Is it all yellow and brown? If there's any green on the leaves I would leave them and keep it water, maybe a little extra. I will cut the brown parts off to make it look nicer. Yes, Hosta's can and do grow more leaves.

Cut off the brown parts, leave the green.
As long as it's green, it's sending energy to the roots, which are actively growing now. I would not cut them down unless they are completely crispy.

This evening while I was watering, I looked closely at some of the many which have brown leaves. They have new growth in the center.

Although I am tired of watering and want to quit, I still do because I figure if hey are still trying to grow in this heat with no rain, they deserve watering!

chris

If possible, I suggest getting a faucet adapter for your sink so you can hook up a hose to water. I'm in an apartment with no outside hookup either and things would've died long ago if I had to use buckets.

Tx. ahelaumakani. Unfortunately my kitchen sink (which is near the back door to the garden) doesn't have a normal faucet....only a hose...so I can't hook up a garden hose to it. I finally decided to try the basement sink, sending the hose out the back window and under the deck to the yard. But alas, it seems the small window in the basement has the kind of screen that doesn't pop out. So frustrating! So I finally sent a note to my LL, telling him that for years I've had to haul buckets, and couldn't he figure somethihng out for me so I can get water out back? We'll see what he says.... :-(

This summer with my hosta's when they became ragged and brownish I cut them back and they flushed out with more fresh beautiful shiny leaves can this be done with ALL hosta's? These were so big that I needed to move them but decided to cut them back until I had the time to do a proper transfer. I was pleased with the outcome and would really like to know for future refference if this aproach can be made to all hosta's I'm sure there maybe some exceptions. I haven't posted on garden web in ages but would love to be involved in future hosta swaps.

I remove all dried up and completely yellow and brown leaves whenever I see them. We here keep any leaves on hostas which have significant green parts even when they are looking bad in summer, because their green parts are still providing for the plants. Then when it gets cooler, hostas usually grow new leaves.
Last year in my area we had 3 frosts in May which contorted leaves on hostas, so I cut them all off on one plant in June/July, and that plant never grew new leaves that year. This year it came back in size of a mini. I will never do that again.
Bernd