Mocc- Perhaps I am just not paying enough for my internet service these days, but your pics are taking a long time to load, compared to other posts. Love those purples!

-Babka

Mocc, do you have any hostas that AREN'T scaping/blooming? Doesn't seem right, I've heard on this forum that plants (hostas) of the same variety have the same bloom times, regarless of region.

My Yesterday's Memories is NOT blooming. No scape to be seen, either.

Show us what ELSE can't be done with hostas in the Deep South, if you please : )

Cheers,
Don B.

P.S. It's not just you, Babka. Mocc's posts ALWAYS take longer to load for me than any others' on this forum.

How fun!
Babka, I'll try to be brief with the posts. I thought GWeb resized photos for the forums, but I'll see if I need to adjust my Flickr settings to be quicker loading.

It is a strange year for the hostas. Scapes coming up on the fragrants, fasciated but I suppose scapes nonetheless. What I must do today, if it doesn't rain again, is cut those wild and crazy growths off. I left the first one in 2013 (was that just LAST YEAR?) on Alex Summers, to see what it was all about. Now I know it goes nowhere, I don't want to see any more.

Time for breakfast. Adieu.

Wonderful! The south's gonna rise again! :) I only have about a dozen hostas in my collection here in San Antonio, all or most of them are fragrants, but have my first bud getting ready to open from a first year Blue Angel.

Is a "scape" what I have would have referred to as a spike?

Nice purples, Mocc. I will add a picture from last year of a Tickle Me Pink bud. Of course, up here, it won't bloom for another 3 months.

Beverly

Santa, a scape = flower stem = flower spike? So yes it is. I think.
Blue Angel, that is a good one to have bloom. Is there a companion around? If not, any seed pods will be self pollinated.

Tickle Me Pink, I keep waiting for mine to show me something like your deep purple bud, Bev. Great looking color combination.

Don, it is as surprising to me as it is to you. I do not know what is going on, but if this keeps up, I see us buying the neighbor's house, or maybe just her garden. I think with the ones I have maturing, I could expland to fill that 300 x 100 lot (even with the house taking up space) and maybe the property next door to that. LOTS of shade there, with a swale that could be dammed up for a small pond with a bridge across it. Oh, Claude Monet here I come! I've always admired his gardens at Giverny.

Perhaps what is happening here is not the usual blooming period. I wish I had all of my 2012 pictures (lost with the backup drive failure), not simply the ones loaded to Flickr.
I could place the bloom period to a normal year. Many hosta came to me (over 200) in 2012, and I figure their blooming cycle was set when they arrived (by the location they came from perhaps). Any change in the pattern might show up in 2013, or it might be 2014 is the new normal for some family groups...like the Squash Casserole bunch--and the Ventricosa bunch, the known cultivars (and the species) most of which ARE blooming. Not all non-fragrants are blooming, you know. The fragrants are not really blooming, some are sporting around with those fasciated scapes, which will lead them nowhere.

Santa, I kind of like how you say "the south is gonna rise again." It might well be the next major market for hosta! I would love that. Open a Gourmet Hosta by appointment only.

I'm trying to figure out what is normal. One winter does not change evolution that took.....centuries at least...to work out.

I'm sorry. I know Ken said they all bloom at the same time. I think he is wrong. For me, LS Shore Master is finished blooming and is drying up. Big Daddy, Elegans, Paul's Glory, Frances Williams, Birchwood Parky's Gold, Blue Angel, Key West and OBL are all in full bloom. Blue Cadet, u. albomarginata, Dancing Queen and Blue Mouse Ears are starting to scape.

You cannot convince me that Ken's (or Paul, or Melissa or Steve) plants are blooming at the same time mine are blooming.

bk

moccâ¦â¦you see more and more for sale here in San Antonio over the last few years, and most are the ones that would more likely have a chance for survival here if people knew what they even were and how to care for them. The problem is that almost nobody in the deep south has even heard of a hosta, much less knows how to care for one. Ohâ¦.it's for sale at XYZ nursery so it must do well here! I'll take 3, please. I can't see what is in people's back yards so maybe more people know to pot them that I realize, but I doubt it. Maybe northern transplants, of which there are many here, or people like me who actually take the time to research the things they want to grow. I have seen a few in front yards and most are gone before too long because of sun, lack of watering and more than that because of pill bugs. You can't throw a dead Guacamole without hitting 700 of the little bastards.

This post was edited by santamiller on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 6:32

Santa, I hate those little b's! The very cold winter had no effect on them whatsoever! But they like slug bait, HA HA HA.

Bk, the only flower scapes around here are on GE and DQ and both were recently purchased, likely well boosted with fertilizer and forced into rapid growth for sale. All else in my zone five, despite the slow start, seem to be on track as in previous years. I will have some blooming by the end of this month (early bloomers) but not many of those.