it was said.. that this is how mary chastain made lakeside coal miner so dark ... but i dont know if it was native in her soil ... or she added it ...

as with any soil amendment.. you should start with a soil test.. to find out if its not already in your soil

ken

pS: since it would make a green hosta darker.. i have no clue why you would spread it around blue plants .. eh???

It is a delicate dance of ratios between magnesium, calcium and, to a lesser extent, potassium and unless you see trouble AND get your soil tested, you are better off passing on the Epsom salts. Too much of one adversely affects the uptake of the other. You can read THIS if you'd like.

tj

Thanks tj, in reading the link it says that the caption ratio is meaningless as the most important considerations are ph and the availability of the manganese and calcium in ample amounts. As you said the key is in testing the soils and recognizing if either of these elements is in short supply. I think their negative remarks on the caption ratio are pointed at fertilizers that promote the caption ratios they advertise as the optimum when this isn't the case. Each chemical should be considered individually not together in a 'balanced' fertilizer as manufacturers claim is best. Jon

...and Ken, since it is added in the soil (when needed, as noted) under the correct conditions of need it will stimulate chlorophyll and every other growth ingredient including the glaucous blue coating on hostas that have this predisposition to produce, and color or lack of as the plants genetics dictate and in the proportions as they are inclined.

Everybody garden different. I am not operating on a live body, nobody is going to sue me for malpractice. I had a stressful job that all the "I"s doted and "T"s cross. So I do relax garden experiments.

I figured what harm can I do to Ventricosa. It is common and I have a lot of them. It was an easy cheap test.

I already use it on my rose bushes especially if I am getting low bud. I use it on my Brugsmansia when the leaves look yellow.

With epsom salt

Without epsom salt

I have 3 Elegans; one huge, one large and one underperforming and small. I am going to throw some Epsom salts that I have around the under performer and see what happens. Based on being educated by tj and Ken I know it is a crap shoot, but it will be interesting to see what happens. There are many reasons why the one Elegans is underperforming of course.....maybe I'll get lucky and adding some magnesium and sulfate will help. In any event I don't think it will be fatal. Jon

Come into the sun and enjoy gardening. You never know what you will discover.