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and
Bought today. I just couldn't resist trying them. Put them into the light side of my hill. Light hostas needing more light, but not enough to burn them.
This side gets 3 hours or so of morning light, as opposed to te dark side of the hill...
...which doesn't get much light and will have to be thinned out in the Fall. OK, we'll see how it goes. Jon |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Good luck with your Great Expectations. i just planted one a few weeks ago and am quite excited to see how well it is growing--about the same size as yours. It gets about 3-4 hours of morning sun, followed by dappled light mid-day and shade for the rest of the day. So far it likes that combination. Hopefully we will both have some great pics when our GEs reach maturity. Kate |
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| I'm envious of your hill with its dark side and light side and enough space for duplicates. You have some lovely plants. Jan |
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| Jon, those look like healthy specimens for you to put your faith into. Let's hope you are one of the few that can grow this one with success. I'm too scared to try it this early in my hosta career. There has been such mixed emotions concerning GE on this forum it makes me want a few more years of wisdom under my belt before I potentially set myself up for disappointment. I am already trying to grow three separate Andrew. That should be enough to keep me on my toes, not to mention Cascades. Good luck, they look great !!! Ludi |
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- Posted by i-like-to-grow 6 (brambofrazzleroot@yahoo.com) on Sun, Jul 29, 12 at 19:11
| Yeah I agree... I love your space... We live in farmtown...where they cut down every tree to make pasture... I'm in the process of reforesting an acre of our property so maybe my grandkids can have a good space... I too recently purchased a ge... Four eyes from bluegrass nursery in a 2 gallon size... I think its gonna be in the pot for a winter atleast... Will be my first time trying to overwinter hostas in pots.... So we will see how that goes... |
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| Looks like you have all the right environmental conditions for success with GE. Seems to me I read someone somewhere saying that GE should be planted shallowly with the crown just covered. My GE has been slow in growth, so I just recenty added 2 more clumps to the original plant, mainly because I don't want to wait another 5 years for a nice specimen at my age. |
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| Thanks Kate, Jan , Ludi and bambofrazzleroot. I think I am lucky in that every hosta I plant seems to trive (except one Fragrant Bouquet that I must have planted over a rock). I think the Great Expectations will do very good as well. Next year a lot will start to mature and look like something and my "theme" areas hopefully will come out as nice as I think they will. We'll see. Jon |
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| Irawon, I plant all my hostas (and everything else) with the crown or root flare even with the ground level and keep mulch away from the plant stem or tree trunk. To me this is not shallow. I feel it is the correct depth. Jon.
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- Posted by hostahillbilly Zone 4 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 29, 12 at 22:43
| GE has this long-standing rep for being touchy about being 'messed with', such as dividing, moving, and so forth. I have not even the slightest idea, from a science background, why this one plant should be like that, but can confirm that here, again, we find it so. We have a few here, and last year one showed ALL the critical signs of tree root strangulation. Sooooo, it had to come out, since it would have died no matter what. I took great pains to get all the roots, found a pot big enough pot to house all of that, naw, it died anyway. My point is that if there is any chance of the infamous tree root strangulation problem where you intend to plant it, take some sort of precaution to reduce that possible problem, please. fwiw, hh |
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| HH, There was no sign of roots where these were planted. It is a slope with who knows how many years of leaf and pine needle build up. I don't think root strangulation will be a problem...I hope not anyway. I admit the suggestion that Great Expectations is oftentimes a problem is a good part of the attraction for me. Where's the fun in sure thing? I have read all the stories of touchiness and the number of success stories for this hosta. If these don't make it in this location, then, to me, there is little sense moving them. Thanks for the heads up on dividing as I am always anxious to break out the shovel. I will restrain myself and leave these alone...for a long time anyway. Jon |
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- Posted by MadPlanter1 5 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 30, 12 at 9:37
| Good luck- just be prepared to wait. GE is a very slow grower. Mine seem to enjoy being drowned. They do their best with generous daily watering. The light you described should suit them. I put one in almost full day sun, one in morning light and dappled shade, and one in morning sun and bright, open shade. So far the last one is growing the best. The mostly sun one was fine last year, but with days on end of full sun and 95+ degree days this year, it burned to a crisp. They get pretty nice looking as they mature, well worth the effort. Mine fell victim to hail and slugs this spring, but I found one decent leaf. |
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- Posted by leafwatcher zone 5 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 30, 12 at 15:15
| Well do to a great shade location, and watering I have made it this far, but the colors were not as good this year, the early spring just didn't LIGHT them up like last year? |
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| The test is to deliver enough sun to keep the light center and variegation shown in madplanter's Great Expectation without too much sun which cooks the plant. Leafwatcher by keeping yours in the shade the plant survives nicely and looks nice and healthy, but the shade increases chlorophyll which the plant needs more of to survive with less sun. The pictures of each siting condition show this very readily. It's a delicate balance. I'm hoping my 3 hours or so of morning sun and good afternoon shade will be close to the condition needed to keep the lighter colors light, not burn and not get too green as it would with more shade. |
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- Posted by peggy_hosta z4 neSD (My Page) on Tue, Jul 31, 12 at 11:56
| Here's a pic of my GE that's 3 summers old. Gets full late afternoon sun and still looks good. I'm at 45* latitude which I'm sure helps. And lots of warm lake waterings. Peggy  |
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| Very encouraging to me, Peggy. I am at 41 degrees 54 minutes (Just looked it up; I had no idea) and I think the full late afternnon sun you have would be too much at my latitude. I think my few hours of morning sun is a pretty close equivalent to the exposure you have and it seems to be working well for you. Jon
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- Posted by woodnative 6 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 31, 12 at 13:25
| That is GE in front of the little coop (Guacamole to its right......I don't really like Guacamole but I guess it is there to stay). |
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| That's a big plant woodnative. How old is it? |
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| woodnative, those are beautiful! |
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- Posted by lavenderlver none (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 6:46
| All so different! Let me add mine to the mix: |
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| ...after one month in the ground-
The plant below catches the sun just a bit quicker than the other GE.....
Amazing how 2 identical plants bought and planted together that are in almost the identical location can be affected by a very small difference in shading. Jon |
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- Posted by hostahosta Z6 OH (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 12:31
| I have 3 GE that are one year old. Originally had them in a grouping, but after reading about them on this forum, I separated them to see what they would do with different light situations. Here is the one that I think looks the best. Gets dappled light most of the day. The others are in shadier locations. |
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| Hostahosta, could you share pics of the other 2 to show the difference? Jon |
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- Posted by leafwatcher zone 5 (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 16:03
| I thought I would show a couple pics of my GE after this brutal summer, The one strange thing is the plant that is most shaded, always stays darker, yet it has the most leaf collapse of all of them?
Thats how they sit at the end of August... who knows what Sept. will bring? they really didn't show off as nice as they did the last two years.. I hope next year is a little more typical ! |
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- Posted by vivian_2010 IL 5a (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 16:54
| Thanks for sharing the nice pictures and experience. Here are pictures (taken in June and then end Aug) of my GE planted last fall. It has almost doubled the initial size. Most of the growth happened prior to the hot summer. Notice the color change. It receives all morning sun until 1 pm, then dabbled afternoon shade. I was out of town a lot this summer and have not watered too much during the record hot summer days late June to July. It was burned a little but recovered nicely recently. GE in mid June GE at end of August |
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| Maybe the shaded hostas are struggling more to produce more chlorophyl. The ones in the sun get more heat obviously, but have an easier time with chlorophyl production as they don't need the amount the shaded plants do. Looking at two plants of mine, the sunnier location has larger leaves and is is growing larger. The more shaded plant is experiencing a slower growth. For my tastes my sunnier plant is in just about a perfect location with good growth and good contrast without going too green. Believe me, there is no real difference that would be obvious, but there is a difference in sun exposure. I would not have guessed that the small amount involved would make a noticable difference...but it seems to. Everything thing I see says more sun equals greater contrast and more growth. Excessive sun causes bleaching and burning out. The shadier the spot the more color with less contrast and slower growth. Each plant and each location and climate is different, but I see this as a general rule, based on my limited observation...but it seems entirely logical to me and could explain the increased leaf mortality in your shadier location. I have never noticed this in my plants. I have just pruned off the dead leaves without taking note of dead leaves per plant. Also, in your case leafwatcher, it seems your shadier plant has root competition and the sunnier plant does not, which could explain leaf casualties as well as slower growth. It would also be true that in shadier locations something is shading the plant and root competition as a rule would be greater in shadier spots. In the case of my 2 GEs the root competition, soil, plant parentage, age, watering etc. are all identical and the only difference is in exposure. Jon |
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- Posted by hostahosta Z6 OH (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 18:39
| johnny 023: Here is my GE #2. It is in shade all day, under a hemlock tree. Larger leaves, but fewer of them. |
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- Posted by hostahosta Z6 OH (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 18:46
| Here is GE #3. This one had morning sun for a couple of hours then dappled shade. This is the only one that had a burnt leaf this year. |
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- Posted by hostahosta Z6 OH (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 18:51
| And here are all three GE at the beginning of the year in a group in their original location. Not sure any reliable conclusions can be made of my little experiment. Even at the beginning of the year in the same location, they were showing different characteristics as to number of leaves and size. I don't think there is any appreciable color difference between them at this time. It will be interesting to see what happens next year. |
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| Vivian, looks like you have a nice location to keep nice contrast all season. They look real good for minimal watering over such a hot summer. Hostahosta, thanks for the additional pictures. I think you are right and next year will be interesting. I am curious if the differences in mine will continue over a full season. Jon |
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