemed so much smaller out in the field until you got them home and then well they seemed to grow.

I did the same for more years than I care to remember, Jeanne. Summer watering seems to be the key for me as we usually get enough rain in the spring and fall. Dehydrated hosta’s shrink in size but with constant water and heat they thrive. Because of that i don’t bother trying to grow them within reach of the massive Silver maples surrounding two sides of my yard as I can’t water faster than their roots can suck it up. I’m praying for a tornado or ice storm to take those maples out 😜

Agreed miles, W&G’s hosta’s are colassal but don’t look as big as they really are in that huge garden. Van told me that the key was constant watering, great drainage on the hillside and fertilizing with chicken manure. It was 20 years ago when I visited ( I was 10 at the time 🤣) so they may be doing things differently now. Using a modified Wade approach to growing hosta’s I had my S&S up to 102” until the Silver maple roots reached it. It shrunk to about 60” over two years and I have it up to 80” two years after moving it. I was hoping it would reach 8’ this year but the freezes really set it back this year. I’ll take pics this weekend showing their current state.