Thanks to Wayne at our plant swaps, no need to buy hostas lately!

I have ordered a few from places like bluestone perrenials, but I have noticed at the lowes near me (which happens to keep better care of the plants than the other box stores around me) they are getting more interesting nice looking hostas I used to only see in the catalogs, like Francis williams, Wide Brim, and others, for a good price. I like buying them much better this way instead of getting a plant in the mail without much of a root system, that takes an extra year to really get established.

i've gotten some from myers plants & pottery on 31 in pelham. i usually get ALL of my plants from there.

There is a wholesale/retail Hosta grower near Atlanta(SE of city) that usually has about 100,000 Hostas, some 550 different cultivars, in stock at any given time. Most are in gallons, small & mini's are quarts or sometimes in 4" pots.
Prices are very competitive. He doesn't have a website or ship.
If your going to pay hard earned cash, you will want to see what you are buying, anyhow!
If you have attended the cut-leaf competition in B'ham in the past, you will recognize the name; Magnolia Farm.
Don't know if they were at the last one, due to severe medical problems, but he is in rehab now and is able to function fairly well.
If you are interested in some of the newest cultivars and/or the old favorites and can make the drive, email me and I will provide directions and Tel.#.
Rb

i have not mailordered since '02 or '03 but was very pleased with the size/quality of the stock i received from "northern grown perennials". they specialize in hosta and daylily cultivars, have a website and are nice people by phone or email.
like yourself, i buy some from the local box store garden centers because i don't want to pay the big $$ for brand new releases and can wait until they hit retail markets.
have noticed that one nursery appears to be marketing diseased plants at these stores so i stay away from that source ( rhymes with macy's).

Thanks for the replies. I have stopped buying from the box stores due to too many hosta that have serious HVX symptoms. I was tempted to buy a H. Striptease, which I don't have, and after close inspection, I found the dreaded "inkbleed" on one of it's leaves. Looking further the other Striptease had it too :-(.

Okay, I'm relatively new to gardening and especially hostas. What are HVX symptoms, and inkbleed? What is the outcome of a plant affected by this? I have many seed grown hosta babies....is this something to worry about for them?

he is talking about hosta virus x(hvx), which appeared at retail outlets several years ago. it manifests some symptoms that are visible in the progressed stage such as the "bleeding" term. you don't want to introduce the virus to your hosta population so would be wise to look closely at them before purchasing. more information at the link below if you navigate to that particular section.
i saw (what i think was) so much of it at one of our local stores that i called the ala. dept. of agriculture and industries about it.
they did meet me there and he told me they would pull the plants from the shelves. that was a few years back.
on a side note, we (he) noticed that they were also selling the new dark-leaved mimosa cultivar 'summer chocolate'. this is a plant that is a exotic invasive pest in our area. i left while he pursued the garden center manager and they were gone by my next visit, either removed or sold.

Here is a link that might be useful: hosta library

This is what HVX looked in my garden this year.

{{gwi:365797}}

This is H. Paul's Glory and the discoloration in the center of the leaf is not normal and in my opinion classic HVX. To be fair, I did not get this tested, but I did not see the need. I got this at the Lowes in Trussville. When I returned it, they were very accomodating, however their grower should be fired. I have seen plenty of sick hosta at Lowes and Home Depot all over central Alabama. You don't want to introduce HVX to your lawn, especially if you have, or plan to have a lot of hosta.

Okay, can we restart this thread, with some more current sources of local hosta? I'm in Mobile, might as well be outer space to the hosta sellers, but last year I found two healthy looking hosta at Lowes down here. White Snow and Blue Angel. Then I went up north and came home with an addiction to gorgeous HOSTA.

Please update the places you buy your hosta, as well as which ones do best in your gardens.

I've bought good hostas from my favorite nursery Petals from the Past in Jemison, AL, besides plant swaps and occasional box stores. Tried and true varieties that do well for me are Sum & substance, blue angel, sieboldiana, golden tiara, krossa regal, and halycon. I bought "stained glass" at the botanical gardens when a famous hosta breeder was there giving a talk and selling them,
but it hasn't grown as big as these older types. The gardens has an impressive
grouping of hosta "guacamole" in the southern living garden section.