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paula_b_gardener5bon

Will more hostas die this year?

This is the coldest winter that we have had since I began growing hostas. My question is: will the death rate increase?

I don't have any hostas poking up yet and today I was thinking about the mortality rate this year, as I was cleaning up the garden and inspecting the plants. I thought about how upset I would be if some of my three year olds didn't make it and how I would miss out on the 'leap'.

Perhaps the death rate will not be higher because they were in a deep freeze all winter long covered in lots of snow. I think that freeze/thaw cycles of other years would be harder on them - or is that train of thought just wishful thinking?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Comments (38)

  • jadie88
    9 years ago

    Thanks for putting this out there. It is my understanding that the cold winter we all had wouldn't be a problem for hostas...I mean, if you zone 4 folks are growing those big beautiful specimens, it seems they don't mind the cold. But in another thread someone was told by a grower that a high loss rate was to be expected after the cold winter. Hmm? Freeze/thaw problems makes sense to me, piled snow leaving the ground soaked makes sense to me, but low temperature itself shouldn't hurt, right (to a point, of course!)

    Now, I'm in z7a, so even our record setting winter only got to the negative single digits. Plenty of shrubs with winter dieback, and my loropetalum only made it through on a wing and a prayer, but the hostas were certainly never in danger.

    Anyway, looking forward to the input!

    This post was edited by jadie88 on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 21:40

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Some of my shrubs are damaged - more the ornamental ones like my standard Euonymus. The yews and other hardy ones are fine. I was surprised to see that my Boxwood seems to be okay, too. I thought for sure that they would be flattened.

  • User
    9 years ago

    Oh my. First IMPRESSIONS are sometimes startling.

    I saw this thread header, and immediately saw
    WILL MORE HOSTAS DIE NEEDLESSLY THIS YEAR?

    And in my head I saw little Glass Heart hanging on for dear life while I laughed cruely and said, "Do not replace," so cold.

    Poster child for the NO HOSTA LEFT BEHIND program.

    Ah, what a nice break from concerns about proper potting depth and what mix to use.

    Now. I'll post this and come back again like nothing ever happened.

  • garyz6ohio
    9 years ago

    I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised with your survival rate. I would much rather have a Winter like our last one where the temperatures, while cold, were constant. Hostas don't mind cold, but don't like the temperatures jumping up above freezing, then re-freezing, then back up again. then re-freezing. That's when you will see a lot of loss. Also with the late breaking of dormancy, you will miss a lot of the late freeze damage on your early emerging hosta's leaves. Best of luck

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks Gary. That is what I thought too, that the freeze/thaw cycles are the most damaging. Keeping my fingers crossed.

  • User
    9 years ago

    PaulaB, I posted before like I said as a first impression, because it presented itself in the vein of disaster.

    At first it seems a strange response. But I think I picked up accurately on the disaster feelings which led to this thread being posted on the forum.

    I'm sure commercial enterprises don't have the same personal investment of caring into each individual plant, like us private gardeners might. I totally sympathize with you about caring for plants 3 years or more, maybe not to see them leap this year. Oh, that is a cruel possibility, and it makes me sad that I put up a thread about just that topic, LEAPING, late last night. I did not mean to rub salt in your deep wounds. I would sure miss the LEAPING if it did not happen now.

    A couple of years back we had our LONGEST cold spell below freezing for two weeks. I lost a lot of subtropical plants. But it was before I knew how to spell HOSTA. However, I learned a lot about the plants which did come back, just how hardy they were--what kind of damage would be sustained if it happened again--that gave me a lot more confidence in making plant choices, for one thing.

    So I think with hosta, as a private gardener who loves each plant, you will have some bad moments waiting to see what the mortality rate is. Perhaps it won't be near as bad as you fear. On average, you are going to be okay. Some you lose may be favorites. Others were weak and their absence will give healthy hosta space to grow.

    There is always an UP side to things, if you look..

  • don_in_colorado
    9 years ago

    What Gary said. Cold winters aren't a problem for hostas, not a problem at all. They love cold, and I remember Chris from Hallson Gardens stating that a long, cold winter is great for hostas. As long as they stay frozen. As others have said, it's that freeze/thaw freeze/thaw stuff that might kill them. I think your hostas are in good shape, Paula! : )

    Regards,
    Don B.

  • MadPlanter1 zone 5
    9 years ago

    Hang in there. We're zone 5b, had a very cold winter with no snow, and as soon as we had a few warm days hosta pips started appearing. There are still plenty I haven't seen any sign of but expect to show up in a week or two. I am a little worried about the bed I planted in September, not a sign of life - but it is on the north and one of the last to warm up.

    Bet you see pips as soon as the soil warms up.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    cold is irrelevant ...

    what should concern you .. wait .. maybe i should tell you.. since you are a worrier ...????

    WTH ..... my concern would be that they were properly slowing down and made full dormancy ... before the cold hit ..

    i have some things in the yard.. that i think were damaged.. because winter came in with gusto ..... like leaves hanging on plants that should have been totally bare by winter ... not hosta. ...

    anyway .. the key to your story.. is the snow cover... if all winter.. and no voles.. that insulating cover is what makes the difference.. rather than soil freezing and thawing all winter long ...

    and to sum it all up ... wait for it ... you probably could have left them on the driveway .. the ones that die.. would have died there.. and a vast majority would live... and those that die.. it probably wasnt winter that did it ...

    ken

    moc??? ... your starting to type like i do ...lol .. you should be concerned.. lol...

  • jadie88
    9 years ago

    Ken, I thought the same thing about Mocc's first post. :)

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago

    I have a whole different environment that most folks, as I grow in pots and I'm in Texas. I lost about 20 percent of my hosta this winter. With no better idea of what happened, I'm going to assume it was the dry winter that got mine, not the cold.

    bk

  • dougald_gw
    9 years ago

    Paula ... The Ottawa Valley routinely is much colder than areas around Toronto. The USDA Zones that everyone is so fond of, measure only absolute average minimum temperature when the really the most critical winter elements are ...
    1) length of winter (or by corollary length of growing season)
    2) snow cover

    This winter was colder but really not much longer than average winters and there was adequate snow cover. The early winter last November featured the usual sleet and rain alternating with snow but strangely, for all the moaning about freeze/thaw cycles, the onset of winter has never seemed to be a problem. Spring has just arrived and even as I write this the soil is only thawed maybe a foot down - there is a ways to go. But I don't believe it will refreeze till next November no matter how cold the spring may be.

    Hostas (in the ground) seem well adapted to winter cold and both its onset and the coming of spring. I prefer to overwinter mine in their place in the garden instead of on the driveway but the message is the same - hostas are tough customers.

    Happy gardening ... Doug

  • unbiddenn
    9 years ago

    Mocc... I delete my posts like that before committing them to the board.
    You crack me up.

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    I'm glad Mocc didn't delete her first entry - it's too funny... Tell us what you are really thinking - now that I've settled down I can sip my coffee without spilling it! Lol

  • hosta_freak
    9 years ago

    While I will not lose any hostas this year,they look terrible right now,due to the late freeze. As they say in sports"wait'll next year!!" Phil

  • User
    9 years ago

    Aw come on you guys, I didn't put even a single .... set of dots in it .... all proper sentences even.

    But it does have a certain je ne sais quoi, doesn't it...... which suits the musing style.....

    As a teenager I worked with a lady from Australia and a lady from down east Maine. Without quite realizing it, my speech inflections changed so much that folks asked where I was from. Definitely not from around here, they said. That passed, and now here are the silent sounds of Ken ...filled with dots .... and the guru of musings....generally about hosta gardening.

    Unbiddenn, sometimes things just have to pop out.

  • User
    9 years ago

    Phil, I refuse to accept that this year is a lost cause for your garden. I know, I am not there to see it.....however, you are in the colder reaches of the south yet you have the longer growing season which allows for the plants to flush with additional growth all season long.

    Plants have a response to threatened extinction or death by setting more seed, or adding more eyes or growing shorter. Who knows what kicks off a plant's will to survive? It just strikes me that your garden will go into survival mode, and show how tough it is. Hosta are survivors. They look good while they are doing it too.

    When it got really hot a couple of my fragrant hosta went heat dormant. Yet later in the season, they came back to life and even bloomed for me. One of those was Stained Glass.

    It is distressing to see you discouraged and the year only now beginning. What a cruel blow your hosta endured with the late freeze. It is bittersweet to think of what might have been, but we will be here to see the show they put on in celebration of life.

  • hosta_freak
    9 years ago

    Mocc,I know you are just trying to be kind,but the garden looks terrible right now. I know it will come back pretty good,just not to the promise it showed before the freeze. I may post a pic later in the season,if I can get photobucket to stop giving me grief every time I log in. Phil

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    Please do, Phil. Injuries take time to heal - in people as in plants. When you say you know it will come back pretty good ... that translates to me that it will be glorious once again, sooner than later! :-)

    Jo

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago

    I'm with you Phil. This is the second bad spring in a row for me. Last year turned wet and cold after the pips first came up. A lot of stuff rotted and came back smaller. This year, there was a horribly cold morning after we started to warm up. The fragrants were the only ones showing pips. Even so, almost all of mine have cold damage, even if they weren't showing pips. Paul's glory and Fortunei types didn't burn, but most all the rest have slight to significant damage.

    Last year, I didn't even take school pictures. I just did a photo in place for a record. I said, "Well, there's always next year. Just take care of them and next year will be better.". It's not. It's two bad years in a row.

    This year, I'm taking school photos, even if I have to turn them twice to find the good side.

    bk

  • hosta_freak
    9 years ago

    Jo,and Mocc,here is the last good pic of my big Sagae,taken just before the freeze. It doesn't look anything like that now. Phil

    {{gwi:971205}}

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Phil, I don't mean to rub salt in the wound but your photo is of a beautiful scene. I love the entire vignette.
    Paula

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    It's pictures like this that keep us going, from season to season, growing and loving hostas more than the year before. I feel your sadness, understand the disappointment, and wish I had just the right words for you.

    Try to remember that your garden as a whole, is made up of many components to make that whole, and that a few of these got injured. It may not quite be this year what it was last, but in no way does it diminish the overall beauty you have created. You should be proud.

    C'mon, Phil cheer up or you'll make a grown woman cry!
    Jo

  • esther_b
    9 years ago

    So far, as of 4/22/14, I have pips from 73.7% of my hostas up. Either the MIAs did not survive the winter or they are just late. The MIAs include Gypsy Rose, First Mate, Marilyn Monroe, Rainforest Sunrise and one of the little minis in my 18" ceramic pot. As I stated in a previous post, the pot has been rotated and the ID stakes disturbed by the winter disturbances to my plant shelter, so the ID of the one of five minis which has not yet pipped is unknown until the others unfurl more so I can identify them.

    Either the hostas named above are just later to pip or they are dead. I still cannot account for the set of roots I found unearthed and kicked some soil over a few days ago. I hope it revives and comes up. I checked it against my hosta list and can't seem to find a match, but there is a definite gap in my line of hostas, which is why I suspect it's a hosta the freakin' squirrels (or the Landscape Workers) dug up.

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    Your MIA hostas do not appear on the early or late emerging lists so there's still a chance they are okay and just delayed as were many. Keep us posted. Luck!

    Jo

  • brandys_garden
    9 years ago

    My hosta guy Ed and I were talking about this very thing. He thinks the deaths or no returns are just now starting to become appearent. He doesn't think the death toll is anywhere near finished yet. He said, just because they came back, doesn't mean they are safe. Are they smaller, are they distorted? He says these are signs of rot, too. And eventually, if not cared for, they will succumb. And some may anyway even with treatment. He says it's just a bad winter for hostas. The worst he's seen. This is why a lot of box stores and garden greenhouses don't have much if they have anything at all. Some aren't even officially open yet but have tons on "waiting lists"... Hoping it isn't so but can't rule it out. I know I will be investing in a storage shelter in the winter from now on so I can keep mine out of heavy snow or ice... Lesson learned!

  • in ny zone5
    9 years ago

    I am not worried about effects of last winter on my hostas, though only 10 of 350 show pips yet. I remember that last December and January were mild, but then winter started and stayed on a few weeks longer than usual. But that should reduce the chances of getting late freeze damage on leafed out hostas in the next month. The minimum temperature here in zone 5 did not go down to -20, so it was not cold as the average. There were much colder winters in the past, like when even branches of privet hedges got killed off down to a low snow cover. Bernd

  • grapevinegal
    9 years ago

    Hi All,

    I posted these photos on another thread but would like your thoughts also.
    I have about 20 that look like this. They are growing slowly.
    Wrinkled, cupped leaves. Freaked when I saw photos of HVX infections.
    The leaves were not developed when we had our last freeze.
    So, could this still be burn?
    If it is burn, how do I help them?

    Thanks Everyone.\,
    Sharron

  • grapevinegal
    9 years ago

    Here's the second photo.

    Thanks Much!

  • lisamay
    9 years ago

    I am no expert here, do you have small holes in any of your leaves?

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago

    Iclimbtrees, the first one is cold damage, for sure. I would assume that on the second, although I've not seen that particular problem before. It actually looks like you have a sport that got cold damaged.

    I have some photos of So Sweet with that kind of damage from years past. I don't have time until tonight to look for them. I'll do that and amend this post with the photos.

    bk

  • grapevinegal
    9 years ago

    Hi Lisamay,

    Yes, I do have some small holes in leaves.
    Figured it was slugs.

    Thanks for the help!

  • CFields59
    9 years ago

    I had my hosta plants in pots outside all winter and we had a really bad winter this past year. I was so worried that they would not survive; however, they fooled me and sprouted out just as pretty as ever. I realize our winters aren't as cold as yours in zone 5; however, we had many days where the cold stayed in the single digits for days and days, which is unusual for us in North Arkansas. But, the hosta plants were resilient and made it! Yay!!

  • in ny zone5
    9 years ago

    I only lost one hosta of more than 300. We did not have record cold temperatures, though it was colder longer this spring. But I have 4 or so diminishing hostas, will give them a treatment, or pot them after washing off all soil. Some hostas have crinkly leaves and a slow start which might be the result of the longer winter. Have a good summer!
    Bernd

  • MadPlanter1 zone 5
    9 years ago

    No missing hostas, but I've got a couple that look so bad they might be replaced. Whirlwind and Moonstruck are still just tiny green leaves. I'll give them this year, but if they aren't improved next spring, out they go.

    The huechera took a hit. One bed near a wall did fine, but the rest are tiny or completely gone. Lousy winter - colder than normal and no snow.

  • lisamay
    9 years ago

    iclimbtrees:
    I thought the same with the slugs, but the more I study small holes in hosta leaves I wonder at least for me - if it is a flea beetle problem. Will see this year am trying slug bait and a systemic insect killer.

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    An update on my hosta survival rate. Out of the 132 that I had this winter, only one didn't survive and it was a new mini last year Giantland Sunny Mouse Ears.

    I have a couple that aren't growing all that well right now because there was a couple of very cold nights after the pips were out. Most of the hostas I managed to cover but So Sweet and Fragrant Bouquet weren't and they are suffering.

    Several of the hostas were very late relative to the majority of them but they eventually showed. Bedford Rise and Shine, Tokudama, Brim Cup are examples of this.

    The vast majority of my hostas have more eyes than previous years but they haven't grown nearly as tall, they are quite stunted compared to previous years. Almost all of them, in fact.

    I am just happy with the survival rate :)

  • beverlymnz4
    9 years ago

    Good to here that your hosta's are up. I lost one this year too. It was very small division of a small hosta, Fair Maiden. I could be our little ones just didn't have enough roots to survive the cold temperatures this year.

    Happy Planting,
    Beverly