I love your ducks, nicholsworth!

newhostalady..we had a sunny day..every snowflake has disappeared..our overnight temps will still be low for about a week..I've never worked with hostas in the pip stage..I'm interested to hear Karin and Dave's thoughts..

popmama..they're so funny..the way they waddle around..they weren't holding their heads up so I looked it up..that's how they nap!..they rest their head on their back..

Now this last picture looks much better! There's a little green shine over the things :-) I'm living near the river and we had hundreds of ducks this year, never had seen so many. With the climate other things are changing, too. Herons and cormorans and big geese tell me that our environment is slowly coming back to life. There must be food for them on the fields and in the meadows, otherwise they wouldn't stay. The local farmers are back to old ways of planting and that seems to be a good way...

Now, I'm repotting in spring since I had my first hostas in pots. It was part curiosity and the ugly wet look of the soil in the pots that I thought I might free them from the old material and give them a new start in spring. Later I noticed that a lot of other people are also doing it. Sometimes I repot a second time in summer. Not all, just those I thought had grown big and need a bit of new material. I do not like to fertilize. I add worm compost and horse clippings to my mix and that's all they get :-) I dry the used soil and mix it with mineral soil activator and compost and use it on the beds. worked well for me so far...

My first 500 l are nearly gone and I have to restock :-)

A hosta should be able to live in the same pot for at least 3 years if you just go up one pot size. RELAX! Quit messing with them and let them grow. In pots you do need to fertilize. The goodies wash out much more quickly than in the ground. Half strength or even more dilute if you water often. Are you becoming a helicopter parent to your hostas?

-Babka

It was a nice day :-) my ground is wet and cold so I was only cleaning up debris (my life's work)..but I loved it..I'm glad to hear about the increase in the bird population in Germany..I love hearing positive environmental changes..I hope this keeps happening worldwide..thanks for explaining the logic behind transplanting hostas in the pip stage..it must be a good way to do it..you have terrific hostas..still trying to decide about growing some hostas in pots..planting in the ground is so easy..but I LIKE the look of pots..

Babka,

I never know which fertilizer is good for hostas. The big pots can not be repotted every year so it is time to think about fertilizing. I always work a little bit of worm compost into the crust, but that might not be enough. Recommendations?

I often find that the roots have filled the pot nearly completely like this one

If I leave them in the pots longer will it still grow with fertilizer only?

nicholsworth, I have been outside all day long yesterday. We will have warm weather for the rest of the week so I can start living in the garden again :-) Had a little visitor yesterday, a pretty but wild male cat. He had been bought for a child in the neighbourhood, but the parents divorced and the boy is gone...the poor lad is always outside and seems to look for company. My own cat is not so amused but what can I do? Seems he is slowly trusting me, relaxing in the sun at my feed. I don't dare to touch him, he is still very nervous...

Karin

Karin..I love how you said "can start living in the garden again"..that's EXACTLY the way I feel..that poor neglected cat breaks my heart..people are so thoughtless..he looks very happy relaxing by your feet..

There are some cat people in the neighbourhood and he is our shared project. He is gaining weight now and can stay in my shed during winter if he wants to, so there is hope :-) But it's touching when such a wild creature comes looking for some company...

he's lucky to be near kind people :-) it's very touching when an animal comes to you..recently one of the squirrels came up when I was at the VERY back of the yard sitting on my garden seat picking up debris (of course)..I stood up and he followed me to the garage to get peanuts..then after going back to my seat he came back for a second helping!..so up again and back to the garage..such a smart squirrel..

Hah! I am a cat person. My last one lived 18 delightful years. Alas I do not shed a tear when I see the twice weekly dead squirrels in the streets around here. Too many. I see at least 5/day on my back fence taunting local dogs. They dig up my yard and my hosta pots. I DO NOT like them at all, no matter how cute their little white tummies are and their big round eyes. Beasties!!!

-Babka

Babka..I admit they ARE aggravating..it sounds like you have way too many..

Karin, sounds like your pot media was very wet so your hostas were due for a repot. I believe, from the "experts," that hosta pots should be kept relatively dry in the spring. It has been said that the hosta do not need much moisture until they begin to unfurl.

Nicholsworth55, I envy the space you have to plant. I think that hosta grown in the ground is easier than managing pots. I think if I had your property, my hosta would mostly be planted in ground with the exception of a few that I wanted to protect or have on my porch for a closer view.

Worm compost for your pots sounds very good Karin. I don't know if you need anything else. What has been recommended for hostas is MiracleGro tomato food which is 18-18-21 and has micronutrients. A well balanced granular like 10-10-10 can be applied in early spring or mixed into your potting mix. Your Valley's Chute the Chute has great roots. "If I leave them in the pots longer will it still grow with fertilizer only?" I don't know. If the hosta is left too long in a pot, the soil could become compacted. That would mean roots rotting.

Wonderful that you took in the stray cat Karin. Hopefully your own cat will warm up to him.

<3 the kitty. He is definitely warming up to you if he is that close. You are obviously very in tune with his special needs which for now is "touch me not". He may never want it. But he trusts you and that is enough. My Dad adopted many, many "feral" cats over the years. In our area, some shelters have an abundance of discarded "working cats" that very few people will adopt as they are not friendly enough for pets. My Dad had a big property with a barn and several sheds and he gave a home to many of them. The shelter often called him to ask if he would take another. He almost always did. He found that over time some of them would come closer and closer to the house and even to him. Some even came inside once in a while. He was very good at allowing them to just be themselves.

newhostalady..I love having more space..agree with your plan..most of my hostas will be in the ground with a few in pots..you know what's funny?..my last house had a lot about half this size but it kept me busy and I was still "never finished"..lol

popmama..your Dad's a good guy :-)

newhostalady, the first 3 months of winter we had rain every day. Not a big downpour, but a constant, never ending drizzle and fog without end. It was like living in a cloud :-( And the rest was not much better. So the pots had been soaked all winter long, even those under the hedges. I protected a few under my stairs and behind the house, those were better looking and I will give them a try with fertilizer. Growing plants you never stop learning...

We have sunshine and warm temperatures now and as every spring I carried them to a sunny place to stay for a while and bask in the sun :-)

Popmana, your dad did good work with those cats. If you have a barn you attract cats :-) It is unbelievable how many run around here without people caring. They are bought for the kids, the kids lose interest and the parents don't care anymore. They even move and leave the animals behind. They don't care if they are sterilized and then there are lots of babies. I have cats since I'm in this appartment and that's 35 years now. And I always have cats that come and look for a home. That little wild thing is not the first one to try.

Always brought mine up from babies 6-8 weeks old and you need the patience of an angel sometimes with those little rascals. When my 19 years old cat died I was so sad that I said I would not have one again. But then I came to people with cat babies and one of those little guys just saw me and came running right to me, small tail up and got right into my heart :-) Took him at once and have him for around 8 years now.

The wild thing is also interested in gardening, digging out hosta tags and sniffing around the pots...

Took that picture yesterday and there is not much to be seen in the pots, but hopefully that will change now...Cleaned the pavement with my high pressure water device, it is unbelievable how dark it got within 5 years...so this part of the yard is ready for spring!

The new ones are growing, it's good to see some color...added slug pellets, I don't want to have so much damage this year :-(

Wow your hostas are really UP, Karin! Amazing. I'm jealous. I'm just telling myself, "Must have patience, must have patience!"

Those are the ones I got from my belgian friend. It had been a little warmer over there and after a week in my cold guestroom they are outside now and seem to like it :-)

I noticed purple pips of Clausa today..too wet and nasty to get any pics..I was only out to go to my mailbox..

I agree with Babka that a Hosta should be able to live in a pot for three years.

There are a couple of factors I feel that have to be addressed that mitigate that statement.

If the plant has obviously out grown it's pot as Karins picture shows.

Or

If the potting media has degraded and become compacted.

Then it's time to repot.

When I mix my media I add a base John Innes fertilizer to give the plants something to feed on as the constituent parts are mainly inert.

Even doing that the amount of water required during the growing season means that this washes out pretty quickly.

With the very big pots, 35 to 50 litre size I top dress with a slow release granular fertilizer. I have used Vitax Top Dress and Osmocote 5 to6 month formula.

I am about to repot some of those big ones this year as they have been in the same pot and mixture for at least 3 years. If the root system is anything like the Sagae I did a couple of years back I've got some back breaking work in front of me.

First job is to mix another 220 litre batch of media, that on it's own gives my back something to complain about!

Dave

Dave,

that sounds like a lot of work! And you need a lot more room for all those new pots :-)

I have to get one bed out of the ground because the landlord decided to cut the plum tree and I'm afraid he's waiting for the best time to trample down the first pips :-(

Best to start now...

Karin, yes get them out of the ground now. If it is no longer frozen then they should come up with a nice root ball and plenty of soil still around it.

If the tree is going to be cut fairly soon you could just put them into plastic carry bags with the top open. Leave them in a sheltered spot out of the sun and then as soon as the work is finished they could go straight back in.

As far as space is concerned, that's the one thing I have plenty of.

76 new ones to come this year!

Dave

Dave and Karin..pots sure keep you busy!..pots give you a longer gardening season!..monitoring them in the winter-moving around, covering them etc while I'm doing nothing..and repotting in the spring while I'm still doing nothing but waiting on pips..lol

You can add in growing from seed to that list of things to do while waiting.

Dave..I FORGOT about starting seeds!..so you ARE gardening nonstop :-)

Dave, 76? :-) Just thinking that you once said that you won't buy more hostas :-)

nicholsworth, don't forget all the hours we spend pondering which ones it will be for next spring. Visiting online shops and making plans, updating lists and filing pictures...could be a fulltime job :-) Unfortunately I have to go back to the office tomorrow. At least my back will get some rest then...But the weather is really gorgeous at the moment and 'carpe diem' is the motto...

Karin, It's so nice of you to take care of the cat. We had 4 that we either adopted from a shelter or "found as tiny kittens in our yard or outside our office" One died at 16, another is 19 and has health issues but the other two are 8 and 7 years old. None go outside since I don't want them to get away and never find them again. I don't understand people who just abandon animals. It's cold here today with very strong winds--spring is coming but very slowly. I saw a few snowflakes fly past the window but nothing is sticking so that's good. Last night we had lots of thunder and rain. I'm glad that my hostas are still sleeping under the soil, but it's nice to see everyone's pictures of the pips that are coming up.

Karin..you're so right!..managing a never ending hosta collection takes time!..I admit I spend more time on Gardenweb "talking" and reading about hostas than some people spend gardening..try to get some rest at work (your boss will be thrilled) so that when you get home you can accomplish some gardening tasks lol..

miles..you remind me of my 2 sisters..each has 3 rescued cats..all were strays (most of them kittens) that came one by one over time and since these 6 arrived they've found homes for many others..

Your first three months of winter sounded dreadful Karin. Thank goodness you and your plants pulled through it! I love seeing all your pots and shelving systems. The white ones look especially nice. I am not comfortable putting my smaller pots on shelves as the raccoons can come and push them over. I keep trying to figure out how to make a wall of some sort to attach pots to.

Thanks for the information on repotting Dave. I am always keen to learn how best to deal with all factors concerning container growing. If possible, when you repot Sagae, would you post some pictures and give details on how you repotted it? Seventy-six new ones to come this year!!! Oh man, that sounds heavenly! And all those seedlings! My, oh my!

newhostalady, I found those pics a few years ago, and if I would be better in wood working I'd love to built something like this myself. Need to ask somebody how much such a structure would cost...how neat the small ones look in those pots....

I also love the white pots and they are inexpensive, but they get dirty with time and need to be cleaned during repotting time.

Dug out ten hostas and put them into pots and hope the landlord is doing his tree work soon. But I think I keep them in the pots for longer. Depends on how much sun they will get at their old place. The roots of the plum tree had not been overly invasive, but Abiqua Drinking Gourd had a few mixed with her own. Had been at this place since 2015 and it was good to sort that out. The rest has to be done this weekend :-(

nicholsworth, rest at work? That would be nice, but we're installinga new software system and it will be hell. I had planned two weeks of holidays but got only 2 days. All my garden work had to be done since last Friday. Normally I take my time during my Easter holidays, but it had been real work now...Also spend some hours with my grandson, so the days were over in a minute :-)

Got a 'Not Hosta' parcel yesterday and I like the look of those rex begonias. I will keep them inside until the last frost is over and mix them with the hostas on the shelves in summer.

Karin..you know I was joking about getting some rest at work lol..I've had the experience of changing systems at work (not fun)..we're back to winter..low temps for the next 5 days.. :-(

nicholsworth, yes I knew you were joking...at the moment I wish I could retire, but 4 years at least to go :-(

Sorry to hear that your winter is still not over...

The weather drives me crazy, it had been so nice all day long and then suddenly we had such stormy winds that it sounded like a train running through the garden and things started flying around and the clouds were so dark that I thought hail might come down and 10 minutes later it was like nothing had happened at all...might have been the rest of the hailstorm Dave had in the afternoon...

Karin..some strong winds here too..I was backing out of my driveway today and saw a broken branch the size of a small tree laying on one of my shrubs..last week an even thicker one hit my mailbox and left a dent..there's so many ways to damage our gardens :-( I like the gray plant shelving..

28 and snow here this morning. It looks like early March not April. Software changes are never easy--no matter what they promise, there are always lots of issues and it's always irritating to have the "experts" say oh just work around the problem, or it will take a while to fix that. I never see much improvement, the old systems always have features that you like and get accustomed to, the new systems rarely add much and cause lots of problems. At least the winds have died down after 2 days of blustery weather. Small branches are down everywhere so that's more work to do in the yard--but on a positive note, my city will begin yard waste pickup soon so we can get rid of the trash cans filled with leaves and sticks, etc. We can't compost since there are regulations on how far the compost pile has to be from any property line--it would literally be in the middle of our yard!

miles..31 and no snow at the moment but it's coming..will be Tues before we have another nice day..too bad you can't compost..I understand piles can be an eyesore..we've worked hard to disguise ours..made a log fence from the neighbor's removed trees..still planting shrubs around the whole thing to hide it..funny note..behind a bag of raised bed mix (will use to fill pots when May comes-I like the bark based look and feel) I have 9 hostas buried in compost to be planted..they were given to me last fall when I didn't have time to do it..hoping their winter home was adequate..I haven't disturbed the pile to look..

miles, absolutely true what you say about software changes. Our old system was like handtailored and now we have to work with a standard program. Problem was not the old system but Windows updates, they drifted apart more and more and lots of things did not work properly any more.

But when I came home I had a parcel waiting and that lifted my mood considerably :-)

Karin,

What a great surprise! Let me know how your Snake Eyes doesI have one that is barely hanging on. Striptease grows like a weed in my yard. I would have thought that the sport would have done so too. Our office uses a specialized software which requires a lot of patches from the provider. It has a lot of issues with Windows updates too. Every time we hire a new IT person, it takes them a long time to figure it out. After a problem day at the office, it is always nice to come home and see what's waiting on the porch: )

Things have been so busy I lost 4 pounds the last two weeks because I haven’t had time to eat! I finally caught up on my work email today. Now I have almost two hundred hostas in the stage from unfurling to fully leafed out and temperatures of 29F predicted for this Saturday. Plenty of them have come up since our last freeze event and look good so I’ll be trying to cover them and the azaleas that are blooming on Saturday after the rain stops and before the obligatory social event that starts at 6:30. Oh, I forgot that my box from Hallson’s arrived yesterday and I have Hosta and day lilies to keep alive until the freeze passes so I can plant them on Sunday. I think I need a beer.

I just read this (zkathy) and I need a beer too!

-Babka

Kathy..wish I could lose 4 lbs without trying!..your hosta are so far along!..I hope any frost damage is minimal or zero..when hosta come up early it must drive one to drink..Kathy and Babka - go ahead and fall off the wagon lol..

zkathy,

long breathless sentences, I seriously hope that beer helped!

Sometimes everything piles up and we're running short of time. I'm not one to sleep long, 4-5 hours normally and so I should have a lot of time, but it is never enough. Job, family, garden, friends, all important things and we think we can manage it, but getting older makes it harder :-(

miles,

I'm also curious how Snake Eyes will be doing. I had Striptease, it was among the first hostas I ever had, but had to dump it in 2016 because of HVX. It was in a pot, so no harm done, but it makes you think...

Thanks Karin for posting the photos regarding vertical structures for pots. I would definitely love to have either of those. I have also copied a few photos of vertical structures like this one:

I need to put in a new fence and am thinking of having the fence people put in a few more posts while they are here. Unfortunately, the fence will have to wait until fall and so will the new structure.

I love Rex begonias too Karin. They are so attractive. And I can see that those parcels would definitely lift the mood in a positive direction!

Nicholsworth55 you made a really nice composting area!

Some people are so creative when it comes to making these vertical gardens. Fun to look at.

nicholsworth, that's a nice sized compost area you have.

It's nice to hear about new orders coming in. I'm a few zones down, but it won't be long.

Snow is gone, and I've gotten started on cleanup. Last fall I didn't get anything done so I'm paying for it now. Lots to do. My feet are aching, I have a few mystery bruises, and was already scraped and punctured by a rose. .........Yes! It's good to be out in the garden again! :-))

newhostalady and sandyslopes..thanks :-) ..my husband is so great to drag the monster logs home from the neighbor's across the street and make that bin..the area at the bottom of the pic above (can't see all of it) is where I pile what I collect before we chip it..can sort of see how wide the bin is in this pic..I moved these undulatas from all around the yard to plant down the side of our garage..can't wait until everything's green again..

Is that a peony? It sure is a pretty area - we haven't had much snow at all this year, just wacky temperatures.

stephanie..thanks..pic from summer 2017..can see why you think it's a peony but it's a Bloomstruck hydrangea in a pot that I overwintered in my shed..we have a wooded half acre..been working on it 13 years..still NOT finished..

I love that shade of pink - beautiful!

PS - if we finished all our projects, what would we do with ourselves... we'd have to find new ones! lol

You're right..we won't ever stop will we?.. :-) do you have any mophead hydrangeas?..they do much better where you live..if you don't have any I would try some..

I bought a Pia hydrangea last year - it's a lacecap but I'm not sure if thats a mophead. I don't know what much about hydrangeas. It's a dark pink - it was quite pretty last year.

stephanie..a lacecap has a different shaped bloom - flatter..not as round..but I love those too!