Same here, but I expected it. I've always heard FW is very slow to expand. I think mine could do better but it is directly under a pagoda dogwood and I don't give it much additional food or water. A few years ago I read a study done by commercial hosta growers. They claimed using alfalfa doubled or tripled the mass of hostas (over a control group that did not receive the alfalfa). It might be worth a try. Spread a few cups of pellets around the base and water it in. Maybe one more application later in the season and another next April. If you still see no results, pass Frannie along to someone else.

Which solid color? It could revert to sieboldiana Elegans,which would be blue,or gold which would be Golden Sunburst,the all-gold version of FW. I have one of those which went completely to gold,and it is now a Golden Sunburst. This is bad,because it has the same burning as the regular Frances Williams edges has. I keep it in lots of shade to prevent that. Phil

The problem with that, berdnyz, is that the virus doesn't have to show to be present. That is how it got such a strong hold in the market. Infected plants can go years without showing symptomes, but all the time you can be spreading the virus if you work with the plant and other plants. The growers used the "visual check" to determine if their plants were OK - and dumped a bunch of virused stock into the market. In general, the reason prices are low at Big Box stores is they are buying inexpensive stock that has been mass produced and is much more prone, due to the way it is handled, to be infected. and somebody should talk to Phil - he'll be embarassed when he realizes he linked the wrong photo... he knows the difference between FW and Striptease! (not St. Paul - if you look closely you can see the tell-tale white stripes of Striptease...)

Mocc, My FW is on it's third or fourth year. It's had uglies every year. It may be because they have no shade for the first couple of months they're up. All the trees that shade it are pecan trees and you know how late they are. I think it must have been "Cleo'd", as it came back with juvenile leaves this year. Unfortunately, I think I may have the same problem with OBL. I bought it early this year, while it was still just fat pips. I has the same kind of brown marks FW has. I'm hoping it's because we had such an up and down spring. I've wanted an OBL since I saw the first one on ebay. It was probably my first year of hosta addiction. I'm going to be more careful with them next spring to see if keeping them shaded and protected in the early spring will help. I suppose I'm going to have to learn about sieboldiana heritage. I checked my new Elegans and it has a few burned edges. In the photos below, you will see what kind of damage that I get on FW. It's been there every year. It's raining, so the flash went off and the photos aren't great. However you can see what it looks like. It's on most every leaf. bk FW FW OBL OBL