Oh no, I think my jaw actually opened when I read that. Can you splint it? If not, I agree it's sad to lose this season's experience, but maybe it will encourage it to come back stronger and bigger next year. If your hosta are like mine, there are still lots of leaves forming, so maybe it will get a second wind too. :)
I think my hope dashed was a few years ago when I transplanted a long row of hosta along the driveway. Then my husband mowed the lawn and ran right over them! Razed to the ground. He just wasn't wise to the sanctity of my hosta yet, but he certainly learned it that year and ever since then has been very careful around anything that looks "new" or "garden-ish". I've also helped him by dipping the tips of wooden craft dowel rods in some paint and placing them near new plants or transplants to make sure they stand out now.

Maybe this was a sign that you need to move it, though wow, 4 feet off the pavement? In my experience Sun Power is not particularly sun and heat tolerant, so it might need to be moved in the long run anyway.

Chris

We got a new neighbor last year who had a party the weekend before my hostas started emerge and unfurl. They had a truck parked far up the driveway and proceeded to walk through my garden bed in the dark to go around the truck. The hostas on the corner emerged with bedraggled holey leaves. It was bad. Jaz, Teaspoon, and Purple Heart looked awful all year.

Hi Mary,

I know what you mean about the enjoyment of last year's addition in the new year. For me it doesn't seem as bad when accidents happen later in the growing season. I moved this NOID, after it was stepped on by one of the men refinishing our cedar deck.

Also, I couldn't get out early this year for spring cleanup, so I asked my husband to rake the debris out BETWEEN my hostas. He raked right over the emerging pips. i guess I wasn't clear enough. The leaves on my L. Looking Glass and Candy Dish were badly torn. I haven't had the heart to tell him, because he was trying to be helpful. Not as bad as what hapened to your SP but my enjoyment of those hostas is somewhat diminished.

Hope your Sun Power comes back good and strong.

T&Maize...I decided not to try the splint (too much time, and still an eyesore...)....but, I you have given me hope that perhaps I might get a 2nd wave of leaves...

Chris, I thought Sunpower was on the list of ones that can handle the sun. We'll definitely see, and of course, it was an experiment, as we say... I will continue the exercise of 3 gal water for now, and see where it takes us. It IS starting to get that golden-wheat color, it's a late season and hasn't been that hot, so it might not have liked it. Still, you never know until you try and I am trying to take more gardening risks to get "real" experience.

Irawon & Eleven, T & Maize, I hear you! I have had both of those experiences, as well...the raking of the pips, the walking on the pips, the mowing of the plants... This year, after I moved a plant and it got sunburned, I pulled the burned leaves off, deciding that I prefer not having the eyesore, since it's a big plant and a few leaves aren't going to hurt it...

Irawon, is that Candy Dish, what a beautiful hosta! You're sweet not to tell your husband, I would do the same if mine had helped me...MUCH better for relations when one doesn't complain about the "help"!

No, Mary, that's a NOID. I was hoping to get it identified once it bloomed. Candy Dish is all green and rippled but doesn't look as bad as this NOID.

Yes, your NOID is nice, then! Maybe start a special NOID id thread, it certainly looks worthy of an id!

I will do that next year once it's looking better and has bloomed. There are just too many look-a-likes to have it identified. I don't want to hijack your thread ... just explaining.

A couple of my nicest hostas were stepped on this year (actually the one I am trying to ID in my other post). I had to rip of several of the large leaves on one side as I got too upset seeing them grow all cut and tattered. Hostas seem to respond to this type of behaviour with even more vigorous growth.

I've had other hostas scorched in the sun and dry as a bone by late August--and they come back stronger next year.

Another one I am trying to get rid of on a grassy patch--I keep running over it with the lawn mower every couple of weeks. . .and it KEEPS growing back!

I do believe hostas have 9 lives :)

TonyPumpkin, glad to hear that you've had good response to tearing off bad leaves, because I think that's where I'm at this year (although Ken's voice is in my head about losing growth by lessoning the photosynthesis....I talk back in my head and say, "It's YOUR garden Mary, do what makes you happy."

Ok, I have to share last year's story. I am a big woman and always need to up my exercise... So, I bought a badminton set and taught my daughter how to play. We stretched the net across the driveway so that we could stake in the poles on each side, an easy peasy option for a quick game. Near the poles, there's a garden corner/ focal point where I've always had a few outstanding Shade Fanfares...I could rely on them year after year.
I was really in to the game and stretched my physical capabilities. One day I had a net shot and was running up when I stubbed my tennis shoe toes repeatedly, leaning more and more forward, forward and forward again...I went careening into the Shade Fanfares like an airplane without wheels...a real belly flopping slider. Shade Fanfare and my ample belly saved me from hurting any head/limbs. I ached for a few days, but got over it. Only one of the two Shade Fanfares is up this year, nominally. I don't know if I moved the other, or if I killed it! I have some reserve Shade Fanfares that I will move into that spot this fall, then I'll be recovered completely!

That's a a funny story, Mary and you're a great story teller. I like Shade Fanfare but don't have a big one. It's fortunate that you have several.

Talk about losing one's balance. I was working in a tight spot between a rhodo and weeping Japanese Maple, when I lost my balance. If it weren't for the Stand Up classes I've been taking I would have fallen. These classes (free) in Ontario are designed for seniors over 65 to help with proprioception (which we lose as we age) and to prevent falls. The funny part is, as I was about to go down, a Japanese M. branch jumped right into my right ear. My doctor laughed, when I asked him if this could have affected my left ear.. said it was probably allergies affecting it. No, it didn't go right through to the other end and my ear drum wasn't punctured.

I think that it's important for us aging gardeners to work on balance. It wasn't until I started these classes that I realized how much my sense of balance had deteriorated. There are specific excercises that can help us prevent falls. The American Institutes of Health also have exercises for seniors on their website. Mary, I don't know how old you are and hope you don't mind my mentioning this on your thread. If anyone else is interested in maintaining his/her balance, I will start a new thread.

Irawon, I'm glad you mentioned the term for balance loss. I will do some search on proprioception and see if that is the reason I have dizzy spells after I look up into the trees. I thought it was the meth the neighbors were cooking! Maybe something entirely normal for my age group.

There seems to be a lot of info to google about it. Thanks.

I just kinda sit back and enjoy the rush.

Irawon, I'm glad you mentioned proprioception...it is a new word for me, so I googled it to learn more. Apparently, there is controversy as to whether proprioception is a true 6th sense, but Aristotle rejected the notion. I'm in my early 50's, so not having balance issues yet (knock on wood) but it is good to know what's available for help and prevention, thank you!
Tonypumpkin...I've never heard of the lawn mower removal method for hostas, good one! (If only it would work, right?) I suppose it's no different than all the other weeds that grow in my lawn...they would get a lot taller if I would let them. Not sure which weed it is in the lawn that the woodchucks are always chomping on when they come out from under my shed, but I'm glad they eat meals there instead of at my hostas buffet. There's a lot of yarrow in my lawn, and it never goes away despite repeated mowings.
Anybody got another hosta story?

Not hosta, but several others were run down, in a true hit run. Someone came into our driveway presumably to turn around too fast, hit the gravel then skidded over a daylily, clematis roots, catmint and several annuals then hit a picket fence. We assumed the speed/gravel part because they took off, and neither us nor a neighbor saw this. They picked up the fence and righted it using plants they hadn't run over to hold it up. I noticed the squished plants (the pansies were goners, everything else has come back to some extent, the daylily only has distorted leaves to show for it, the clem is fine, the catmint is still stunted). Couldn't for the life of me figure out how they missed the fence...until it tipped over on it's own revealing the broken posts. The VERY NEXT DAY an elderly gentleman came to get some lily of the valley, and backed out over the squished daylily and pansies again! That bed has been there since we bought the place, seems that was some seriously bad timing because it never happened before that.

Nobody 'hit and ran' over my big Sagae,unless you consider mother nature. Here is the remains of what used to be a magnificent hosta,just to the left of my "ginger jar". You can see very few leaves which ordinarily would cover this entire area. Phil

{{gwi:1018858}}

Phil, you have no idea how it gladdens my heart to see this picture. The fact that you posted it here is perfect and indicates to me you have recovered from the bitter disappointment earlier this season.

Signed,
An appreciator of your beautiful Zen-like gardens.

Seriously, meth-cooking neighbors, Mocc? Good Lord! Is this the same house where the 'Roof-Creeper' lives?

Hope they don't blow up the freaking neighborhood...

Don B.

No, the roof peeper lives on the OTHER side. hehehehe

Oh yes, Phil. Mother Nature, a HUGE hit-and-run offender! Looking good in the garden (I know, you don't agree, I understand).

Sorry to hear that, Mocc. I was hopeful your neighborhood weirdos were in the same residence, not bookending you. Sheesh!

Don B.

I paid a good bit for a nougat divition...got it and it was a plug..didn't last 1 leaf, dead in a month..had high hopes for that one

A few winters ago, we developed pretty serious sewer troubles (flooding washing machine, etc.), and when I left the house for work, I knew the plumbers were coming that day and that there was a clogged line somewhere.

I came home to a 4 ft. wide, 6 ft. deep, trench dug through my hosta bed at the foot of our driveway (it was winter, they were dormant; they couldn't even defend themselves!) Apparently the hostas were planted along the sewer line.

Hmmmm. . . . hostas v. indoor plumbing. The choice was made for me that day.