Why people keep selling that one is beyond me. Mine comes up with burned edges.

Mine may go on the cull list as well.

bkay

Wow, 11 years! You are a lot more tenacious than I am. Space is just too valuable to have a hosta look repeatedly bad year after year. I give mine a fair chance(3-5 years), depending on what caused the uglies in the first place, but if they remain uninspiring, they are outta here.

-Babka

You give them minimum three years? I have several I'm ready to chunk that haven't made it to three. I gave away a Wide Brim yesterday. It was fine, but with limited space, who needs two? I also have two albomarginatas, which isn't that inspiring in the first place, but it's one of my original hosta from the mid '90's. I'm going to re-home one of them this week, somewhere.

Orange Marmalade ruined me. It's so pretty. I'd like all my hosta to be that nice. Put OM or Paradigm next to Francis Williams and there's no contest. I don't think I've ever seen a really pretty FW. Whatever posessed me to buy it in the first place, I have no clue. I'm going to get more picky about the plants I buy.

bkay

Frances Williams was the third hosta I ever purchased. It also has the distinguished honor of being the first hosta I pulled out and threw in the trash.

I gave mine to my FIL, who doesn't mind such imperfections in a hosta. I also used to have the reverse of FW, "supernova". So imagine the ugly edges spread over the entire leaf, and that is Supernova, That one is looooooong gone for me,

Well you are right to dig up that FW, Frank. But why don't you try it in a different spot? This is the third year for my FW and it's never had a lick of Spring dessication ever. It could be your climate, but it could also be the spot it's in.

Steve

FW is a stunner in my garden next to the ugly betty of hostas, Borwick Beauty. It grows SUPER slowly and crisply, so after 10 plus years in the ground it has about 10 leaves. It is going to the plant yard sale or the chickens real soon.

Hey, don't bash my Frances Williams. I have seen much worse hostas in this forum. They were one of my first hostas and I love that leaf design. My plants in the shade have no problems with leaf burn in spring. The one in more sun has it this year, it seems to depend on sun exposure.
This week suddenly a row of Halcyons got damaged opening up leaves from a freeze so it seems, but we were in the 40s at night and nothing else got damaged. But these Halcyons get a lot of sun. It is a mystery.
Bernd

I bought three Frances Williams almost 6 years ago at the end of the season for 75 cents each. They sat in the weeds for 3 years. I moved two of them last year, but don't have the heart to cull them yet as they were the first hosta that I remembered the name for after I realized hostas had names.

Mine just started unfurling this week so they look at lot better right now than tons of my hostas that got hit by the freeze.

Gesila

Perhaps it is a matter of zone. Here is my Frances, pic taken 5 minutes ago.

Christine

Franknjim,

I just had another thought about your Frances Williams. She is planted right next to the house. This will encourage her to emerge too soon. Mine is planted in a cold place in my garden, (purely by chance)morning shade from a privacy fence, afternoon shade from trees, and she is one of the very last to emerge in spring.

Christine

Frances has looked good each of its 4 seasons here. Despite the warm winter and spring, interspersed with frosty mornings, FC looked healthy this morning:

{{gwi:225312}}

Christine, that is really pretty. The FW color combo is my absolute favorite among hosta. Tokudama Flavocircinalis is one of my top five hosta in my garden with that same combo, minus the ugly edges.

What is frustrating is that there doesnt seem to be any real consensus on what exactly causes many FW's to get the ugly edges. I've seen lovely ones at a client's house that were in a great deal of sun. Mine had the ugly brown edges and was in total, complete shade.

I called her FC instead of FW as all her close friends refer to her. She holds up well all season here. FW is planted where she gets early morning sun only. Here is my picture from last summer:

Yeah, mine has those same little brown "hickies" all through the white areas. It has them when it comes up. Or, at least it has the last two years, which is how long I've had it. By the way, Dipel won't wash off of blue hosta.

bkay

{{gwi:1000090}}

Maybe Frances likes acid soil. It's very acid here in central Delaware and I think it's also acid in Eastern Pa where Harry's Frances is happy. This is just speculation as i have no knowledge whatsoever about hostas and pH.
Christine

Christine has two good points. FW is next to your house thus it's getting additional warmth and is opening earlier than it should. Also being next to your house it may be getting a higher pH from the foundation. Concrete foundations will leach and cause higher pH next to them. The last point is that any overhang might prevent rain from reaching FW, any of these things could be causing Spring dessication. Put it in full shade (preferably in a grow bag) away from the house and I'll bet that solves the problem.

Steve

The house is about 80 years old so I don't think the basement walls are leaching much of anything anymore. There is no overhang there. The gutter sticks out about 5 inches but that's it. I never rely on rain. I water religiously starting before anything even unfurls. The only time I don't water is if we get a couple of inches of rain over a day or two.

I will be getting rid of the underachievers and others that I don't care for to make room for nicer ones. Sea Fire will be going since it also only stays nice looking for a short minute before it falls apart. Gold Standard will be going since I don't like how it bleaches out.

My FW is going this year, too. I'm not sure how many others, but several are being re-homed this year.

bkay

Last year we had an abundance of rain and FW looked good all season.

It does look nice, squire john, but yours also has the desiccated edges that plague so many of us.

FWIW, my Frances Williams was in acid soil, deep shade, far away from the house. I'll check how it's doing over at my FIL's in a couple weeks.

My Frances Williams hostas usually come up late, but this warm spring the one in afternoon sun came up early and got all melted away by a freeze. I have 6 FW, like them a lot, and have good luck with them, could not understand why people have problems with them. My recent experience with one of them seems to indicate not to plant them in places with sun exposure during spring. My other ones only get some morning sun, but then are shaded by big pines which provide shade year long. It is a matter where you plant them. You know now that they get easily damaged by frost, so prevent that leaves are up when freezes happen, keep the crowns cold in spring.
Bernd

I think this may be my first year in 10? that it doesn't have desiccant marks. So far it looks better than it ever has. I moved mine a few years ago to the back of the house where you have to search to find it. It has such potential, color wise. It makes me sad it is so touchy. I won't give up on it..but I won't split or share it either. Why share the disappointment.

I have a fondness for Frances Williams, for the same reason as gesila , "they were the first hosta that I remembered the name for after I realized hostas had names." but also because Frances Williams gardened in my town! and 30 years ago, when we moved here, a friend lived in FW's house, and invited me to dig up some of the hostas in the garden (most had been taken by FWs' daughter, who also lives in town.) I convinced the local library to plant a patch of FW hostas and i worked with them to edit and purchase a weather-resistant photo plaque/stake that was placed by the planting. Yay FW! (even if she's not perfect)

Francis Williams is one of the favourites in my garden. The dissication burn is pretty mild for me. But next year I think I will shade her with a screen or something in the spring until my weeping mulberry leafs out and shades her.

I've had a FW for two seasons now in bright shade, no direct sun, and she hasn't had any dessication (fingers crossed).

She's only got three eyes, up from one last year, so she has a lot of growing to do. I also have Olive Bailey Langdon with three eyes. I don't know if they're supposed to be basically identical, but OBL always has greener center leaf color than FW's blue-green. So far so good. I love them both.

Don B.

Kudos to you, Arbo! FW is a beauty. After all the posts I've read on this forum, since joining last June, I am of the opinion that location is everything! I have three planted and one potted. Only the oldest, mature one has some desiccation, the others which I propagated in 2012 do not. As these divisions reach maturity, it will be interesting to see if they too will suffer from spring desiccation....or not. I have had a FW since the late 80âÂÂs. I cannot recall a spring desiccation problem back then.

One of my theories that I am working on is that it is age related...if it still desiccates while sited in ideal location. If so, dividing every couple of years may be a solution to have a few FW's that don't get desiccated. That is my current experiment, started spring of 2012.

2013---only the mature one showed some desiccation
2014---ditto
We'll see what 2015 brings! :-)

Jo