My location is in my user name.

I purchased mine in 2011. Planted it, along with others purchased at the same time, around a Shag Bark hickory. Seemed like a plan, survived but failure to thrive because of root competition, as you can see in the 2012 pic below. S&S is at 8 o'clock.

Dug them all and potted them up and it responded well. I held them in pots until I created a bed for them in a better location in 2013.

Here's S&S in it's pot a few weeks before planting in July 2103:

Here's S&S newly planted in 2013:

July 2014:

July 2015:

The wire mesh, about 18" deep, serves as a vole deterrent. I've lost a couple hosta to voles & am making an attempt to ward them off S&S and the others. The pine straw mulch gave them cover in the bed, so I removed it.

Morning sun from 8:30 am to about noon. It has a little burn (right center) in this pic from me not watering as I should have when it turned off dry. The largest leaves are 11"x14" and it measures 42" wide. I really love it and hoping for a jump next year :)

Mine is 4 years old and it's quite big. I haven't measured it but you can here it's almost as big as the green bushes. I'd say at least 5 feet wide. Leaves are gigantic! It's in mostly shaded area, facing east but there are couple of trees in front of it so it gets only couple of hours of sunlight a day.

Thank you all for the details and pics you've provided!

Back left corner.Under Noah's ark. These are two of my four. My original SandS is not half the size of these two. I got it in a group of cast offs. It does not grow as fast or large as the divisions I have taken from it. I have a pic of the bed it is in, but it doesn't show in the picture.
How can such a giant not show up? Because it has larger leaves but is not giant by any means. Noah's ark has been there at least 14 years, but I cut chunks out of it twice. The other is about 10 years old. All but the original are very fast growers.

Wow! Beautiful!

Yes I agree they are beautiful.

Here are two of mine. The first photo taken in 2012 was planted in 2001. The second photo taken in 2011 is a division of photo #1. Number 1 gets about 7hrs of AM sun and #2 about 5hrs Am sun.

How much do you folks water? I mean I understand that location, sunlight, and rainfall will effect this, but overall...do they require a lot of water? Would you say you water Sum and Substance more than other hostas? I've read that they need a ton of water to get huge.

Nice looking plants, by the way!

I water S&S when I water the other hosta, probably not as often as I should...nothing was 'normal' this year in the garden.

You can assume that in more afternoon sun it'd require more watering.

I have been watering my garden less and less over the years, as our water rates keep climbing, but I broke down last week due to the drought. I can't stand the thought of losing anything, and I read Chris's response to a "shrinking hosta" problem as being due to lack of water. I went out immediately and positioned a sprinkler on my most favorite hostas. All have now gotten at least 90 minutes of water (and those lucky ones that fell within 2 sprinkler-sweeps got double!). If we don't soon get rain, I'll start the process all over again, water bill be damned.

squire john, what is the ground cover underplanting your S & S?

Marie Tulin - It's Astilbe - Professor Van der Wielen

I moved my Sum and Substance to a bed where (for now) it will be a specimen plant. What I really want to know is - How did you folks grow such beautiful S&S? Do you recommend fertilizer? I would like to grow a monster S&S. Thanks again. I am new and I have many questions.