This is pretty long, and I'm sorry about that. Last year I was going to school, and didn't have the time to mess with my garden. Consequently, going into winter, I had many hostas that were still in pots. Normally under those circumstances I put plants that are still in pots behind the bushes that are up against my house and cover them with leaves to protect them through the winter. This method has never failed.

I never had time to do that last winter, so all my plants in pots sat out unprotected, and we had an unusually brutally cold winter. I lost a lot of plants. Some survived, and a few came up with tiny leaves. When I pulled them out of their pots to see if the root systems were tiny as well, the root systems were surprisingly large and didn't need to be put in smaller pots.

What can I do to maximize growth of these hostas this summer? Should I give them liquid fertilizer every week?

Also - in my pots where nothing came up, I didn't want to throw them away before checking to see if anything still looked to be alive under the soil. Several of them have roots that appear to still be alive - plump and firm. Is it possible that those plants might "come back to life" at some point? If so, is there anything that can hasten that process? Thanks -

Deanna