So funny your timing, EO....I was just wondering last night what was the date last year that we had that late freeze that hurt so many hostas, especially for our southern forum members...I'm thinking mid-April?

I remember last year in early April during an early spring thaw, scratching around my beds looking for eyes and then later being so thankful none of them decided to surface until ~April 20. Then they all starting popping up! I vowed then never to dig around before THEY signal me and certainly not before May 1. I told my hubby to leave all the leaves from the trees on the bed in fall and will not pull them back until May. We also mulch heavily with woodchips.

What I'm trying to say here, folks, is... listen to EO. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to mulch!

Char

char said: I told my hubby to leave all the leaves from the trees on the bed in fall and will not pull them back until May.

i ask .. why EVER pull it back???? the hosta and the trees are creating a FREE natural mulch .... and we are [used to be .. for me] inclined to remove it ... why i ask.. why ....

the only reason is for slug control .. and you can control them without removing such .... unless you have the ninth plague of the bible.. and then.. well its war ...

also ... i have lost... over time.. most of my fancy plantiginea hybrids.. not momma .... from hard late frosts ... these plants are very susceptible to the freeze/thaw that ester talks about ... ... they often never recover ....

ken

You're talkin'to the one who knows,Char! It was the first week of April,Easter week. I was scrambling to get my hostas covered,because most of them come up in March,down here. While I didn't lose any,a lot of them were very small all year long. I,like you am leaving the leaves and mulch around the hostas,until they put their little pointy heads above the leaves. I already found my montana Aureomarginata,above ground,and I don't mean heaving! It is staying under leaves,if I have to keep piling more and more on it. Let's hope the freezes are gone before hosta season this year! March 23 is Easter this year,and so far winter isn't going away down here. Phil

I know why the hosta eyes are pointed,Butch! I have seen them come up in hard-baked red clay,and just bust through! For anyone else who read my post about montana Aureomarginata,it is now 2" above ground,but I re-covered it with more leaves! Phil