post a pic... preferably upright

ken

As Ken suggests, posting a pic, so we can get eyeballs on it, will be very helpful diagnosing the leaf problem.

As for slow? growth, it could be root competition or, yes, impatience ;-)

more like 5 to 7 years to maturity ... though the leap year could be in 3 ...

ken

I bought my h.'Empress Wu' in a pot in April 2010, had then 2 eyes. The first year I had it in too much sun, and it burned in spite of much water. Thereafter, it now resides behind a wooden fence in shade and has 20 eyes. I had to saw off a lower branch of a pear tree for it. I just measured the beast : 72 inches across (6 ft, 2 yard sticks), and 36 inches tall (3 ft, 1 yard stick). Now it is 5 years, I wonder about what it will be in a total of 10 years. I feed it 10-10-10.

I noticed that other 5 year olds did a sizable leap this year too, so plan ahead in space. It is good to be a gardener of big hostas!

My Wu is 3 now. I moved her twice, but she's been in this spot now for about a year. She's finally taking off and is sending up a flower stalk right now.

I can identify, though. I'm an impatient gardener too.

The Empress really doesn't take off until year 4. I had heard this from others and it was true for me as well. This is it's 4th year in my garden. I measured it on Sunday it's 28 inches tall and 5 feet in diameter. It was about 2/3 this size last year.

Steve

Heres some photos of what I was talking about. As you can see the splitting happens on the stalks as well as the leaves.

I take that back. I cant seem to upload a picture. When I click "Photo" it does nothing.

Can a noob ask how to do this?

Looks like I have to add it as "Houzz Photo"

And its rotated the photos (?)

But heres my issue.

Any help on what I'm doing wrong would be great.

I don't want to lose the Wu!

Your new inner leaves appear just fine so it may possibly be that the outer leaves, first to unfurl, suffered some cold damage issues from when it started to emerge. I have a couple of splits in leaves on some hostas that I just attribute to nature as they don't look like chew marks. If you can't stand the tatters you can always rip those off, otherwise just leave it. :-)

It was a chillier than usual spring. I'm glad to hear thats probably the case. Thank you for your speedy reply. I water the Wu a little when I think it needs it as I've heard it'll require a little more care than the usual "plant it and forget it" hosta. Is this good advice? and is there anything else I can do to make it into the Little Shop Of Horrors man eating plant I'm hoping itll be?

I have two Wu.

A two year old Wu.....

Treated royally with a 7 foot wide throne of well composted leaves and grass clippings supplemented at planting with humus / manure. In a very shady spot as is said to be necessary.

It is a Wu that is two feet wide.

My number two Wu.........

Jon

Did you split it? and if so, how long did you wait?

I didn't split it, they are two separate plants. I would wait until they had 4 eyes or so to split them. Splitting them in your current condition and size would be 'scary'. Splitting early or late in the year will cause minimal setback, but it will take that much longer to get to a nice size.

I think something is digging around, not rabbits or deer eating them, but it looks like the damage my 'pup' does when she charges through my hosta after a squirrel, rabbit, cat or any other critter she would like for lunch.

Jon

I agree with Jon about that some animal is moving through that hosta and rips it accidentally. I just just divided and moved a large h.'Majestic' and 'interfered' with a neighboring hosta, did damage several leaves as you have it.

I'm not planning on splitting it for a few years. I want it to get to a nice size first.

For the winter to avoid frost, should I cover it with a styrofoam rose 'bucket'?

My wu is 3 and was told about 5 years before it matured. But it is getting bigger

scary , DO NOT cover any hosta for frost in the winter. They need to go dormant and freezing temperatures will not hurt them. The only time to cover hosta are in the Spring when they have sprouted and there is freezing weather to prevent damage.

We had a particularly bad Spring for over night frosts. Is it okay to cover it during the night for April and May frosts, uncovering them for the rest of the day?

Yes only if you can be vigilant about consistently removing the cover very early each morning. If the cover is left on too long you'll be creating more problems. The cover will be a sort of green house and will warm up the hosta which will promote even earlier emerging.

Better, imo, to let nature take it's course. The second flush will look normal and then you can remove some damaged leaves.