Many of my old hostas look ragged with hairs and roots sticking up in the air like that in early spring, and have done so for years. I don't do anything about it even though at first it bothered me since the crowns looked so ragged. These old hostas grow well every year despite my inattention. My garden is 17 years old, and many of the hostas that look like this have been in place for 15 or more years.

If you are worried about the bare roots, don't. If you left leaves or compost on top of the plant for the winter, the roots that are sticking up right now probably grew upward into the moist blanket overhead. Now that it's gone, you can see those roots. Just throw some compost or dirt on top and don't think another thought about them. Or do nothing, like me.

In other words, you are not looking at "frost heaves." The roots will probably find the soil and bury themselves if you do nothing. Either way, covering those roots up is not necessary.

How do I know? One spring I dug up some mature hostas with HUGE too-heavy-to-move rootballs, planning on finding a new spot for them later. I quickly made some temporary shallow pits and dragged them into the pits using a tarp. I left them there, in the pits, with half their roots sticking up in the bare air, for safe-keeping. It took me two years to find a place to put them, and I left them alone for all that time, bare roots exposed and all. They did just fine.

This was near Boston, in zone 6.

no it is not heaved ...

it does not happen to older established plants.. with roots that are deep enough to hold them in the soil ...

ill keep trying to find pix ...

peruse this in the meantime ... https://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/2006/mar/070202.htm

small divisions... or just about anything in the mouse series.. almost completely pop out of the ground during winter freeze thaw cycle .. usually when there is no snow cover .. and by the time you find them in spring ... they have freeze dried roots.. that look like chicken left in the freezer too long ... and are hard to get back to health.. if in fact.. arent already dead ...

there is nothing wrong with the hosta in your pic .;..

btw .. the hairs mentioned above.. are the remnants of the leaves where they were ripped off the crown.. or the remains of flower stalks.. where they attacked at the crown ...

ken

djacobz568sewi, did this hosta stay covered through the winter? Leaves, compost, hay, anything?

ken_adrian Adrian, I get those ice crystals in one bed where I have hostas planted. They are mature, old, big. Nothing short of a backhoe will raise them from the ground. I exaggerate to make the point.

However, this last fall I did not rake as I should have. Oak leaves covered everything, deeply as I have many very old oaks surrounding my gardens.

This spring, many hostas had exposed roots showing when I raked. The roots grew into the leaves, as best as I can figure, over the winter months. We had lost of winter thaws this year, and I bet those hostas saw an opportunity for growth in their wet blankets and took it.

I've done nothing about it, and won't. I don't expect the plants will suffer. This has happened many times before.

It's hard to kill a hosta -- unless it's one of those very expensive ones you couldn't resist...

I have left clumps of hosta sitting on the top of the ground for more than one season due to my laziness in the past. They didn't bat an "eye"... (heh heh).

Liquidfeet, the hosta was covered by snow when we had it. There may have been leaves there too. I have a King Crimson Red Maple that drop leaves late so that wouldn’t be unheard of. But right now there is no mulch as I pulled out all of the Ajuga to replace with mulch or compost very soon. I am thinking of pine needle mulch to keep slugs away after I do the drench this afternoon any minute now!

djacobz568sewi, are you convinced that the hosta doesn't need to be put deeper in the ground now? I hope so. Enjoy spring!

Yes I’m convinced LF!!