The heck with spin out bags. Plant some large hosta that can compete.

Jon

Jon, I did plant some larger ones in that area, and some are okay. Others, like my sad little Cathedral Windows that I posted yesterday, haven't really done so well. My only other option would be to plant in pots around that bed.

My Sieboldiana Elegans which I planted long before I knew you could not grow hosta under maples. I have divided this ad nauseum and it just keeps growing and growing. I put a division under a Red Maple and that is doing great (2nd year) Buy one, plant it, leave it alone, maybe water it once in a while, by all means don't fertilize it and it will take care of itself.

Pampering hosta under maples simply kills them by attracting roots that suffocate them, IMHO. If the hosta are too small, they cannot compete. Plant something that is up to the task and ignore it, that's my advice. My SE is right at the trunk of a maple, is being swallowed by Pachysandra and is doing excellent.

Jon

Jon, her hosta are old hosta. They aren't babies. If I remember correctly, she planted them in the 06 to 08 timeframe. They are diminishing - which is the point of the spin out bags.

bk

What a beautiful setting you have!

I planted pots in the ground, but you have to rotate them a lot to break the roots that creep up in the drainage holes. Even the pots above the ground get stuck to the ground by the maple tree roots growing up into the drainage holes.

I have large hostas and they are, in my opinion, barely competing. As much time as I spend watering them, I want them to thrive.

Gesila

Jon, bk is correct. My plants are not new. They were all planted from 2004-2008. They are dwindling, and I don't want to lose them entirely. Your SE is amazing! I wish mine in proximity of that maple were doing half that well, LOL. I promise I've tried the neglect route, haha (plant them and leave them alone). That method has failed me, LOL.

Gesila, have you tried Spin Out bags? I want something that does not require constant attention every year, that's for sure.

Beautiful garden, and I know what you mean about the weeds. I feel like I pull a couple thousand every day. Mine are mostly ash, elm, sedge grass and honeysuckle, and I don't dare give them a chance to put down roots.

I have a lot of hostas struggling with tree roots in the second-newest bed. Many of them are on year 3 and 4, and are either smaller or no bigger than when planted. Last year I started moving them to spin out bags. This year I had to dig one bag up, and was surprised to see the roots had gone straight down to the bottom of the bag and managed to attach themselves. That didn't seem like a good thing, either, so for now only struggling and/or tiny plants are going in a bag. The bagged hostas have certainly grown faster, but I afraid the big ones will get bag-bound. The biggest are in 10 gal. bags, the rest in 5 gallon. Unfortunately, the bags are designed for trees, not too big around and very deep.

I can see you diligence and hard work are paying off. My whole hosta garden is under a canopy of trees. I'm always amazed that the hosta grow at all with the root competition, but they seem to thriving. Go figure.

DD

MadPlanter, that's good feedback about the bags. That does seem a bit strange that the hosta roots would have grown down that far, huh?! Seems like we've come up with a market for a variation of that bag for trees - inside out and bigger around with less depth :)