All hostas would like a little more sun,but probably not full sun. However there is a welcome station at the border of Kentucky,and Tennessee that has Sum and Substance plants planted in full sun,and they are huge. Of course,in the hottest part of summer,they get fried,and look bad. Just a thought. Phil

When I moved a few years ago I had to move my plants in a hurry to get the house ready for sale. Because S&S was so big I did not have a choice but to put it in a full sun all day position at my new house. Keeping it watered which sounds like will not be a problem since it is near your veggie garden and it will do fine. It will probably end up covering your veggie garden in that position though.

The downside was it started to go to sleep for the winter earlier. In Shade it stays green until Oct-Nov in the Sun it started to get brown in Late Aug-Sept.

First of all, we have no indication of what gardening zone you are in, or of what state. That will have a lot to do with whether or not S&S can take all that heat.

Now, first off, I have a S&S I got in 2010, and it is in a pot so I can move it around which is convenient until it gets too big. But I'm in zone 9a, which is hot and humid too. You may be in a hot and dry zone.

What I'd advise to do temporarily at least, save yourself some work, is to put it in a good sized pot where you can keep it watered this summer. You can fine tune its location, see how it responds to the all day sunshine, and then near dormancy put it back in the ground.

Sounds like your S&S is determined to stay alive. But not flourishing. That hosta gets HUGE when it is happy. And it has beautiful golden leaves when it gets a lot of sun. It will LIVE in full sun with good water supply. BUT it won't look like much after the sun burns the leaves. You'll find a huge root system on it though--seeking all the moisture it can find. Mine is due to be repotted in a big whiskey barrel this fall when it begins to go dormant.

Oh yeah. One trick I use with my hosta is to place large umbrellas around the garden to create shade. It works for me. But close them so rain gets to the plants, or when you have a high wind event.

Watch the places your dog runs and then make those the paths. Put the beds around those paths. Canine design. I've done it.

Steve

Sorry - Zone is usually an automatic for me.......I'm in 5a (north of Toronto in Canada).

I did check out the other potential - it gets half day, but is on the east side of the house, so it will get a little bit of shade until early afternoon.

I've never had any luck with much things in pots - from succulents through to hostas....I don't know if I want to risk it :)

I'll hold off doing anything with it until we have that bed ready for a final home....

And yup - the garden was there before the dog.......having to move things around. Definitely his squirrel run :) We've already moved Colour Festival and Dream Queen from the area and they're already looking happier.

I'd give Sum and Substance a try in the sunny bed since you are so far north. As advised, give S&S frequent watering when planted in "full" sun.

It will grow better in there than in that shady corner. If you have other plans, consider planting it in the sun bed as if in a holding pattern until you can get your other space ready.

Good luck,
Deb

For a nothern opinion. The problem with folks down South, is that they don't realize how long a day can be up north. In June, all day sun here is a lot longer than it is down there. And in Middle Earth, where I live, its hot. S&S burned every year when I had it in a mostly sunny situation, even watering twice a day during hot weather with a hose under its leaves and all around the plant. If you have 90ú weather in June like we have, I don't recommend full sun. It's very large, has a large surface area. With a little breeze, it can dry out quickly.

Trying it in a pot first is a great idea. I just moved a large S&S out of the sun and it was a very difficult job but it loves its new spot. My DH and I had to tip it using a lever, after digging a ramp we rolled it out of its hole to its new location. Even with his help (and he is a farm boy - strong enough) the two of us couldn't lift it. I started to say to him "if this spot doesn't work ..." and he interupted "I'll come out here and give it a good talking to, but we won't move it again."

Happy transplanting,
Beverly

Here is a pic of her unfurling - taken today as well...

We have at least 2 weeks a year normally when it's over 100 solid. It's 90 today and humid as it supposedly feels like 97. This corner of the yard rarely dries out in the shade due to a high water table which is good since the hose doesn't reach this far. But we can regularly get into the 90s from May - September.......

I don't necessarily want to move it twice this season. I guess now that the weeding is done in that bed, I can move to start preparing the new bed on the side of the house with more light, but more indirect light as well. It will be going under a Kerria that's going crazy right now (so yellow, yellow, yellow. I have to take out the stone edging and expand the bed out another 3.5 feet and deal with the slope to make a path - get rid of the grass that is terrible to mow since it's a low point in the garden, uneven and damp all the time.....LOL

Where there is constant dampness, does that mean in the winter too? Damp in the summer while its growing is not a problem, but if it is damp in the winter, that should cause it to rot. I might not be reading it right, but just so it has good drainage, AND adequate moisture, I think it could take a lot of sun.

I had to move mine out of the sun because some leaves were really sun burned last week. But the sun rays are more direct here not at an oblique angle, and thus we tan quicker and the plants dessicate quicker too.

Your garden plans sound very nice. Let's get a picture when you set it up. Thanks.

I don't think that's a problem. When the snow melts it pools in the yard at the low point about the burning bush in picture 2. It's about 15 feet away. There is a french drain below that area that helps to wick away the excess moisture.
I call that corner the death corner. Everything I have ever planted in that corner has died (I've tried Ivy, Kerria, Cedar, and a new batch of perennials every season) - S&S is the only thing to survive. The plan after I take out the cedar and the hosta is to build up with a raised bed and put good soil and try again......I think with some other plants in most of it (since the dog will likely still want to run through.

The backyard is almost finished being spruced up (weeding mostly) for the start of the summer. Hopefully next week we'll start trenching for the new wall in the front. We've been mounding sod in front of the current wall to start beefing up the soil behind where the wall is going to be - I'm sure my neighbours can't wait for us to get moving on it....

What kind of tree is that in the neighbour's yard?

The big one??? It's dead - a 6' stump. Been here since before we moved in 7 years ago - see?? Everything dies in that corner. Before it's demise, it was probably a Manitoba Maple, since there are 7 of them down one side of the property - 3 across the back and 2 up the other side of the property. It's super common here because of the way that it seeds - in my lawn, in my garden beds, in my gutters, in my driveway. The first year we lived here, I was giving them away because I feel bad for the little seedlings and people pay money for them......I had 104 to give away. The trees are dropping the maple keys right now in this storm....LOL They are all over my freshly swept patio :)

My S&S is in full sun all day. It's not in the section where I mist my hostas on hot days and it's not in a place where the hose is easy to drag to water it. Here it is at the end of June:

We have really long days here in Western Michigan since we are at the end of the Eastern Time Zone. It's not dark on July 4th until 10:00 pm.

Gesila

I don't have a picture of S&S this year yet. And, I divided it last year, but see that little hosta in back of S&S in my previous post, it's Alex Summers. Check out Alex Summers this year, this is what full sun in Western Michigan does to hostas:

This post was edited by Gesila on Fri, May 31, 13 at 18:55

WESTERN MICHIGAN is EASTERN zone? Wow. I thought you guys would be central zone, since you are west of Chicago, right? Houghton is anyway, and I thought that was W.MI.....guess I need to get my old globe out and check on what's what.

It is encouraging to me Gesila that your S&S has some sun burn in August and I see what it looks like. I had my S&S in full sun this month, and all of a sudden, after it stopped raining, the leaves bleached out and sort of frizzled up. Not all of them. I think it was the ones which had cold damage and were sort of thin anyway. But this hosta is my oldest, along with Mama plantaginea, it sure is the BIGGEST, and I am hoping to keep it going until mature. So much against it getting full size, but I have my heart set on it looking huge and impressing everyone who sees it.

I grow both of mine in full sun as well. This is what they look like in September:

S&S 1 (yr 2):

S&S 2 (yr 1):

And then this past Memorial Day:

S&S 1 (yr 3)--and those are my neighbors weeds that I try to keep at bay:

S&S 2 (yr 2) (behind the azalea)

Hey Moc, Houghton is in the UP....that's almost like a whole separate state.

Gesila

I'm in Minneapolis, just south of 45 degrees. You're an hour north of Toronto, so you're just a bit south of 45 degrees.

Sun tolerance for hostas is about sun angle and overall heat. I suspect if you're 5a, you're probably a similar amount of heat as us.

That said,
I had a S&S that I had back in deep shade, under maples. It never looked good and lacked the chartreuse color and leaf size I wanted. About 4 years ago, I moved it to a much sunnier spot and it's since been rewarding me for that move in vigor and color.

Just be sure it's in a good spot for watering!

You guys have me re-thinking my strategy :) Maybe the full sun location isn't bad - it is easier to water than the other one (which is completely on the other side of the house from the hose and usually gets neglected).........

Decisions, Decisions :) LOL

I am just reading through this thread today. I have to agree with Moccassinlanding and BeverlyMN and that is to try it in a pot. Here are my reasons:

(1) you mentioned "6 maples" and bad soil. Well I have maple trees in my backyard too but have amended my soil so it's not bad, but the tree roots are probably entangled in your hosta roots and your S&S is never going to get much better. The roots from my maples and my cedars have "strangled" my plants and made them decrease in size rather than increase. It has made me very sad to see my plants decline.

(2) if the soil in your vegetable patch has less root competition, then I think your S&S would do way better than in the location it is now. You would have to keep in mind that S&S grows very large and will get more difficult to move, so you would want to make a decision about its location while it is managable in size.

(3) Because of root competition, I began trying plants (mainly hostas) in pots. Wow, what a difference! The growth of the plants in my pots has been wonderful. To begin growing in pots, I purchased soil in bags especially made for container gardening. That worked very well. But now I still do use those bags, but I add small bark fines or nuggets to it to help increase drainage and aeration.

I think if you put your S&S in a pot, you just might be amazed at the growth it will put out. That is exactly what happened to me. I divided one of my hostas in half and potted the one half. I planted it in the soil I mentioned above and placed it in more sun. That hosta grew so well, and looked so beautiful, it started my hosta addiction. And now most of my hostas are in pots and I can enjoy seeing my plants thrive. And that makes me very happy.

If you do decide to move your S&S, have a look at the roots you see. Hosta roots are white. Cedar roots are reddish. Maple roots are dark. Here is a photo of a hosta I rescued from maple tree roots.

(If you would like to speak to me, you can email me directly. We may not live that far away from each other.)

Thanks for your email, on_greenthumb. On the bottom of the email I received from you, gardenweb says that I cannot reply back to you because you have not put down an email on your profile, or have said that you do not allow private emails. For me to reply to you, you will need to change that on your profile. Let me know if you do!