Renata, this is a good time to buy, but the hosta leaves are reaching the end of the season. Don't expect them to be perfect at this time. They'll be going dormant soon anyway.

And about the slug damage, just get a big bottle of the Sluggo Plus which takes care of the remaining slugs, and hopefully you kill them off before they lay eggs. The topic of slugs has been cussed and discussed on the forum quite recently, and you'll find a quick search gives you enough information to keep you reading for a looooong time.

But the question about mature, good quality hosta, where to get them......are you meaning mail order or online? Cause I sure cannot help if you want some nursery near Plymouth MI.

You can get clumps of some varieties from Hornbaker. Some cut from mature clumps from Hallsons and Green Mountain, and also some 2 gallon or 1 gallon of some varieties from Mason Hollow. Being end of season, some are out of stock.
And, then some generous cuts from mature plants from WadeAndGattonNurseries.com which is in Michigan I do believe. You'd have to check the website to see if they are generally open to the public or only have open house seasonally. But I know MI is a really big state, so ......

good luck!

If you don't mind ordering online, you can do a search on here for recommended nuseries that ship bareroot hostas. I've never seen a slug when getting bareroot hostas. But that doesn't stop the slugs from showing up later. :))) I have ordered from Hallson's the most, but there are others...not sure if you should wait and order in the spring. I'm in zone 5, too, and am done for the season.

oh for Gods sake.. she live 40 minutes from hallsons.. see link about the process for getting there ... lol .. though i would visit in late may in MI.. rather than now.. unless you just really need a 'fix' ... maybe even a bargain this time of year ....

but the question is simpler ..

you buy the pot.. bare root the plant.. getting rid of the media the little chuckers are hiding in.. and inspect the plant for any hangers on .. and then plant the slug free plant ...

all that said.. you dont live in reality. if you think you will have a slug free hosta garden.. its all about control ... there is a FAQ and a couple hundred posts on how to deal with slugs.. if you use the search function within GW ...

good luck

ken.. down in adrian MI ... where it was 37 last night.. i wonder what chris hit.. 30 minutes west of me ...

ps: m14 west to 94 west.. towards jackson.. south down 127 for about 5 to 7 miles ... average warp speed.. 72 mph ...

Here is a link that might be useful: link

For the most part, hostas are gonna' look crappy this time of year anyway (or soon will) so I wouldn't worry so much about slugs. What you should focus on right now is buying roots for next year.

I'm way north of you in Zone 4, central WI, and I've popped hostas out of pots and planted them in a holding spot just as the ground was started to freeze. My holding spot is a mound of dirt & stump grindings under some pines...i.e. a spot that is well drained (i.e. bone dry) & that doesn't get a lot of snow accumulation...and the hostas have come thru the winter just fine. So long as your beds are well drained and don't get piles of snow built up from shoveling or the snow blower, they should come thru the winter just fine. The only hostas that I have lost were a couple that were small, planted late, forced tissue culture plants grown way south and planted in a bed next to the patio that gets snow piled up and lots of melt from the roof in the spring. Wasn't the winter that killed them but excess moisture from the spring thaw.

All that said, you're probably not going to gain anything (or much of anything) by planting this late. If we have a long warm fall, the roots will have a chance to get established....but, you can probably find some good bargains making it worth the small risk. Except for some of the divas, hostas are amazingly tough.

Ken, do you happen to have Elwood and Jake clips THAT HANDY all the time? What a great way to begin a trip, midnight, with your shades on. Cool cool, way cool.

And how lucky can someone be to live that close to Hallson? So easy to browse the real hosta garden, not simply online descriptions.

Slugs can be killed with a 10:1 (10%) solution of ammonia. You can see slugs and removing them and killing them on a new plant should be easy. This will not kill the eggs. This takes an insecticide.

"Here's an answer to a direct question: HOW DO YOU KILL SLUG EGGS?
Summary

The toxicity of 14 substances, including a number of pesticides, to the eggs of the pest slug Deroceras reticulatum was determined in laboratory experiments. Eggs were kept in contact with a precisely defined artificial soil to which a range of concentrations of the test substances had been applied. Mortality of the eggs was assessed every 24 h and the median lethal doses (LD50) were determined. The herbicides bromoxynil, ioxynil and pyridate + bromoxynil, the insecticides thiocyclam, diflubenzuron and azadirachtin, the molluscicides metaldehyde and methiocarb, and other compounds such as carvone, iron-EDDHA, saponin, and an extract of Pongamia pinnata, killed the eggs after periods of exposure ranging from 2 to 14 days, depending on the compound and the dose. Only two compounds, the insecticides imidacloprid and teflubenzuron, failed to kill the eggs of D. reticulatum at any of the doses tested. Values of LD50 below 0.01 mg a.i. cm-2 were obtained for the herbicides bromoxynil, ioxynil and pyridate + bromoxynil, and for the biological pesticide azadirachtin. The feasibility of slug egg control in different contexts is discussed.

Papou"

Papou is a legndary hosta grower, who I hope would not have minded my plagerism of one of his answers if he were still with us.

Here is a link that might be useful: Killing slug eggs

Ken, do you happen to have Elwood and Jake clips THAT HANDY all the time?

==>> yeah i got it bookmarked ...

it reminds me of all my 'collecting' trips.. leaving at dawn.. to go to cleveland.. mansfield.. saybrook.. western mi ... saginaw ...

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!

ken

Thank you all for your help!

I am willing to get them anyway possible as long as it is from a reliable source and the plants are good. I know they won't be perfect at this time of the year; I just hoped they wouldn't be as bad as what I saw. Also, I went to the nursery with high expectations because the landscaper had told me she had NEVER seen slugs or slug damage in their plants...DEFINITELY NOT the case.

I am actually on my way to Hallson's right now, since you and Ken recommended them. I called and they don't have all the varieties I was looking for but they have half. Good enough for my "fix" and my empty bed. I can be patient with the rest next Spring. :)

Thank you for the info on slugs and the links and everything. Great help!

RenataM,

Lots of good advise has been given already, yay!

Here's a few other ideas for you to consider:

There's actually a small handful of useful Garden Centers and Greenhouse ops in the greater Detroit area. My GPS is in my truck that is in the shop, or I'd look up the names.

Most of these were found by entering the words 'greenhouse' and/or 'garden' in our car GPS when traveling around, then calling ahead to see if they carry Hostas.

We also 'borrow' telephone books at restaurants where we stop to eat when on the road too see what's around, then give the book back b4 we leave.

Say, by the way, there's a really neat perennial source in the first or second berg west of Brighton (or is it AA?) that has a huge variety and rare ones. I'm sure Ken knows whereof I refer. If you go, be sure to pet the humongous tortuous who wanders the grounds!

S.W. MI is a 'haven' of greenhouse operations, starting around GRR and extending west and southwest, should you ever get over that-a-way. That's where we do our 'runs'.

You can ask DonR, since he visited here late this season - IF you keep RIGHT AFTER IT, you can still have decent looking Hostas right into September!

As a 1970 alumni of the 'original' PHS (across from the PD), I look forward to your continued participation here,

hh

Thank you very much, Hostahillbilly! :)

I have found everybody's comments really helpful.

i am guessing hillbilly is talking about arrowhead alpines .. but i never shopped there for hosta ... but man is that the place to wander around for 8 or 10 hours ...

please report back on your first hosta car trip ...

ken

I have a mental image here. (something I'm prone to do, something like being clairvoyant I suppose)....

It is of Renata on the road making quick brief posts to the forum as her hosta hunting trip begins, and back at the ranch (a hosta ranch), Ken is assessing where she is and mentally scouting the area for known sources of hosta, advising her of the direction and distance.

A fanciful mental image arising from something Ken said about enjoying the days of his hosta trips...or was that "tripping"....and this fits the profile of an old fire horse raring to go when the fire bell rings. Similar to the angst I feel as well, responding to seasonal changes and new beginnings...and endings.