pots with drain holes.. are a very short term solution.. until the maples grow thru the holes.. into that good soil inside ...

we discuss using spin out bags ...

hit the link.. and get down to the blue topics.. to get a head start on the topic ...

as to the title.. what is the native soil... and how well does it drain???? the issue is too much retained water in pots with hosta.. in winter ... and if your soil holds it in the pot.. most will die ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Patty, while you are waiting for people to weigh in, I thought you might be interested in the information contained in the link below .

This was the first winter I had many, many potted hostas left outside. They survived just fine in my zone 5. I am still waiting for a few late-emerging stragglers to show.

I noticed that where there is available ground space, people are preferring to dig a hole and bury pot and all but they make sure the soil level is flush with the top of the pot. The easiest method is to lay them all on their sides and say goodbye for the winter. Your zone 5 should hopefully provide lots of snowcover as insulation against the ravages of winter.

Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: Survival/overwintering of potted hosta

NE Wis. My experience with potted hosta hasn't been good. On a covered porch, they died. In the two pots on the front stairs, exposed to elements, they died. On the north side, the one pot that was buried by snow, shielded from winds, survived as did the one I dragged into the garage for the winter. The only pot that survives to this day is overwintered in the garage, and has never really gotten big and lush. i don't understand.

I'm in Z6a and kept two hosta varieties in 8-gal. containers over winter. The plants survived the first two winters and came up each subsequent spring. Last year neither plant showed up and so far there's no sign of them this year. All my hostas growing in various garden beds are up.

From my own experience I'd say it's a 50/50 risk trying to over-winter them from one year to the next.

Thanks for the experiences and for the links. We have clay soils here. The kind that is hard as rock and cracks after a couple of days with no water.

So, it looks like pots are iffy, but spin out bags may work for me? And one person in the link does pots inside of spin out bags. I've never heard of these bags and will have to do more research.

If I plant hosta, I'd like them to grow large and lush. Because my front bed on the maple side of the yard is practically empty. It's really quite sad. But it's also sad when I buy plants and they just die on me in a year.

I have been growing hostas in pots for several years with great success. Make sure the pots have extra drain holes, and use potting mix, not soil. In winter I crowd all of the pots into a flower bed, so that the pot's bottoms are in contact with the soil. If left on patios, porches or steps, they die, possibly due to lack of insulation for the roots. I am in zone 6, and have lost only 2 or 3 plants out of about 20 in the last 5 years.

I have lots of hostas in pots. I've read that turning them on their sides in place works, and I believe it. I have a dolly so I move mine into the garage and set them on the floor and forget about them from October to March. They do just fine; I've never lost one. This year I have more potted hostas so I might just turn some on their sides. Moving them into the garage is a chore, and they take up too much room in the garage anyway. It was hard to fit them all in there last year.

I think the reason for turning them on their sides is to keep snow from piling up in the pots, then melting during a thaw, then the liquid freezes in the pots when it gets cold again. This freeze-thaw tends to happen here in New England in the spring, frequently. That cycle will break a terracotta pot. It will also destroy the cells in the roots and crowns if they absorb the melted snow when there is a thaw. I have dwarf alberta spruces in big pots on my deck; I turn them on their sides in the spring at the first sign of this cycle happening.

Post is old?

Oh. Yeah. It sure it old. 6 years ago.