Buy a tarp or two. Buy a garden fork. If you wrap each plant's leaves with a strap of cloth so that they are more vertical than usual, you can minimize the lower leaf breakage as you move them. Be gentle doing this wrapping.

Loosen the soil around the hostas with a garden fork. Start pretty far out from the center of each plant, and dig lower than you think is necessary. Your goal with the fork is to get their roots loosened from their deepest hold on the ground as much as possible -- while minimizing the ripping or cutting of roots. You'll need to get on your knees and reach down under the plant, hands going deeply into the loosened soil, to feel for the roots that stretch farther out or down that you thought, to determine when the fork has done its work.

Once a plant is loosened, dig it up individually with a shovel, reaching as far down into the earth as possible. Your goal is to remove the plant with as much soil embedded in the roots as possible, without cutting the far ends of the roots (it's inevitable that you'll cut some). Transfer plant with its soil to the tarp.

Pull the tarp with the hostas on top of it into the shade. The soil will make this a heavy load to pull. If you have a lot of hostas, it may take two or three tarps. I prefer the long thinnish ones over the square ones. Scrunch up the edges of the tarp to create a little wall around the whole thing. Water them frequently enough over the next week or so to keep their roots moist while you wait to replant them. The tarp "walls" along the edge will keep the water from escaping too fast. Don't drown them, though. Their roots need air as well as water.

I transplant hostas this way often. They should be fine. Plant them the same height as they were before; avoid planting them too deep. Stomp on the bottom of the holes you dig to compress the soil, so the bottom of the hole won't collapse after the plant is put in there. After you plant them, water them daily. This is the most difficult time of the season to transplant because of the heat and drought. Just don't let their roots dry out and stay dry once they are replanted. I am assuming the water will drain well once they are replanted. TLC is all it takes.

P.S. I just saw the 3-6 weeks. That's a long time. Dig half-deep holes in the ground next to where you drag the tarps. This should be in the shade. Plop them in. The holes don't have to be as deep as the roots, as long as you water them daily.

you could literally dig them out.. throw them on the old part of the driveway ... and they will live ... period .. they wont look pretty for the rest of the year ...but who cares ... you can look at the new driveway ...

since you are presumably regrading for the cement ... dig as much soil with the plant you can.. hoik them to some heavy shade.. pile them all close together ... and just water them heavily with a sprinkler ...

do not make a bigger deal then it is.. you can barely kill them ...

everything feet said is correct.. if you want to preserve them looking pretty good for the rest of the year .. but.. that really isnt the goal here ... is it??

a strapping young man .. could help you save your back ... it might be worth throwing a hundred bucks at some good kid.. and just watching ... supervising ... maybe better if its not your own kid.. lol ...

sharpen your shovel first .. it can make a big difference.. 25 plants in ...

ken

btw .. if you could wait until fall.. it will be easier on you rather than working int he heat of summer ...

and also less stressful on the plants ...

ken

ps: and you could probably leave them piled up until next spring ... 3 to 6 weeks.. pshaw ...

I would pot them up. One time I put some in a large cardboard box - I didn't have enough pots. It worked fine. The box held up through the project and I tore it up and put it in my compost when we were done.

So many good ideas from hosta lovers in the know. This forum is great.

I wish the platform was more user friendly.

i pictured giant clumps lining the driveway ... potting doesnt sound feasible ...

but that begs the question ... how about a pic so we understand the scope of what need be done ...

ken

I suggest healing them in, in pine bark mulch (fine) in the shade. They'll keep well and be easy to get out again for the replanting. If you have a place that is bare of plants, use that as the storage area rather than destroying some lawn by having it covered with bark for three weeks.

use giant blue hostas but I'm no expert

I like using the heavy duty cardboard flat boxes with openings from the produce section of the grocery store. They are sturdy enough and large enough to contain a single big plant or lots of small ones. The ordinary hostas are hard to kill so a large amount of dirt and some water and shade will be more than adequate.

When I am done splitting or moving hosta plants, I dig a shallow hole in the back corner of my yard, throw in all the misc small pieces of crowns and roots and cover with compost. Something always seems to take off and get big enough to replant in a year or two.

then shall I suggest keep the best peices to keep up quality

So many hosta/driveway jokes, so little time.....

I'm not joking

Two hundred feet of hosta! My guess is they're all lancifolia or undulata albomarginata, very sturdy hosta. I'd do exactly what Ken said. Dig them out, put them in a pile, water them. They'll be fine. They will be bedraggled-looking this year, but fine next.

I re-did my flower beds a couple years ago and I put all my hosta in a plastic baby pool until I could re-plant them.

When my daughter moved, we dug her established 15 'hosta of the year' collection and placed them in Walmart/similar plastic shopping bags, wrapping the roots in newspaper and dampening the paper. These were in an unheated or cooled garage for 2 months with only one watering in the bags... they looked terrible when replanted but all but one returned strongly.

so apparently they needed water and planted

Quickest, easiest, and very effective method is to dig each plant as described above, leaving some dirt on the roots. Pop the plant into a light colored or transparent plastic grocery bag, then cross the bag handles and do a half knot, pulled up at the base of the leaves. Move to a shady area and ignore until you are ready to replant. If they look dry or droop, add some water. Remember, this time of the year, the hostas are dormant, so they don't need much care. I've done this with hundreds of plants, a few of which spent 2 years sitting in their bags in the shade. 3-6 weeks isn't going to be a problem. Just be sure the plants aren't getting direct sun, which will dry out the leaves, and don't use dark colored bags, which might overheat the roots.

If your hostas have root systems that need a larger bag, use white garbage bags and tie the half knot at the base of the leaves, then push out as much air as you can.

I'm learning so many approaches from this thread. Good stuff.