Welcome to the forum. One thing I will say is those white spikes are the beginnings of leaves. DON'T CUT 'EM OFF.

Cheers,

Don B.

Welcome, Fuzzytrees! You've come to the right place! I agree with you - can't beat the price!!!

I've purchased bare-root hostas for three winters running now, exactly as you have. Here are some comments...I chose bags that showed elongated pips.

The first spring, neither Liberty nor Rainforest Sunrise emerged although they grew well enough the season prior.

The second attempt was last March...appears, so far, that Fragrant Dream, f. Aureomarginata and a couple of NOIDS have survived the winter in pots....that is if they still make it after the snow dump we just had overnight!

This year I also picked two pcks. which contained Julie Morss, Paradigm, Blue Angel and what could be Antioch but should have been Francee. Three confirmed IDs out of a grab bag of four isn't bad, lol! I also picked up two more: Stained Glass and Touch of Class. TOC may not be TOC but we'll see as it develops. :-)

I placed all roots in containers of water and they stayed there until this past week-end (four weeks!). I changed the water several times during that time. Before I potted them, I rinsed root systems in 10% ammonia solution to disinfect the plants.

They look fine so far. One particular one has soft/almost shrivelled tips (my fault) but otherwise the plant looks good. All are potted now awaiting warmer weather when they will go outside. No direct sunlight though. I plan to stand them against the wall on North side of house where they will get exposed to some bright light late in the afternoon...then gradually bring them into a bit of dappled sunlight.

This bare-root-growing hostas is a fun thing to do to overcome the winter blahs! I'm so glad more people are experimenting with the grab-bag bare-root hostas :-)

Here they are...

Then we proceed to....

Here they are potted...I'll collate them in PhotoGrid and be right back.

Here they are, potted for your viewing pleasure!

My suggestion is also to leave them to grow. They develop more colour as they grow just as they do outdoors. Granted the lighting indoors is inadequate but if you keep them near a bright window, they will be fine!

You will have to harden them off before they can stay outdoors. If you expose them to sunlight prematurely they will burn. Growing them indoors requires a bit of patience but once you've gone through the process at least once, you soon know what to expect. It is fun to garden when there is snow outside. Edited to say: I've re-read your post and you've already covered this, sorry.

I hope I didn't forget anything...if I did, please ask away. Mountainyman/Denis from Ireland also started some of these. Hopefully he will comment as well and offer his experience.

Jo

Thanks for the responses, and the welcome, Don and Jo! Sounds like my first instinct was correct. I hope I wasn't over-vigilant in cutting off the mushy bits--my first love is succulents, for which you get rid of the rot FIRST and ask questions later.

I actually checked in on them, and one of them is already a little green! Hopefully the others will follow soon. I think tomorrow I'll try rearranging my succulents so they're all in front of one window, and put down the blinds on the other (south-facing) window, and have the hostas in front of that. The diffused light will hopefully help them green up.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful hostas, Jo! The varieties I have are 'Elegans,' 'Gold Standard,' and albomarginata (two of each). I don't know if they're anything fancy as far serious hosta-growers are concerned, but I'm quite pleased with the variety of leaf colors and plant sizes as a starter pack :)

Fuzzy, you know what you are doing! Cutting off mushy bits was definitely the thing to do...and I would have treated the cut with ammonia solution as a precaution but I'm sure it'll be fine.

The varieties you have are wonderful hostas...our own Bruce Banyai on the forum.... his mother, the late Pauline Banyai introduced Gold Standard to the hosta world! A hosta is fancy if we think it is - beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? I hope you'll stay with us...there are a lot of pictures coming very soon as the weather warms around the world!

I'll have to drop in to the succulents forum and browse! ;-)

Looking good! This is fun, isn't it? :-)

just received 10 bare root hosta plants yesterday -- I live in Northern Minnesota -- isn't it too late to put them in the ground as it's the middle of Oct. now? Also can you plant bare root hostas in pots and leave them to grow indoors all winter long? Wondering if I should keep them in the house or put them outside yet.

The original post here concerns Spring planting. Hostas need to go dormant for winter. They are not house plants. Plant them outside. Here is a link to some info on how to do that.

-Babka

A recent discussion about Fall planting of small plants.

they are not houseplants.. and need dormancy ...

i welcome you.. and suggest you start a new post ... this time.. and next time ...

ken

Just plant them outside as soon as you can. Be prepared for some frost heave in spring during the thaw, but they should be fine...even if they are heaved somewhat...or perhaps not at all. I had some bareroot hostas lying around and buried them earlier today (I am in zone 5). Yes, it is rather late but they're in! :)

jo, in looking at your pics from April, I think Stained Glass and Touch of Class are mixed up. Being October now, they should be bigger. What do you think? Just want to make sure you have the right name tag with them.... as always, I could be wrong. :-)

Sandy, I think you're right about the mislabeled pictures. 'Touch of Class' should still look quite decent in comparison to 'Stained Glass', that may be an additional clue...Also, the back of TOC will be glaucous, the back of SS will be shiny.

Pieter

Good eye, Sandy! They were inadvertently mixed up when I posted the pics...I didn't notice until you mentioned it just now. Thank you!

Here they are as of a few days ago...

Stained Glass - very late bloomer

Paradigm

Julie Morss

Touch of Class. Blue Angel is planted... all the bareroot hostas are doing well - this year's and previous purchases. Rainforest Sunrise and Liberty were the only ones that didn't make it the following spring but I had replaced them last year (although not bareroot).

Sorry about the blur but this photo was taken on Saturday - the individual pics above were taken earlier.

jo, they all look so good. It looks like you're doing pretty well with pots. Nice progress on those. How kind of Stained Glass to make a flower this year.

Thank you, Sandyslopes! Having the bareroot hostas survive in pots (coming on third year for a few) gives me the encouragement I need to continue to grow some in pots... as space is so scarce!

I picked some mums to bring indoors... I also brought the flower scape of Stained Glass indoors to enjoy its scent as well. :)

Don't do mystery plants. Provenance is meaningful. My 2€ worth,

Well, I agree that provenance is meaningful..... but I love a good mystery too! Lol.

There is always room for error when the packs contain multiple hostas, but if you purchase a bag with a single hosta, that margin for error is decreased ... somewhat. I'll probably buy some more late winter (March) just to "start gardening" earlier LOL and have some fun!