I think that there is a good chance your leaf-less crown piece will recover with new growth eventually.

Rooting leaves is very unlikely unless there is a piece of crown attached. A couple people on the forums also mentioned that it is possible even without crown if you get the leaf piece in the early spring.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4645155/propagating-hostas

Dormant buds will be swelling and sending up shoots soon. You are right about "bein mowed down by rabbit and having to send up new leaves."

If the leaves have any little bit of crown material (meristem) attached at the bottom they many root for you in water. If they were broken off higher, that is much less likely.

-Babka

Edit to say I didn't see Teuths response when I posted. Sorry for the repeat.

Sorry to bring this thread back to the top, but I just wanted to thank you both for your input. At the worst, I lost half the plant and the other half should survive just fine. At best, hopefully part of that root clump (there was some of the white, crown part still attached) will send up new growth and I'll have two. I put the two leaves in a jar of water, and stuck the other broken leaves in the ground above the roots. I guess those things will just be an experiment and we'll see what happens! Thanks!!

Angie

Let us know how that works. My husband just ripped off most of the leaves from a hosta with the hose last evening. He was quickly watering a bed and didn't see that the hose was caught on the hosta. Oh well, I am going to replant it and see how things work out.

you can not root a leaf.. unless there is some little part of crown on the petiole ... over all the years.. there was one person who claimed they could do it ... yeah.. sure .. lol ..

as to the hose ... nbd .... your plant will releaf ... the downside is that it is root growing time .. to store energy in the roots.. for energy to emerge next spring ...

instead.. yours will be wasting a lot of energy releafing ...

i highly doubt it will die.. it just might not increase next season.. like it might have otherwise ...

frankly.. its no different than if you got one heck of an august hail storm ...

ken

I see a lot of hose guards in the future--all around all the beds so that we avoid future mishaps!

Like Ken said, the two leaves I put in a jar don't seem to be doing anything. However, the leaves that I stuck back in the ground still look normal and healthy two weeks later, which seems a little odd to me. I don't see any brand new growth, but hopefully the roots will send something up this year or next. Otherwise, maybe small parts of roots were attached when I broke them? I have had rabbits completely eat hostas before, which is the same as ripping them off with the hose, and none have ever died, even when they have been completely eaten more than once in a season! I think it's very hard to kill most hostas. I have even had them pop up in places where I dug them up to move them. Seems like they just need the tiniest bit of root to get going again. When rabbits have eaten my entire plants the hostas have responded every time by sending up at least one new shoot that season. I wasn't as sure about this particular mishap since it was a brand new plant and did not have established roots yet. Good luck!