leaf, or clump?

Bragu- either one is fine. Sum and Substance fits the bill for both in my yard.

Linda

This is my Blue Angel. Not as big as some of the great ones here but still a nice one

Tropic Lover, your Parhelion is a monster!. And looks good too.
DelDonna, your picture would benefit from something in it to give scale. A beer can, an old wine bottle, your shoe....I have shoes in a lot of pictures. :) (not on purpose though)

My largest is hard to tell. I suppose this year it is Yesterday's Memories, unless you count Victory and Avocado.

Yesterday's Memories
Here it is in April, just normal looking

then a few days ago, with 10 scapes standing up
and it was more than 36 inches across.

Avocado got cold damaged so it is not as pretty as it could be. But it is a big hosta. I have it sitting on a 12 inch tree round to keep the leaves clear of other hosta.

Victory I got in 2011, and it is a fantastic hosta. The scapes it puts out are about 4 feet above the leaves when they get through growing and begin opening. I love this one as it has matured, looks better as it ages. This shot taken May 6 and it is larger now with scapes coming up

Mocc- Your plants are getting big! Just curious...how many XL plants are you growing?

My Parhelion is pretty big and l love it in the pot. A few days ago when I was at the nursery buying more hosta, I noticed they had some very large potted hosta for sale at $60 each. They were not quite as large as Parhelion but pretty close. I wonder how many of those they will sell?

Hagar- That's a beautiful Blue Angel. I have one too but it is not that big yet.

Here is a picture of a Sum and Substance leaf with my hand on it for scale.

Linda

S&S, about 7 feet in diameter, and it's only 4 years old.

Steve

That's just a division off Paul's biggest plant.

Don B.

will be 4 feet across at least when fully up.

Striptease...

Mine is montana Aureomarginata.

tj

These are probably my biggest- Regal Splendor, my first hosta bought in 2005 and moved a few times. Also Parhelion (2006) in the backround. Elegans between them but i supect vole damage on that one this year.

Thunderbolt last year was over 4 feet across, but seems shorter and with smaller leaves this year.

Tj- That montana Aureomarginata is spectacular! How big is it? I just planted that one the other day and now I'm thinking it might not have enough room.

Leafwatcher- nice striptease and there is that beautiful blue pot I remember from last year. What are you planting in it this year?

Linda

Coll- I always love seeing pictures of your garden. All of your plants always look so good. I believe it was your Regal Splendor that inspired me to buy it last year.

Linda

Linda, the plant is 36 inches high and over 7 feet wide. And that's after having had eyes cut out and given away over the years.Its been there since circa 2000.

tj

Linda, the big pot was SUPPOSED to have a Brother Stephan in it... However the winter killed every single one of my potted plants. I think We might just put some flowers in the thing this year... I am just not able to make up my mind ;)

mine's blue angel. It was moved 2 years ago last year it was 6 feet across this year it will be bigger ....It hasn't opened fully but there are already issues.... This pic is from last year at the end of June
J.

Tj- WOW...good to know it will get that big!

Leafwatcher-I lost some of my potted ones too this winter. First time that has ever happened to me. I think it was because we had a warmer than usual February and things thawed and froze and we had some rain too. We usually are frozen solid in Feb. I lost 7 plants and two of my favorites were Dancing Queen and On Stage. I replaced the Dancing Queen but haven't found an On Stage yet. I planted a red Dragon Wing Begonia in one of my big blue pots. One plant will fill the whole pot and be stunning all year.

Linda

Jimr66, that is nice, I am almost afraid of what I will do if my one Blue Angel gets that healthy...

Jim- That's a great looking plant. I can see I am going to have some issues too...too many big plants and not enough space.

I have a young plants of Blue Angel, Sagae, montana Aureomarginata, Atlantis, Seducer, Liberty, Niagara Falls, and Empress Wu.

Linda

Earth Angel

Victory getting there

This post was edited by mbug on Mon, May 26, 14 at 23:30

Wow. Jim, that Blue Angel is the biggest I know about. I ove the shades of color in the leaves too. It is anything but a plain hosta.

Steve, that S&S of yours is just a division you're saying? Holy mackerel.

I'm enjoying the pictures and thinking about what I'm growing....
You know I just bought a sweet innocent small Thunderbolt this year. I wonder if it will perform like Coll's. She tells us these size numbers like nothing out of the ordinary, while my eyes are bugging out thinking la la la la one of these days I'll have some interesting things happen in my garden.

How many of the big ones do I have? I really cannot say. My thinking is that in containers they won't get that big, unless I keep increasing the container size. Sort of like binding the foot kept the foot small, even to the point of not walking, not working. I do not think it will get that severe. Thinking of individual plants, I will make room for them slowly increasing pot size when required.

Some grow very large, spreading widely, but are not VL hosta. I have some of those, but nothing shows signs of reaching the VL point just now.

I live on a river called De Nile.

Mocc- ummm....Parhelion busted out of his pot last year and that is why I repotted him in a much bigger pot. I believe the pot was 12" wide by 17" deep and he was a very large plant in that small pot. Here is a picture of him in his old pot.

Linda

Yikes, your Parhelion is awesome. Do you have any way to put him in the ground? You are not ALL pots, are you?

Mocc- I like him the pot for now. I have a lot of hosta in the ground and several new ones that will eventually be large that I need to figure out where to plant in the ground. I planted montana Aureomarginata yesterday and I still need to decide where to plant the Sagae and Liberty so that they have a spot where they can grow to their full potential and be showstoppers.

Linda ;)

This plantaginea was already in the garden where I moved, so I don't know the age. Unfortunately this year some leaves are damaged by hail.

Tropiclover...guess I need better glasses...I thought you wrote that Parhelion busted out of the pot which is why I REPORTED him! LOL...thought he'd busted out of jail!

Paul, thank you for a great morning chuckle...can you believe that you actually had me fooled for a moment?

Coll_123...looks like your elegans has SNAIL damage.

This is a pic of Mr. Big last year...96 inches across. Should be bigger this year...

These are my biggest and oldest. Not sure of their age some have been divided many times.
Pictures from this morning. Plenty of mild very wet weather here and the hostas are loving it.

Paul's Glory

Sagae
About six years old.

Wide Brim

June

A group of 2 - 3 year old biggies in training.
they include Empress Wu, Seducer, Victory, Sum & Subtle, Atlantis, Blue Umbrellas, Brother Stephan, Battle Star, T. Rex, Lake Superior. Also an older Magic Fire, Ice Age Trail and Blizzard

They all need moving into bigger pots and are awaiting my attention.

Dave

King or Queen of the Garden. Many leaves between 17 and 19 inches.

Wow look at all these nice big plants! I am still waiting for my Niagara Falls to turn into something spectacular. I planted it in 2012 and I think it only had one eye.

Don- That is a monster for sure! 8 feet long is huge and it will be interesting to see how big it gets this year.

Mary-Yes I reported him to the Hosta Police because he won't stay where I put him LOL.

Dave- Those are some very nice plants! I have quite a few of the same ones. Do you grow all your hosta in pots or do you plant some in the ground? I have some very large nursery pots (the ones they use for big trees) and I am thinking about potting a few of them in those pots. How big is that pot that Sagae is planted in?

Luuk, I sigh over a plantaginea so big. That one I'd call "Big Mama" for SURE!

Tiddisolo, I thought it was a Benny Hill comedy routine of the plant that ate the man, when I first saw the hand. It is such a skin colored glove, until I saw the white cuff, it was HAND. You have some big hosta there, friend. And they are container hosta too. Hmmm, don't think containers slowed them down much if any.

McTavish, I feel like your Niagara Falls is an old friend, I recognize it like a good school picture. It seems even more mature this year than previously. Always well groomed, and of course it has the very best care.

GREAT topic.

This post made me think about what actually is my biggest hosta. I have had some hostas for a very long time---the undulatas, plantaginea, fortunei albomarginata, Wide Brim etc. Then I added a hosta or two between 5 to 10 years ago. It was 2011 that I became a hostaholic.

You would think that my largest would be one of the hostas I have had just about forever, but that is not the case. Root competition in ground has deterred the hostas from reaching their potential. So my largest hosta is GE which has been in a pot since 2011! Currently it measures 40 inches x 34 inches in width. The largest leaf is about 12 x 9 inches. Repotting is due this fall or next spring at the latest, and I am scared to death to do it. Don't want to lose this plant!

Abba Dabba Do is probably my largest clump at 6'+ wide and growing well in a lot of shade.

Paul

This post was edited by paul_in_mn on Tue, May 27, 14 at 17:12

Every hosta in this thread is stunning! Mine aren't fully out yet but I doubt that I will have anything that large.

This year, so far I have noticed that some of my largest hostas have increased their eyes but have grown smaller?

I love to see the large ones in pots; because now that I am out of space all of mine must go into pots and it is great to see them looking so healthy and big :)

I agree with Paula, ALL of these plants are gorgeous and I love Newhostalady's GE. It looks fabulous in that pot! I guess I will try to grow a few more of mine in pots too. In addition to Parhelion, I also have an Earth Angel planted in a big pot but the plant is not that big yet.

Thanks for all the great pictures!

Linda

So many big beautiful plants! I've lost track of all the ones I wanted to comment on. Like tropic lover, my biggest is an S&S, shown here with a yardstick for scale.

If you go by biggest for the variety, NBC has grown way beyond its registered size. It's about 24" X 54" and shows no sign of stopping.

Here's my green angel. Won't be the biggest this year, but it is ahead of all the others ... for now. A quarter on the leaf for size comp...

_~

dkB

I have nothing impressive compared to you all. My biggest few are right about the same size, Gosan Sunproof, one of my Paul's Glory, Lakeside Roy El, and my Royal Tapestry is 'pretty' big. Single leaf size looks like Sum and Substance, surprise surprise.

Don B.

EDIT: My Mojito is getting big, fast.

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Thu, May 29, 14 at 1:07

tropic_lover, most of my plants are in pots. I do have one small shade bed l planted last year, big plans for more and if it ever stops raining long enough for the ground to dry out I will make a start !
We had such a wet winter the ground is saturated and unworkable.
Sagae and the others are in 35 litre pots, I think that is 9 / 10 gallons.
newhostalady that is a superb GE and has set me a challenge. I have had one for years, it never did very well and by last year had two good strong eyes and a couple of weak ones. I decided to divide it and this year the two eyes have gone away very strongly and filled the pot with roots. I have great hopes for it and will give it plenty of attention in the hope of great things to come.

Dave

Dave, it sounds like you are well on your way to having a large, beautiful GE of your own in a pot! I too divided my in ground GE after several years. Four eyes went into that pot I pictured above in my post. It is now a 15 eye GE.

I see from your pictures that you are already an experienced "pothead." I have a feeling that you will have great success with your GE! Good luck!

Empress Wu is getting a lot bigger this year.

I posted this recently, but my American Icon is probably my largest.

Followed closely by Atlantis and Fragrant Bouquet (to the right of Atlantis).

Hosta seem to like my soil. There are a few that are 5' wide now and will be 6' next month when they finish the unfurling process:

Bressingham Blue

Blue Angel is fighting for space:

Sagae didn't seem to mind last year's transplant:

Krossa Regal:

Elegans:

The front bed is getting crowded:

My biggest hosta this year is H. Dark Shadows. It was planted in the ground with PermaTill protection about 5 years ago. It's about 4 1/2 feet across. I've had a lot of vole problems so a lot of my hostas have to keep recuperating and many are going in pots.
-EE

Wow, more nice pictures! All of them look great! I had no idea Krossa Regal would get that wide...oops, I planted it next to a very old Bleeding Heart that is about 6 feet wide. Maybe have to move the hosta over a bit.

Harryshoe- Your garden is so pretty and perfect! What kind of tree is the small one at the front of the garden?

Still waiting for Bernd to show me his Empress Wu this year...

Linda;)

Ee, im so happy you posted DS because I have one on order. It's been on my mind since last year and yours is the most mature one I've seen. A very lovely hosta.

This thread is a thread of promise to all of us with young plants of those displayed here. I am simply blown away by the beauty of these mature hostas!

Harry, as always, your gardens and pictures make me pause.

You all are just showin' off! Actually,my biggest plant this year was Atlantis,as my ordinarily biggest was Sagae,but he is just a shadow of his former self,due to the freeze in April. Anyhow,nice plants everyone! Phil

Thanks for the complements. My plants are a bit late but they haven't skipped a beat.

Linda, the small tree at the left is a Kousa Dogwood. It blooms later than the common dogwood.

The side bed:

EE, THANK you for the picture of your Dark Shadows, I am astonished at the size of it. Little did I know it could get that large. I not only have one which is growing nicely, I ordered a second one this spring. Now, I suppose I'll be covered up in Dark Shadows! Wow, it is so pretty. And, it is one of the fragrants too.

Harry, your garden is a perfect spot to meander. Not only are the hosta in fine form, the entire space is well balanced and appropriately arranged. Are you one who keeps a tour garden? I think it is beautiful. Surely you have help maintaining it in such a pristine condition?