"head bacteria" ??? If that is flesh eating kind I'd stay out of Colorado!

Isn't spell check wonderful!

I'd leave them alone. Whenever faced with any question about gardening always think "what would they do if they were left alone in the wild with no human to interfere".....the answer to that question is always the right thing to do....

I never cut hosta leaves. It is much easier to remove what remains in spring. It looks a bit ugly, but who cares? And as Ken says, it's like mulch...

I clean up some - if I have time. I leave a few, up to 6 inches of stalk to catch the snow. Those stalks disappear in the spring or I remove them when weeding/mulching. Its a matter of how nice the weather is and if you have the time. When you come back in the spring, is there much time for clean-up then?

And another plug for Lancifolia. Not only do they make perfect edging around my maple because they are zero maintenance (no weeding, no mulching, lawn mower wheel goes right underneath the leaves without chopping them up); but then I run the lawn mower over them in November taking them down to the ground and taking care of all the tree leaves stuck in the dead foliage and the 20-30 Lancifolia flowers stalks per plant that would remain standing all winter otherwise.

And fast growing. Quarter it and 4 years later quarter those equals more than one thousand plants in 20 years! Just threw my first one away today cause I have to many.

The slug battle reason was given b4 in a thread and I have been thinkin on it...I have 10 different hosta beds. There are only a couple I have real slug issues with. All the beds are treated the same. I debated cutting them all back this year going around with a watering can and dousing each crown with ammonia water..then repeat in early spring see if it makes any difference...but then the leaves started dropping and that clinched it. "Fall clean up" means removing TRUCK LOADS of leaves from the grass, no way in HECK I am going to keep the hosta beds oak leaf free too. In the spring I will don my back pack blower, clean all the beds down to the dirt ( I am blessed to be yards deep in un-manicured WOODS behind all my hosta beds) and THEN do the ammonia/watering can thing. About two weeks ago I sprinkled Get-A Bug in every bed..that will have to be good enough for now!!!

I had some fungus issues this year so I'm cleaning away dead hosta leaves every week or so. Slug management is also insintive. Add to that getting fresh air, exercise & a tidy looking garden makes the effort a win for me :) Deciduous trees will naturally mulch my gardens soon enough.

I like to clean up my garden beds and remove dead hosta leaves. Last year I cut down my albomarginata to about two inches. The ground was moist. That night I went out to inspect and found several large slugs wondering what happened to the hosta! Ammonia spray took care of them. I am going to try that again this year.

Auuuggghhh! Throwing Lancifolia away??? I think it's one of my new favorites. Well behaved, symmetrical, slug-free, and still looks good today (October 8). Since you say they are easy to divide, gardencool, I may split it in the spring. I only have one, and I think it's three years old. But it's pretty good sized.

Edited to add a picture: Here she is in the foreground. Empress in the rear and I think that's a Gold Standard in between.

I have about 100 Lancifolia. Every single one I've divided and I planted within the last 10 years. I've run out of room that I'm allowed to plant hostas in. My theory is if I have lawn to mow I still have room for hostas, but that runs counter to the theory of happy wife happy life! So a division of Stained Glass replaced one of my Lancifolia. The beauty of dividing now is so what if any leaves get broken now cause it'll look good come spring time and I don't have to worry about damaging it during a spring division.

So I guess you are suggesting division now? Seems a shame to push a shovel down into such a handsome plant . . . in the spring, it doesn't seem so barbaric.

Noooo, I'm not suggesting. It's a matter of preference. I have the time now. I have to move some hostas around now. I'll be glad I did it last fall come spring time. Small to medium size hostas I usually dig the entire plant up and divide with a very large knife. Large to giant hostas I would divide in spring with a shovel.