They are fine. It's just getting late in the season. Some got eaten by slugs.That's all. :-) They'll come back next year.

Thank you for the reassurance!!! I can split and transplant them now!

Teapot - Hosta die back to the ground every year just like most trees in your zone - so wilting, yellowin and die-back is normal.

As far as dividing them, fall and spring are the more preferred times because you don't have to deal with damaging foliage. Which is better is a matter of preference. I would rather divide in spring so the roots are undisturbed during the cold weather. This is when the energy stored is used for root and crow development. If you choose to divide in spring do it early. Make sure you mark the location well in the fall. It is amazing how you think you remember where a hosta was, and in the spring it breaks dormancy a foot or two away. Don't place the rock on top of the crown but a couple of inches below it from your normal viewing angle.

Remember whether dividing in fall or spring, when exposing the roots it is always better to lift more earth than too little, destroying some of the root system.

I hope this helps and you have good success with your hosta gardening. As you can read on this forum, it is a very fun thing. Keep in mind that hosta are very forgiving plants. Even if you make a mistake you usually have plenty of time to correct it before killing the plant. All the things you read about such as too much or too little sun, poor planting technique, too much root competition, vole damage and so on generally have easily seen symptoms and the corrections are equally simple. Most of the time simply raising or moving a hosta resolves the problem. As ken often says - throw it on the driveway for a while.

Les