Saija..your post made it!..this update is aggravating..I wanted to edit my post and the typing was malfunctioning so I deleted it..not really an interesting post I just wanted to try posting (it did post)..for me the typing works better when you make comments..beautiful colors on your hostas..at the top of the Catherine pic I see the tips of yellow leaves and the color is fantastic..

Tips with Catherine is Chiquita. I think I love bananas, LOL. It's hard to catch the color on photo, it's amazing. New from last year, last year it looked awful. But now I have to see it every day.

I love that hosta and the name!..I also love bananas :-) ..in the US Chiquita is a brand name of bananas..do they sell Chiquita bananas in Finland?..

Yes we have bananas called Chiquita, LOL. I think I love hosta Chiquita more than bananas ;)

It's OK to love both LOL..it really is a small world isn't it?..both of us eating the same bananas..

Saija, it’s 12:36 and I’m finally finishing my first coffee whilst opening the forum. What a way to start my day... admiring the hostas in your post. Those are the happiest of colours in spring...yellow for joy and sunshine, green for life, health, sustenance and HOSTA!!! :D

The softness of colours of the Catherine Hosta are alluring, reminding me of TOC and LSM. BV never looks anything but perfect and has Sagae’s colours. Summer Breeze is such a grower and always looks wonderful... I love the colour yours has now. Miele is so lovely... it reminds me of Ripple Effect...do you think?

Chiquita I think stole the show, lol. It is a stunner in every aspect! I want one after seeing yours.

So happy for us “late bloomers” that our hostas are looking so good! What a pleasure - thank you for sharing.

Thanks Jo for kind words. Here is evening 20.34. Many hostas look nice this year, some are still in pips stage in very shade bed. Many are still unfurling. I'm much happier hosta owner this year, last year many died. Now everything looks good, bigger and better. Not yet mature, that I have to wait. No snails yet, too hot and dry for them. Some birds although snaps hosta leaves, grrr.

Mieke reminds RE, but Mieke turns green in summer. Yes, Chiquita stole the show by lurking in photo, LOL.

Aaaawh! Catherine is gorgeous!

thanks for sharing! How old are those plants?

Claudia: They are planted 2017, except Ben Vernooij is 2018. Most of mine are quite new. Some oldies/freebies are from 2013 and I started to buy hostas in 2015.

I just noticed that Ben Vernooij photo didn't post and I can't edit original post. I remember that you could edit posts, now it seems that you can edit only commets. It this again cause of update.

Here is young Ben Vernooij

Saija,

wonderful hosta! I like Mieke and Chiquita. Good to hear that you had no losses because of winter or late frost like last year :-)

Hope you will be spared the crazy weather conditions that we have for weeks now.

Karin: Our weather has been weird, no rain in over month. Really not Finnish weather. Few time few tiny drops, which didn't do anything. May was very hot, now little lower temperatures. I've been watering hostas and other plants, which I don't usually need to do. What kind of crazy weather you have?

Sandylopes: it feels like update wasn't good one. Ben Vernooij has really yellow edges, I like it a lot.

Saija,

here it has been nearly tropical. Not much rain since April, but always a stormy wind from the east (normally our weather comes from the west and brings a good amount of rain) and unusually high temperatures. Hail and heavy rain twice the last few weeks was all that came from above. I had to water a lot but maybe I did too much because I had problems with root and crown rot on weaker plants in pots. Lost about ten...Now I keep them as dry as possible, risking sunburn is better than killing them by too much water. Water and heat seem to be a perfect climate for fungi...

For 4 weeks the hosta looked perfect, but with all those problems it is not funny to take pictures anymore...and on top of it the slugs and snails are invading...

Last week we had a thunderstorm and 5 km from here the water was 50cm high in the streets, flooding cellars and cars...absolutely crazy...

Karin: sorry, your hosta lost. Sounds like you have really weird weather. I wish weather turns normal. We here Finland need rain badly, farmers are soon losing their crops. I manage by watering.

Does not look good for farmers here,too...the sun is burning everything, a very bad strawberry harvest and the corn is one third of the usual size. Our well was at it's limit, but it started to rain last night and it is cooler now...That was much needed...

Catherine looks very sharp, I like blue yellow combo very much too. Yep, weather here is Chicago has been hot/ cold/ humid and last weeks rains created perfect environment for fungal growth. I am more worried about my tomatoes of course LOL

but hostas not too far behind. I am gearing up for foliar sprays to correct imbalance and give my plants better resistance.

Karin, sorry about hosta losses!

it is my first season when I have a lot of potted hostas. Am learning a lot. Two of my hostas look iffy, I agree drainage need to be superior. I am coming from growing tomatoes in pots where regular Pro mix does wonderful job but adding tons of pine bark to the hosta pots seems to be helpful.

Karin..I'm sorry to hear that you lost some hostas..we had a full 15? 20? hours of rain..all of my plants were drooping and dripping..they were dry before the rain so I was happy..today we went to the grocery store..there's a garden center there so of course I took a look..I didn't buy anything..I saw several hostas with rotten crowns..

What beautiful hostas! Thank you very much for sharing them.

Ann,

I also had a plant with a rotting crown in one of the parcels I got. It was replaced without problems but it makes me think...A lot of people in my favourite fb group have lost hosta to crown rot, some between 30-50 plants. 3 months of rain in winter without a period of frost and then high temperatures caused many problems. I learned to do a lot about drainage since I started to grow hosta, now I learned it is better to keep them dry when they are already weak and better to risk sunburn than let them die because of too much well meant water while hot...

Karin..this garden center has an overhead watering system and I bet it's on a timer..I've been there when it started "misting"..I bet that nobody checks the plants to see if they actually NEED water..they just water on a schedule..they say more plants die from overwatering rather than underwatering..

Obviously it is cheaper to spend a lot of water and kill plants than investing that money on qualified staff...same here in those markets, when the plants come they look good, two days later they start to die...