Janice,

But it is a testament to how well they liked it in those barrels! ;-)
Now they're going to go into withdrawal and need to join AA.

Char

Great graphic Janice....love them and have missed them.

Wish you had taken some pics of the whole process, it would have been really informative to see the ordeal you went through.

By the way, what did you do with the plant?

Donna

You know, Donna, I thought about taking pics. at the time, but I was so totally being worn out,
that I just wanted to be done with it! I can't think when I was so worn out by anything more!!!

I planted SOA, in the ground! I hope it makes it because the root system was solid packed,
about 16" wide by the same deep, by the time I carved it out of the barrel, leaving alot of the roots attached
to the sides of the barrel!! I had washed almost all the soil out in my attempts to extricate it! So, I hope it
will wriggle those roots out into the surrounding area, quickly!!!

You know, I think I did hear a faint "hiccup" when I hurled it to the ground, in the hole I had prepared,
and this morning I know I heard it screaming for some aspirin and a flask of "Jack Daniels"!! I'll check it
later for the "DT's"!

After some of the survival stories I've heard,it should be fine Janice! With that many roots,how could it NOT survive!! It will be so relieved to be free of the barrel,that it will leap next year! Good story!! Phil

Thanks, Phil!! I sure hate it that the barrels may not be a good situation for them!
I love the look!!!
I'm now worrying about "Parhelion" situated in a barrel and several S&S, too! Gulp!

You're making me nervous Janice. I bought a bunch of whiskey barrels last year and planted them with hosta. Some came back, others "bit the dust" but I lost a few in the ground as well, so I'm not sure whether it was just the weird winter, my planting skills or lack thereof or a combo of the two and whiskey barrels. I have had a Golden Tiara in a WB for several years now and it's just fine.

G.E., I think the real problem was the weird Spring! I have had many hosta in barrels for several years, and this year was the first I've lost so many of them.

The SOA, I dug out, was one such victim, having sprung up in the unseasonably warm weather in March and then was subsequently hit by *reality* the following week! It was mostly mush and part of the blame has to go to the fact that most of my soil was clay, as I discovered when I emptied the barrel. It was planted before I *knew better*, apparently. Also, I found that there were no drain holes in the bottom of the barrels and with so many roots in there, I think the side holes were just not enough drainage. Put it all together, and it was "a disaster waiting to happen!".

So, this year, I am using the barrels, again, but I am planting fewer eyes in pots that sit in the barrels and filled in around with the pine bark mulch. When fall comes, I will pull the pot out and plant it, pot and all for the winter and reposition in the barrel come the 'safe-Spring' next year! I will continue doing this, till I'm convinced that this type of Spring is not a routine change of weather pattern--which I really doubt it is!! :o)

So, don't be deterred! Use your barrels, because they really are a neat way to display your hosta--don't you think?

janice

Janice, it is a neat way of displaying and enjoying my hosta - I like that they are higher in the barrels. I found (like you) when I emptied the soil out of a couple pots that had dead (ouch!) hostas, that I had no drain holes in one pot (must have been brain dead that day), the other had rather small holes and I hadn't put landscape fabric over the drainage material in the bottom of the pot. Lessons learned, the hard way. The rest (I lost 12) I attribute to the weird weather.

I'm going to continue using them but I think I'll be covering them come winter.

June

June, what do you cover your's with?

janice