Good questions, bettylu. This is the first summer I've had to deal with crispy edges. I'm looking forward to answers to your questions.

interesting that so many of us have the crispy edges for the first time thiis year. My garden gets some direct morning sun on the two back corners, and that was enough to fry the edges of a couple out there during that very first super hot spell. After that we've been luckier than most of the country and it hasn't been much above eighty. But I have seen sooooo many fried hosta around town, which is very unusual for us in Maine.

I'm interested to see if anyone can answer your question about next year's growth. I would think that as long as there is still some live tissue, it would come back ok next year- maybe the same size or a little smaller? I've always thought they say not to fertilize a stressed plant, so I don't know about that. I would certainly keep up with the watering, though.

I took this pic yesterday in a parking lot....I think these are actually BLUE hosta- poor babies! I'm really grateful to have mostly shade after this summer.

Those hosta should never have been planted there! For what it's worth department,this is the first time I've ever had 100+ temps,and my hostas don't look any different than other droughts we have had here when the hostas came back OK. Next year will tell the tale,but I personally think they will be just fine next year. I just hope we will have a more normal spring,because some of my plants look worse than years when had a 'normal' spring,and yet some are better than they ever were! Nature is funny that way. Phil

In that parking lot planting, does it mean hostas are not only shade tolerant? What about next summer with possibly the same temperatures?

That was gonna be my question, Bern. Why should they not have been planted there? I'm guessing they were in 3/4 day full sun.

We had the summer from hell last year. We had 50 something days over 100, and some of those were above 110. We had no rain until the middle of August. My hosta looked terrible. I watered them every day. (I grow in pots.) My hosta came back ths spring bigger and better than ever.

I visited the Dallas Arboretum in August of last year, the day after the first rain and 85% of their hosta were fried. I visited again this spring and the hosta were huge. They showed no ill effects from the bad year. In fact, the sizes of the hosta had me rethinking how many hosta I had room for. (However, this year, we had an invasion of cut worms, so they are ugly this year, too.)

As long as you water, I think you'll be fine. Everywhere I've been in this area, the hosta have looked good this year.

bkay

This is how the average hosta looked last year. (They're planted under crape myrtles.)
{{gwi:935007}}

I hope you are right about them coming back bigger next year. The only thing is, your pic was of what yours looked like in August. This year the hosta looked like that by the end of June.

Peeps on this forum tell us that this is the time of year for the roots to be getting bigger, but with such poor quality leaves to be doing the hard work of storing energy for next year, I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Maybe the early spring we had will make up for the abrupt jump to weather that is more like August than late June/early July. I know they won't die, with their ability to "grow on the driveway", I just wondered if there was anything I should/could be doing to help.

Bettylu

Just keep watering. That's all you can do. Don't assume the roots are not growing just because the top is ugly.

bkay

Bettylu,

Bigger and better next year requires plenty of water. If you don't water much, they'll be smaller next year.

One of my hosta beds gets 2 hours sun. The other one gets less. We are zone 5b, but it's not like zone 5 in Michigan or Wisconsin. The sun's rays are very strong here. We get the hot, humid Gulf air in the summer and the Arctic air in the winter, which is why we're 5b. My hosta that get 2 hrs sun are very bleached out, and some are crispy fried. There's NO WAY anyone could talk me into putting them in 3/4 day sun. How much sun hostas can take really depends on where you're located. The only hosta that doesn't seem to be fazed by the sun in my garden is lancifolia.

Deanna

My ones that are burned do get some direct sun. I have been a bit overzealous with the water and have had some crown rot and loss of some eyes. I'm in KC so I hear ya on the temps and absolute lack of rain.