I've had mine since 2015. It never gets to be more than 20" tall and that's probably pushing it. It gets wide. As of yesterday, it still only had two pips beginning to unfurl. They are beefy, but few. If I saw one that was 6 eyes, I would have bought it too.

this one is a pia ... lol ..

too much shade.. and it fails to thrive.. especially if you have one with lots of white ...

so you want to favor more sun .. and the further south you go.. the harder it is.. to balance that out .. without melting all the white off ... and making them real ugly ... but.. more sun.. means more energy... which means it will grow faster ... and.. eventually.. bigger ....

soooo .... perhaps the reason you see variable height estimates.. is because of the sun variable ... the vigor on how it grows in a given spot ...

all that said ... height should be genetic .... but based on cultural variables ...

i seem to recall wade having one.. that was over 2.5 feet tall ... that would be hyper fertilizing ... and probably killing 999 of them.. to find the one.. that would survive ... i hate this plant .. and curse aden.. for putting it on the cover of his book back in the day ... i think i ran thru about 25 of them.. and never had one grow with vigor ...what i discovered.. was that i was buying babes with the most white.. so i was buying ones that could barely survive.. to begin with ...ergo.. buy one with the most green .. and hope it grows into one with a good white ...

ken

GE is my favorite hosta, and I have around 20 plants spread across several garden areas. Unlike most hostas, there are a couple of very specific requirements that need to be met if GE is to thrive.

It should be planted very shallowly, and I mean very shallowly. The dreaded GE dwindling and dying is usually caused by the plant being set too deeply. Plant shallowly and don't put any mulch up against the plant.

Sun is necessary for GE to thrive. It should get at least 1/2 sun over the course of the day, or lightly dappled shade all day. It will take full sun if kept well watered. In heavy shade, it will survive, but grow only very slowly.

Watering is key until a plant is well established. Water very deeply and as needed.

My tallest GE tops out at 32 inches most years, and the others are in the 30 inch or slightly taller range. Tallest I ever measured was 34 inches, but that was an exceptionally amenable summer, with perfect conditions all season. I amend the soil when I plant, but don't fertilize other than a bit of top dressing with compost every decade or so.

If you give it enough room and good growing conditions, GE will spread out to 4-5 feet across. My oldest one has fairy ringed (after almost 20 years), and needs to be divided up and replanted, although it still looks fine and grows well. My first purchase from Shady Oaks was for tiny little tissue culture plants, about an inch tall with a single inch long root and a single leaf the size of a fingernail. I got 3 GEs in that order, and they went straight out into a slightly raised nursery bed outside and did fine.

haven.. no pix.. i dont believe any of it.. rotflmbo ...

and where are you ... just for geographical reference ... and for the record in this post ...

ken

Ken--sorry, I'm pretty much a Luddite, no camera, no home computer, no cell phone, no way to take pictures or post them. Believe what you want. Or not.

I'm in east central Iowa, which according to Mark Zillis, is where hostas get larger than anywhere else in the country. I looked for my place for almost 5 years, it's got huge burr oaks with great filtered shade, and the soil is many inches deep with pure oak humus. I also have my own well, so can water as needed without incurring any expense. In very hot and dry years, any given area of the hosta beds will get 4 hours of sprinkler time every few days or as needed. The 8 foot fence keeps deer out, the large outdoor cat (now sadly deceased at the age of 18) kept voles, squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks under control.

Many of my hostas grow to be larger or much larger than they do elsewhere. Some are spaced out somewhat further than in other gardens, which also seems to help increase the mature size. But the main factors appear to be very good soil, enough water, and good light levels.

I was first smitten with hostas in the late 1950s, and yes, I was a very young child at the time. I have remained fascinated by the genus, and might have learned a thing or three about hostas since then. But the best hosta advice I ever got was from Jerry Hadrava of Rosedale Hostas. He told me that if a plant wasn't doing well, rip it out and put it somewhere else with different conditions. That's exactly what I did with my first tiny tc GEs. They grew but did not thrive in a shady nursery bed, so after a year I ripped them out and moved them to a much sunnier area in the regular beds, and they took off and grew well just like any other hosta.