I'm fairly new to Hosta but..I do garden a lot. In my opinion there's no reason to leave them tied up..part of their beauty is the shape of their natural growth. Naturally they don't grow tied or together like these. I'd guess they're were shipped this way to keep the stems from being broken and leaves damaged in shipping.

Donna, I can't answer the question, but just gotta say- they look like really nice, big, healthy plants! Great purchases! My instinct would be to untie them and let them do their thing... but maybe one of the more knowledgeable folks here will chime in.

Thanks Babka, I'll follow your advice.

truth better hang around and read a couple hundred pages of posts ...

you HAVE TO TAPE THEM .. else they lose turgidity.. and flop over.. and will never stand back up ...

you tape them LIGHTLY .. and in a few weeks the tape will fall off.. and presto.. its just standing there ...

go cut off the twist tie ... that probably will interfere.. sooner or later ...

the physiology is .... hosta transpire.. sweat ... and in transplanting.. they lose more water than the disturbed roots can pump ... water pressure in the plant is called turgidity ...

once the roots settle in.. and start pumping.. presto ... they become turgid.. and can hold them selves up ...

the tape trick can be used on any transplanted plant ...

ken

ps: one of the best posts ever in this forum was a bunch of women explaining turgidity to a man ... lol ...

Ken, I remember that! Too funny. Thanks for the info.

I think I'll just shut my big mouth...and listen!

Ken_adrian; droppin knowledge since 1979.

LOL!

Nice plants, DD! What is the third one you got with this order?

Don, I got Lakeside Dividing Line.

Ken, you're going to bring up "one of the best posts ever in this forum" and leave us without a link?!

Kay

With new plants I take the approach that I'm more concerned with how they're gonna look next year than I am the year I plant them. And next year they'll be upright and look just fine, even if they are a bit floppy this year.

Not sure why you'd want to leave them tied up, as their beauty is that they like to fan out naturally. They will sprout leaves, but would eventually get too crowed and be generally unhappy, which brings to mind another issue - all plants need air to move freely though them or you get diseases. Hostas weren't meant to be kept bound, so I would let them grow as they're naturally supposed to.

Okay, if Ken isn't going to link that other thread, I'll do it... Laura, it's about preserving/restoring the moisture to the leaves after they've been shocked.... And it is truly a laugh-out-loud discussion that ensues. Here's the thread: turgidity

Learned all I know about turgidity from Ken's advise and it has never steered me wrong, keep those babies taped!! I used to tape a lot of hosta as I used to love to rearrange them!! People would be sooo curious as to why I kept them taped up.

I've realized through reviewing all of this that I should have done this with my bare-root hostas this spring. It was the first time I mail ordered plants. Some were still just coming out of dormancy, with no leaves on them, so - no problem. But the other order was all leafed-out. I did soak them before potting... but then just potted and untied them.

No real harm done, most just charged ahead full speed. But one of them- Fragrant Queen- has been somewhat floppy and sad-looking overall. And I can tell that those older leaves just never regained their moisture content and "turgidity" (hahahahaha - I can't write/speak/think that word without laughing anymore). She is sending up new leaves now, so I'm sure she will rally.

Lesson learned- this method of taping up isn't just for transplanting/dividing.

I loosened the cinch I used to transplant my hostas after three days and removed it after a week. I didn't have any tape so I improvised.