Probably from stepping on them. It's hard to stay out of the beds sometimes, and some of those hosta eyes are so hard to see when they're first coming up.

I think it's part stepping on them and part frost damage.
Shriveling can also be from frost damage.

Thanks so much--I hope you're right! I'd much rather it be physical damage than some disease. They are in an area that gets some foot traffic, so I can definitely see how that would have happened.

I have the same problem in Lethbridge. Two of my long time hostas sprouted up, and then just stopped. two others are only about two inches tall. Others, surounding these problem hostas are beutiful. What gives??

I had several new ones coming up stunted. Other hostas had frost damage to leaves which distorted those, some parts of leaves lateron dried up, but the plants did not get stunted. The stunted ones I dug up and found that roots were mostly gone, perhaps soil and mulch was put on them too deep in late fall, mice had a snack there, or there was a partial crown rot.
The ones in pots are recovering slowly, but are staying small so far, will plant them soon to give them a start for winter.
Bernd

P

We don't freeze here, and mine are in pots so they cannot be stepped on. I get that here on at least one or two out of 90 in pots each year. Stunted and thicker than normal leaves. The stunted eye will be next to other perfectly normal eyes. Could be root problem as Bernd suggests. When things look weird uptop, and it doesn't look like bugs or fungus....tah dah.... probably something going on under the ground. Dig it up (carefully) and see what's up.

-Babka

OP here! This post is 7 years old! but I do remember this situation. It was from being stepped on. We had a birthday party for my then-3-year-old (now 10!!!) and some of the kids had gone wandering in the garden in April when the shoots were just poking out of the ground. Hostas all doing fine now!

I'm so sorry! I just saw a post dated an hour ago and responded. I usually am better at recognizing old posts. So I will blame it all on Mary Ann Smith and her "P". Not really. My bad. Anyway I hope you figured out what was stunting your hostas.

-Babka

Haha no problem! Yes, Mary Ann is the troublemaker ;-) I have been careful about letting kids wander in the garden in early spring since then and the hostas have been fine ever since!