1. Cut them.
2. You can put them in the shed, but I would sink them in the ground in the pot, if you have the garden space. The soil around them provides more protection from the cold.

Steve

I'm leaving the leaves on all my hostas except for the ones with the following:

1) The two down by the shed that showed signs of foliar nematodes. We're having all the limbs cut off the tree in the park that hangs over our fence where the suspected nematodes came from. These two hostas are at the bottom of the hill.

2) All the hostas in the back bed that were eaten up by the slugs last year. I'll be hunting for slug eggs to kill while getting these.

3) All the hostas that got hit with the shotgun fungus. I'll be disposing of those leaves in a plastic bag and putting it in the dumpster.

4) All the hostas in the front that interfere with our Christmas lights display.

I'll leave the rest for the lawn service guys to take care of in the spring.

Gesila

as long as you have no vole/slug or vermin issue.. they are the greatest self-made mulch ... and in fact.. you can leave it there in spring.. and by mid summer.. it will mulch itself into the soil ...

in the alternative.. should you remain anal retentive ... once frosted.. they will not be drawing fluids down into the crown.. so i have no idea how you could possibly cross contaminate ... but of course.. i would defer to chris.. if he doesnt pop in.. email him with a link to this post.. and see if he shoots me down ...

ken

I called Chris at Hallson's. He said there's no problem putting dead hosta leaves in my compost pile. I thought some others might be interested. Nance

what did he say about semi frosted leaves.. that need to be cut.. but are definitely dead??? .. do you still have to sterilize between plants ...

ken

Great information in this thread - thanks all. We finally got our first freeze last night. My canna were still flowering. Went out to pick my winter squash yesterday and got a shock. I only had one good acorn. All the rest were eaten out from the underside and were shells that looked good on top.

One positive note is that while I know I have a vole problem I haven't had any visible hosta damage. One of my beds is less than 20' fromm the squash patch and no vole holes. I had thought it was the juglone from the black walnut tree. Maybe a few acorn squash patches scattered around will keep their nasty appetites fulfilled since they seem to prefer the acorn squash over hosta crowns. My butternut squash weren't touched.

Les

Hmmm, I wouldn't touch the butternut squash either, but oh boy the acorn is a different matter.

So did anyone find out if the cross contamination problem still exists and you have to sterilize between plants? Like Ken asked?

I have some pretty ragged plants now, but will not clip anything until I get them to their new home. I hate to think that I may be giving the next generation of slugs a southern vacation. Tomorrow the PODS arrives, and the loading begins.

Chris at Hallsons said that a virus could move from the dead tissue to the tool but not to dead tissue of another hosta, so cleaning of the tools when you're done is a must. I did that, so I should be safe.

Thanks for checking, Gesila.
As always, discretion is the better part of valor...so they say.