...you can root them in water - in just one week!

My daughter finally brought over a promised division of Orange Marmalade for me. Unfortunately she used a shovel and severed the roots on one side of the plant. (Groan...I wanted to divide the plant because I knew I would be more careful, Lol) The rootless sections had a good number of leaves...a shame to think of tossing them!

I decided to keep the two pieces in water in separate containers for a week. The rooted division's ROOTS ONLY were submerged in water; the rootless mass was submerged with the crown at least 1-2" below water because there were no roots, of course.

Yesterday I planted the bigger section which did have a fairly decent root mass...it also grew some new roots as well.

Today I thought I had better change the water of the rootless portion. I found nice, fat, new white roots like I had anticipated. They are about 1/2"-1" long already. Another week and these two will be ready for planting as an extra Orange Marmalade plant! Bonus!

Just goes to show that one man/woman's garbage is another woman's gold!

There is a lesson here for the more apprehensive....and you'll forgive me I hope if I'm not too subtle...... Next time someone opens a mail order of hostas that has been in transit for days, don't be afraid to rehydrate them in water for days at a time. (The longest I've held any in water was two weeks with constant water change to avoid rot-common sense and 100% success rate! every time).

The worst that may happen is that your hostas may grow a few new roots!

Happy gardening, yeah! :-)