I move hosta's all times of the year and they never seem to miss a beat. I moved this beast just two weeks ago ( it's 7' across). Sounds like you did everything right. Just keep it well hydrated and hopefully it will be fine.

Generally speaking July isn't the best time to transplant things due to extreme heat and lack of rainfall. Hostas are generally pretty tough however so I wouldn't give up on yours just because the top growth isn't very pretty.

I divided one of my hostas earlier this year and the foliage took a hit following the transplant. All the divisions actually produced flower scapes and bloomed which tells me the transplanting didn't interrupt their normal growth cycle.

You don't post your hardiness zone so that limits what folks can advise but my guess is you'll have healthy plants next season. Right now your hosta is focused on establishing a root system to support its top growth.

Do you think it will die??

It might but it isn't likely.

Is there anything I can do to help it now?

Yeah, there is. You can make sure it doesn't dry out... and be patient.

How big a "start"? Have you been keeping it watered? OBTW, they are hostas, no longer refered to as plantain lilies. That was a long time ago, and yes some tags still say that...but that is for the uninformed. Yours will probably be fine next year. Transplant shock.

-Babka

plantain lily hosta???

Maybe it's a regional thing. I don't know where Bombeni is from, but around here, Hostas are very often labeled "Plantain Lily".

To reply to questions.......

I live in Okla. the root ball is about the size of a large grapefruit, the roots are as big around as my little finger, I've never seen such big hosta Roots. And "plantain lily" is what the neighbor called it tho I knew it was a hosta. I've been watering it everyday, but the yellowing and curling up is really accelerating. I dunno maybe I'm watering it too much? Btw It's been 100 degrees here the last several days.

I appreciate all the replies. I'm going to see about taking a pic and posting it, if I can figure out how.

Hey Marta.......thanks for that pic! Some folks are learning a little hosta trivia today :)

That sounds like too much water maybe, could also be too hot or getting leaf scorch if it went into any sunlight, but is probably just transplant shock if too much of the roots were chopped off so it will need to grow new roots before it can draw up the water. A rootball the size of a grapefruit doesn't sound very big for a fresh division, but it will root in time I'm sure and will likely be fine next year.

If the soil is still wet deep down you can cut back on the watering and don't water during the heat of the day if it is that hot.

And no, we don't call them plantain lilies. The tag printing companies seem to think that they need a "common" name to put on the tags so they still print that. In all the years I've been selling I only had one person (from the South by the way) stop and ask for our plantain liiles, so maybe it is a bit of a regional thing.

Good luck!

Chris

FYI - before digging up a plant, always make sure it's well hydrated before digging. If it wasn't, that might be the problem.

Deanna

Yay! I just posted my first picture with my new iPad.

Well yeah, I poured water in the hole before filling it up so it should be pretty wet. Maybe I will cut back to every few days on the water.

The dirt where I dug it up was bone dry. I don't know how her hostas have stayed alive because they never get watered.

The root ball was actually about the size of a cantaloupe. I thought I dug down pretty deep when getting the roots but I'm sure they were cut some.

You can see the soil is very wet around it. So maybe since it came from bone dry soil it can't handle daily watering.

This post was edited by Bombeni on Sun, Jul 27, 14 at 13:01

Hi Mac485.....your hostas are incredible. I've never seen hostas with multiple flower stalks? Mine only ever grow one the whole summer. For years I thought that was standard, one flower per hosta lol. Where do you live? What's your secret?