they are not house plants ...

leave them be.. they might surprise you ...

i am going to guess.. these were bigboxstore plants... simply based on the name????

you can do better.. mail order.. for a bit more investment.. IF.. and ONLY if... you are in a z8 .. that hosta favor ...

of which i have no idea....

tell us where you are.. and maybe some of the warm zone peeps can bring you up to speed

ken

ps: they have a 45 day.. or so.. cold requirement.. maybe.. as a long shot.. you should try putting them in the veggie crisper .. storing them like the carrot they are] .. and see if you can force the cold period after dormancy .. and then take them out after the right number of days.. and see if you cant get them going early .. even outside early ... ?????????

I'm in southeast VA near the bay, barely zone 8a. Summers here are super hot n' humid, winters mild to somewhat cold (a few nights in the mid twenties usually). It seems like most plants listed for sun do better in part shade here, and what shade I have (which isn't much) might not be shady enough. I'm wondering about my ability to grow hostas here at all, considering that along with my seeming failure this year.

So I leave them in the ground (maybe try one in the fridge) and cross my fingers that they return (when should I be looking for them in the spring anyway?) and look into some better varieties for my area? Anybody got any ideas about hosta that do well in my climate?

Thanks Ken! All I need to see is all of those . . . . and I knew it was you! I appreciate your thoughts.

H. plantaginea gene pool handle the heat better than others.
Varieties such as:

'Aphrodite'
'Fragrant Blue'
'Fried Green Tomatoes'
plantaginea
'Avocado'
'Fragrant Bouquet'
'Guacamole'
'So Sweet'
'Cathedral Windows'
'Fragrant Queen'
'Stained Glass'
'Dark Shadows'
'Fried Bananas'
'Invincible'
'Thunderbolt'

hth,
Deb

ps: edited to say: I'm no expert on warm zone hosta. This is from posts I have read here on GW by folks who garden in those zones.

This post was edited by Dgregory on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 18:00

I'm in 8a also. I grow in pots, but there are some that do well here in the ground. Where I've seen the best results in the ground are in raised beds. The Dallas Arboretum has a trial garden. They have also been trialed in East Texas by the Smith County Extension service. I believe the results are online. If not, I have them somewhere on my computer. Tony Avent of Plants Delight nursery in NC has an online list of plants that do well in warmer climates.

They do need shade. I have some in morning sun that have fried (Key West and Blue Angel come to mind). Others have done well in early morning sun (So Sweet and Guacamole come to mind). Most will fry in afternoon sun.

I love them in pots, though. In 8a, they come up in March and stay pretty until the temps get too hot to stay outside. They make great patio plants and look good as a specimen plant in a bed. Of course, they have to be watered daily in the summer. If I keep them out of the hot sun, and don't neglect the water, they stay decent until the first cool spells.

By the way, Francis Williams is a dud for me. It never looks good. It does well in Minnesota, though. Wide Brim is not on my short list, either. It has never done really well for me, although it's a beautiful plant and I keep buying another one in hopes my luck will change.

The ones that seem to do well for me are:

So Sweet
Guacamole
Sum and Substance
Sugar and Cream (colored similar to So Sweet, so you might not want both)
Paradigm
Francee
Paul's Glory
Striptease (it burns later in the season)
Royal Standard
Blue Mouse Ears (very small)

Invincible burns pretty badly up in the summer, but looks good in the spring.
I think Niagara Falls is going to be an outstanding plant. It's grown well, has too much sun and still looks decent.
Aphrodite has been a dud for me. It almost dies every spring and then the buds don't open.

Those I've mentioned that do well for me are several years old. I have some that are so nice in the spring that they are worth how bad they look in the summer. Orange Marmalade is one of those. Others, like Francis Williams should have gone in the compost pile two years ago.

And, as an aside, the itty bitty hosta is what you get from itty bitty roots. When you purchase a plant with a larger root system, you get a bigger plant. They will get bigger with time. It will take a few years to get big plants out of those itty bitty roots.

Good luck. If you have any questions I can answer, just ask.

bk

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across something on Plant Delights Nursery (in North Carolina, not too far from you actually) website that addresses the question you ask--How do I know which hosta to choose for a warm climate?
Tony Avent wrote several paragraphs about species or cultivars that emerge early, as a sign that they did not need as many "chill days" as the regular hosta. I quote from his article:

"Below is a list of those that emerge extremely early and would make candidates for trialing in warm climates where is little or no winter chilling. "

Then he lists the hosta by variegated/green/gold/blue and gives the low-chill species (early emergers) from which they are derived, IF KNOWN. (Some are not known, you know.) It's a 2 page list, so I don't think I should give it here.

However plantaginea is the prime species with low chill requirement. If it says its fragrant, then it is from plantaginea.

One reason I focused my garden on plantaginea hosta family is the low chill requirement, and I'm pleased to note that of the ones doing fine here, they are derived from Mama and the other low chill groups. Such as sieboldii, venusta, yingeri, ventricosa (oh yes, ventricosa is way up there as a good one for my climate.)....

I am a lot further south than you, but not so much different in climate. No snow, though. A freeze here is of short duration. So low chill requirement is a big advantage to growing the list of hosta that Avent mentioned.

I don't have the uRL for that page but you can find it tucked in where Tony mentions HOSTA. There might be other places to get low chill information, but this is the one I have scanned myself and am familiar with. It is a source of information, as is the link to Don Rawson's lists of hosta. I try never to be without Don's Lists. :) But I find no list of low-chill hosta at Don's place.

Here is a link that might be useful: Don Rawson's Hosta Lists