Connie, cute my 68yr of BUTT, that is gorgeous!

IÂve had mine in the stream for years without a problem, BIG BUTT I would use something that I could stand to lose or an extra division until it is established. BIG AND there may come a season with conditions that cause a problem in the stream just like we have seasons that cause unusual problems in the soil.

You know I am always running little experiments to kick the hosta culture can down the road. If you can leave something forever to help us learn if my experience has broad application or IÂm just lucky.

Photos of the hosta in the stream previous years and those plants coming up this spring showing the eyes peeking up with the water running over the crowns.

{{gwi:430148}}

A little one that lived for some years in the stream, I reported that I made a soil sock from a piece of Patsy's pantyhose as my first water experiment. Suspended it in the steam with a rock to keep it from washing away. Just below the plant you can see the soil sock that looks like a wrinkled rock. I came be believe the soil sock didn't really work long term but it was fun for a while.

It was a tiny sport of Great Expectations that I finally lost, that one and the one I had in soil. The second photo is the division of the same plant in the soil, in the soil it grew to about the size of my palm.

how beautiful is that , wow , i love that idea , thank you for sharing the pictures , simply beautiful .....i didnt even know hostas could thrive like that in water ...

I never got photos of the experiment with the mister. I set up a pot in full sun with a mister on it 24/7 all summer. The plant was perfect and grew like a weed.

I could recommend a bog or mister as well. Especially a mister if one was going to set up a watering system because the mist cools the area on and around the hosta. You can see the larger leaves in the pot which was what the mister was running on, every leaf was just as perfect as the 3 larger leaves. I had just moved the mister to take the photo but didn't take a photo of the mister setup.

Connie repost your stream photo?

I say hosta are not shade tolerant they are "HEAT INTOLERANT".

no .. no ...

you got the song title wrong butch ...

its

PENNIES IN A STREAM ... FALLING LEAVES OF SYCAMORE ... MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT ....

LOL

nice stream regardless ... ken

Here is the photo again and no comparison to yours!!! My stream is on a hill and runs quickly to the catch pond, probably a 4 ft. drop from start to finish. The picture was taken from my deck. I drain all of it for the winter. Yes, I used common plants because I knew they would not winter over.

Connie

{{gwi:959977}}

OT to EO. Got the hosta and tried to e-mail you but keep getting them back! Thanks.

C

wilddog_202@yahoo.com

That is the underscore after the wilddog.

When we do talk I'll tell how it was grown, hope it arrived well, didn't go to much trouble following Ken's advice "they are just hosta"!

hostasformez4 , that is looking so good , ok now you got me going and i will eventually have to do this in my yard , hubby will not be please lol....

thanks for the pics , really nice .

"hostasformez4 , that is looking so good , ok now you got me going and i will eventually have to do this in my yard , hubby will not be please lol....
canadian-hosta-girl

Search for hosta bogs in this forum, you will find info and it is easier to get these results with a bog than building a water feature although I think everyone should have a water feature by law, international law mandated by the UN.

If you don't have one men with blue helmets will come with shovels instead of guns and install one.

My new slogan; "Water features not war".
Or, better; "Water features with hosta not war", I'm still working on it?

This is still a poor photo of how the hosta is growing with the crown under water, while I was trying to get the shot Patsy pointed out this fern. I knew it was there but had not thought to point it out to hosta people. This is a photo of the fiddle heads coming up, will try to remember to get a photo later when it is up. This may be the spore stalks from last year, fern experts can correct me. The point is how well this particular fern does in these conditions.

Can't show the roots and crowns it the water anymore.

Esther, what zone are you in?

Southern Indiana near Louisville KY and I think we are considered 6 but we are on a higher plateau and my experience is we are probably more like 5.

I always purchase zone 5 plants to avoid that bad winter every 10 years or so that kills the plant you've come to love.

Just to be clear I run the water feature most of the year but not all year and these plants have been in these conditions 24/7 365 for a lot of years.

I would recommend divisions of plants that you have in the ground in case something goes wrong but I'm convinced that you will have no problem with this method.

EO-
I had to drag up this old thread to tell you about what happened to my experimental hosta that I planted in the barley bag. It grew all summer long, and then fall came along like it always does. I was really busy, and let's face it I had garden burn out by the end of the summer. My husband actually tried to do something nice and cleaned out the pond. By the time I realized this weeks later my water plants had been laying around exposed to frost. I noticed the barley bag on the ground too...and no hosta. So I figured, oh well guess that one's gone.

Well... I was cleaning the leaves out of the bottom of my pond, and there amongst the dead leaves on the bottom was my hosta. Very much alive I might add. So I picked it out of there, put it in a pot, and decided to stop torturing the poor thing (at least for a little while). My pond is only about 2 feet deep, so I am guessing the dead leaves at the bottom must have kept it alive.

Interesting Margo, everything I've done says hosta cannot get to much water.

I was looking today at the bog when it occurred to me that I never ever have to water these hosta. Think about conditions that never require water for hosta, all the expense we go to then worry about watering or watering and worrying whether we watered enough.

There was a lot of dead leaves at the bottom, so I am guessing that is what kept them alive. We have two crimsom king maples, and they usually don't completely drop their leaves until after the snow has hit. I always find interesting things at the bottom of the pond in spring, this is the second year in a row I have found very large hornworms in there.

Andrea had given me a water lily from her pond, and even though my pond completely freezes in winter it has stayed alive for two years in a row now.

I'll have to explain these photos because my cheap camera will not get the detail needed to show this clearly.

The first photo is a hosta placed bare root at the edge of the stream. Think I've shown a photo of this exact hosta.

Notice how it is sending leaves from under the rock, the crowns are completely underwater.

The second, with the rock removed, shows shows the crowns completely under water below the rock.

This turns on its head what I have believed; that hosta crowns can not be under water. I do not want to recommend or suggest it is good for hosta crowns to be under water 24/7.

I am guessing it works in this specific situation; because the water is moving and highly oxygenated.

I've not done any experiment in STANDING water to replicate this condition, YET!

This is a better photo of the volunteer fern in the stream.

Love the pics. I actually have a dry stream bed I was thinking about taking it out, but now, I might make a river of hostas.
I need to find an on line place with cheap hostas like emerald tiara......the problem is, those are some of the most potentially infected hostas with Hosta virus X.

You can make either a bog or a stream without the pond just a small catch basin to recirculate into the stream.