Remember HH you are in Zone 4 in Minnesota. What latitude are you growing Hosta in? I'm in 5b, but my latitude is 41 degrees North. What you or I can do, might not be able to be done in St. Louis.

Steve

Steve makes a good point!

Here at almost latitude 45 degrees we can give the blues a full, or more day of full direct light.

I fully understand that as you go south through USDA zones this would need to be diminished.

The fact that a Hosta looks blue because the waxy coating is reflecting the blue light spectrum to your eyes instead of letting it through to the chlorophyll of the plant allowing it to grow remains.

Steve is right, take the (thanks to GW for allowing us to specify our USDA Zone) information posted and adjust it to your area.

Now if GW would let us specify soil type, wouldn't that help as well? Hint, Hint ;-)

Here it is acidic sandy soil, specifically KKD sand and gravel.

Yup, it's light and nutrients 'flush' through easily, but it is, IMNSHO, easier to amend to suitable than a heavy, dense clay circumstance, thank goodness!

Oh, a minor correction, we are in MI not MN, similar, but some notable differences ;-)

hh

I am also at 41 degrees north latitude in Utah. I am wondering how much sun a blue hosta can take here. It does get pretty hot here in the summer and there is not much humidity. I don't want it to lose the blue color, so maybe more shade is better?

tropic_lover

I don't know enough about your micro-climate, but the comment about 'not much humidity' raises a red flag for me.

Hostas are surely moisture lovers in their native land.

I think I would seriously consider placing seeping soaker hoses along your Hosta beds.

Hostas LOVE water. Just do it ;-)

hh, fwiw

We won't even discuss blues in latitude 30. HH, you are at 45, and that is approx 15 x 60 nautical miles further north than I am, with a much more oblique sun angle. I bet you have a hard time getting a sun tan there, dontcha?

I've been considering the option of a misting system to keep the air cooler, and maybe a fan at night to keep the kiddies cool. We have humidity oh yeah, very high. They'd love that part. But if they need to recuperate from the daytime sweats, our nights are not that cool. Which is why I am considering the misting up high in the air. That, of course, introduces the issue of foliar nematodes, which are already active here, but if I can control them with the Bayer systemic w/Merit, then mist system sounds good to me.
What I like about the misters is the air cooling. Not a swamp cooler setup, but one of those might work in a really dry (low humidity) climate.

never forget.. hosta are ONLY shade tolerant ...

ALL OF THEM.. will grow more vigorously in full sun ... given enough water the live thru it ...

but the bottom line is .. wait for it..

they will be ugly as sin by august ...

but they will have grown and multiplied faster ...

but there is a qualification to that the further south you go ... and down there.. my personal theory is its about the night temps.. or lack of recovery time at night ...

the misting system sounds interesting.. but i wonder about bathing your slugs population .. lol ... they might be throwing orgies under a mist system ... though i continue to wonder how a slug.. being both male and female in one body.. would do such ... but this is getting to weird.. i digress [which might be the understatement of the week] .. lol ...

anyway.. hillbillies in z4 ... hmmmm .. lol ...

ken

Ken, I am tending to agree with you about the night temps being the thing to watch out for. What was said about controlling the foliar nematodes with the Bayer systemic containing Merit could help with the nem problem. It is those hermorphodite slugs that could keep me really busy with the beer parties and the Sluggo snacks.

So far, I'm doing okay with the slugs. I pick up pots, I look beneath, I turn over any leaves falling in the pots. We have a leaf falling off of trees all the time, so picking them out of pots is an ongoing thing. Maybe it is time for another crop of slug eggs to hatch, but I really have NOT seen a big slug--just the small ones.

Maybe the amount of sun getting through the shade will be just right at 30 degrees No. latitude. The early afternoon sun is a killer though. I feel like I'm swimming in the atmosphere, wonder how the wee hosta are feeling about it.