It could be or it could be that they are getting too much water. Are they mushy before going like that? If so, too much water or humidity.

It's lack of water that is causing that.

Steve

Another one (guacamole)

This post was edited by hostalover67 on Mon, Jul 7, 14 at 15:30

They are not mushy first. First they look bleached out (as from the sun) and then brown and then like this (as I remember anyway from other years.)

We just got back from a week-long vacation to this. We have an overhead sprinkler system and been getting some rain as well... I just really don't think it's from not enough water, because the one that are tucked away in the corners under the eaves and in the shade look much better, even though they are in areas that the sprinklers don't reach well.

And another. This one is Frances Williams and she is finicky to begin with...

This post was edited by hostalover67 on Mon, Jul 7, 14 at 15:34

though we have one or two collectors from z9 ...

many can not succeed in z8 ...

i dont recall a lot of peeps from SC ... and i am wondering.. if there are folks from SC .... if not mountains and the attendant climate make a difference ...in other words ... you might not be in the best place for hosta.... i DONT KNOW

at some point.. you are going to have to decide... if hosta are worth it.. in your micro climate ...

ken

ps: avent.. plant delight are trying to breed more south friendly hosta... it seems to me ... you are struggling with up north hosta... in the south.. crikey.. FW in z8 ... its carp in z5... lol .... and apparently no better down south ... anyway... you might .. with a little research.. find hosta better suited to SC ...

A few thoughts on looking closer at my hostas:

1) On affected plants, the sides away from the sun are unaffected. Also the underneath leaves that are not exposed to the sun are not affected.

2) This has been happening for the last 5 years since they were planted, but regardless, all of these hostas have grown HUGE. If there was a problem with too much or too little water all these years, wouldn't they be wasting?

3) While these plants get a lot of shade, the ones affected do get sun at midday. And here in SC midday summer sun is scorching.

I originally posted thinking they may have a fungus or disease, and suppose now my question is if it was disease, could only the parts exposed to sun be affected? Or does the fact that only parts exposed to sun are affected mean this would only be a shade issue?

Ken, hosta are always worth it. I am about to search out more south-friendly hostas. :)

As for FW, I know what a primadonna she is, but she is from my very first garden 25 years ago, and I am just a bit sentimental about her. :)

Thanks!

Hostalover, I think Ken may be right with regards to finding more heat-tolerant Hostas. You might want to look at Lakeside Hostas, as Mary Chastain created the line so those of us further south can enjoy these wonderful plants, too. Hostas with thick substance fare better in hotter climes.

I'm in 8a, too. All my hosta are in pots.

That said, the Dallas Arboretum has lots of hosta in the ground. They are 8a, too. They are in shaded areas under Crape Myrtles with automatic sprinklers (it may be drip irrigation - but almost all the water is automated there)

You probably can't give them enough water to compensate for the sun. They say up north that if you give them enough water, they will do fine in the sun. I've never tried it, so I'm not sure if it works with the hot sun we have down south.

The ones I have with some afternoon sun show it. (my construction project is taking longer than anticipated) My Paul's Glory is faded. The Irish Luck has lost it's shine. Elegans is doing what yours are doing. Squash Casserole is doing fine as is Cathedral Windows.

I'm with Ken on Frances Williams. I have two in complete shade and they still have brown spots. I planned to give them away and no one would take them.

My advice is more shade and more water.

bk

Sorry I didn't look at the zone. These Hosta are burning. You need full shade, no direct sun, and for some reason they are not getting enough water. If your soil drains well you can't give them enough water. Bkay is right on target. Guacamole should grow for you.

Steve

Thanks Steve and bk. You both confirmed what I was thinking.

It's possible I suppose that they are not getting enough water, but the soil is not dry. We do have irrigation (overhead sprinklers).

I think I just don't have enough shade for them where they are at...it's on the north side of a 2-story house, but they still get some sun in the heat of the day.

I think I will move them to the edge of the woods under the pines, there is an area where grey water empties that might be just the right spot for them.

BTW Guacamole is one of the tattered ones pictured above. I have three of those and the others ones don't get afternoon sun and look pretty good.

I appreciate the suggestions of heat-friendly hostas! Will look them up, and check out plant delights.

He has a list of heat tolerant hosta on his website. The above mentioned Squash Casserole is one of his hosta.

I think you may not be watering deeply enough. If you have close growing hosta and mulch, maybe the sprinkler is wetting the top and not getting down to the roots. Hosta take a lot more water than grass does.

I'm just throwing out ideas. Let us know when you get it figured out.

bk

I am in zone 8 also and recently searched for similar information. I found threads which directed me to the site I've attached below. It may be the one that bk is referring to.
The list of "fragrant flowered hostas" is the one you want to look at. All of these should be more tolerant of our heat.

Here is a link that might be useful: hosta lists

I think you answered your own question through your observations...only those in the sun are burning, and only the leaves that the sun beats on are burning. Bkay suggested that the water might not be getting through the mulch. Try digging a few inches down in the dirt around the plants after you water. See if indeed it is getting wet enough. If it is, plan to move them or figure out a way to provide some shade.

On the good side, hostas grown in more sun get really great roots, even tho the top looks like crap late in summer.

Anyway, all is not lost just because you have a few fried leaves this year. Move them and rejoice next spring!

-Babka

There are others as well. I'll post some of the lists I have. There are lots that do well that are not fragrant. I've had some problems with some (Ann Kulpa comes to mind). Some just died right off (Barbara Ann comes to mind). Many have done well for me. I've read that Ventricosa is great for naturalizing. It comes true from seed, so if allowed to go to seed naturally it will increase it's area.

These are the trials in Tyler Texas (7b). Tyler (the rose capital of the world) is fairly wet and has acidic soil. It's a spreadsheet that goes whacky when posted. Just look at it and you'll get it. The first column is evaluated score by master gardeners in June, the second column is August, the third is October and the last is average. There were some sprinkler issues on some of the plants, but they still scored very high.

NAME DATE AVERAGE
June August October
Blue Angel 9.8 8.8 10 9.5
Sugar & Cream 9.2 9.4 9 9.2
Blue Cadet 8.7 8.8 10 9.2
Francee 6.0 8.8 10 8.3
Gold Standard 6.3 7.6 10 8.0
Honeybells 7.1 8.8 8 8.0
So Sweet 9.4 5.6 8.5 7.8
Royal Standard 7.4 9 7 7.8
Lancifolia 7.3 7.8 8 7.7
Grand Tiara 7.8 7.2 7 7.3
Albo-Marginata 7.6 5.8 7 6.8
September Sun 6.2 7 7 6.7
Sun Power 6.8 6.8 6 6.5
Elegans 6.0 7.4 6 6.5
Emerald Tiara 7.8 7.2 4 6.3
Patriot 4.6 6.2 7 5.9
Bold Ribbon 6.5 6.8 3 5.4
Guacamole 6.7 5.4 4 5.4
Gold Edger 7.1 6 3 5.4
Fragrant Bouquet 5.1 4.8 6 5.3
Sagae 5.2 4.6 6 5.3
Shade Fanfare 5.5 4.6 3 4.4
Summer Music 3.8 2.8 6 4.2
Undulata 6.3 3 3 4.1
Temple Bells 6.1 3.2 3 4.1
Krossa Regal 4.2 3.8 4 4.0
Resonance 4.3 5.2 2 3.8
H. fortunei 'Aureo Marginata' 4.3 3 2 3.1
Aphrodite 3.5 2.4 3 3.0
Colossal 4.3 2.6 2 3.0
Fried Green Tomatoes 3.8 3.4 1 2.7
Invincible 4.5 2.6 1 2.7
Halcyon 2.8 2.8 2 2.5
Big Daddy 2.3 2.8 1 2.0
Daybreak 1.7 2.4 2 2.0
Sum & Substance 2.1 1.8 2 2.0
Hadspen Heron 1.5 1 1 1.2

Hosta varieties which consistently scored high overall marks over the 4 years they were evaluated include: 'Blue Cadet', 'Blue Angel', 'Sugar and Cream', 'So Sweet', 'Royal Standard', Francee', 'Albo-Marginata', 'Lancifolia'.

This is the Dallas Arboretum list of recommended varieties:

Invincible (plantaginea Hybrid)
Sugar & Cream (Honeybell sport)
Dixie Chick (Invincible x Masquerade)
Abba Ready
Sweet Standard (Honeybell sport)
Emily Dickinson (plantaginea hybrid)
Potomac Pride (H. 'Blue Umbrellas' x H. yingeri 'Treasure Island' cross)
Plantaginea
Honeybells
Royal Standard
Regal Splendor (Krossa Regal sport)
Krossa Regal
Francee
So Sweet (Green with cream edge- compact)
Blue Cadet (Blue green medium)
Patriot
September Sun (Chartreuse green/yellow with dark green edge)

Come back to see us. There are several southern growers on this list.

bk

Gosh with everything you guys post about hostas and the hot sun, I am SO GLAD I joined this website. Anxious to come on and read what you guys have posted, which hostas you have and how you fare with the weather. I love looking at pictures of the yards and the hostas. I guess Zone 3 is a great place to grow hostas, except for maybe the winter kill which does happen, but sounds like everybody gets some winter kill at some time or another.
I am going to grow more hostas in sun, I didn't know they were just shade tolerant, and actually liked to have more sun. Hurray for me on experimenting now!!

Michelle

If you ever want to move those fw ill take one bk..although a humid ky summer wont make it look any better

This post was edited by miketropic on Mon, Jul 7, 14 at 22:48

Thanks everyone! Especially for the lists of heat tolerants. I will definitely be getting some of those. :)

I already have Krossa Regal and Fragrant Bouquet and they are some of the ones that are still looking good.

Wow Babka....thanks for that list. I am going to be following this also!! Just because I need more sun ones........

That list is from Bkay. She's in Texas where it gets HOT. We don't even have AC here in northern CA, so I don't worry about that part.

-Babka

OMG sorry....BK....just a mixup...oops. Ill keep your list.....:) :) :)
You don't have AC where you live babka?? we need it here on the prairies for summer too hot!! Would never be able to sleep at night unless we slept in the cool basement.

Michelle

No AC. Lived here for 40 plus years. Pacific Ocean/San Francisco Bay influences keep things cool in the 50's (degrees F) in summer at night.

-Babka

Wow that's awesome to know.....unfortunately we need the AC........makes life more bearable...and who would of thought that living way up here in Sasjatchewan would get this hot ?? lol,,,it does...wish it was just right not too cold not too hot.....but that would be asking for a lot wouldn't it??

michelle

I'm in 8b (San Antonio) and only have about 17 hosta and all but two of those are potted and all get dappled sun. Most of those are in the fragrant flower group, which are supposed to tolerate the heat better. We are already into the mid 90s here. My Guac gets about 4 hours of direct and hot morning sun but then mostly shade the rest of the day. It has a couple of leaves with some browning at the edge but that happened a few weeks ago when I must have let it get too dry. My Sum and Substance gets some direct afternoon sun and has some leaf damage but nothing evenly remotely like your pictures show. I have two others which are very thin skinned (not sure of the proper term) and whitish in color which have not done well at all but everything else has thrived for the three years since I started keeping hosta.

This post was edited by santamiller on Wed, Jul 9, 14 at 7:48