the potting media is very important.. NEVER soil ...

there is a theory that a small plant in a huge pot.. will struggle .. and that you should pot it to an appropriate size.. and up-pot as it grows ...

but do understand.. that does not mean you cant use your huge pot ... you just plant the smaller pot in it ...

winter storage of pots is the MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE ... and VERY zone specific .... most of us.. cant just leave them sitting there ... and it can be as simple as simply tipping them on their sides.. once the plant goes dormant.. and insuring it stays out of the sun ...

in a nutshell, regarding winter: get it dormant.. keep it dormant.. and dont let water accumulate [and drown/rot it]

ken

I pot everything because they don't do well for me in the ground. They are nice in pots, though. I have a Sum and Substance in about a 14" pot. It's four or five years old and 5' across. I have a bigger one, but the leaves are smaller. I think it's an old Elegans from before tissue culture. I plan to divide it next year. The pot is just too big to move by myself.

The down size is that the leaves don't get as big as in the ground. I don't have much corrugation on my plants, either.

Don't start your Queen in the big pot. You may have to guess if it's bareroot, but pot it in one size larger than it was in. When you use a really big pot for a small plant, it tends to rot.

Good luck.

bkay

Okay-got it-I will toss it around in my head before doing it. I just ripped out a 6' X 6' patch of Ivy for Sum & Substance, Stirfry and Big Daddy and a Dixie wood fern. I expect the Hostas to be small at arrival so for now I will put those in the ground. Thanks for the info-may be a little too much maintenance for me as I spend 4 days a week watching my twin granddaughters at my daughters house. So they will go in the ground for now.

Thanks to everyone here, I got started with Hostas last year. Given my zone, all of them are in pots, on the north side of the house, and right under a tall fence with clematis. The brown snails here are legendary, so even with regular applications of Sluggo there are more holes than a lot of you would tolerate, but still....I'm quite pleased

Oops, sorry, I forgot the picture

Those are looking good, landlady. I like them combined with clematis.

Kate

Thanks. Every one of them came back. Dick Ward is just barely sticking his head above the ground, and he's the last one to prove that I didn't even kill one....:-))))

Landlady,

Nicely done. Is that Clematis 'Huldine'?

Steve

I put hostas in pots for many reasons.

1) Can't convince my neighbor to cut down her maple tree so my hostas won't have to compete with the roots!
2) Lack of space - You can fit alot more hostas into your gardens when some of them are in pots!
3) Aesthetics - you can add height and texture to your gardens by putting some of your hostas in pots.
4) 911 - Used as an emergency method to save a dying hosta!
5) NICU - Used to protect those one eyed hostas that I paid big dollars for. Don't trust them in the ground where the rabbits and slugs can get them!
6) Slug control - First year that I've seen Cherry Berry without a gazillion slug holes in it!

Gesila

Landlady, try putting your hosta on "pot feet". I'm not sure that is what works, but I don't usually have slug damage. However, if I forget to put the feet back under them in the spring, I have damage. They have the feet at my local walmart (3 for $4.00) and at Lowe's.

bkay

There's one that escaped in this photo
{{gwi:979971}}

Steve, that clematis is Silver Moon, not Huldine. I did put Huldine in elsewhere last year, though, and am looking forward to seeing her gain some stature this year.

Bkay, thanks for the reminder on the pot feet. I remember reading that advice....and then forgetting it. I will pick some up this week.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.