Hey Ben……looking at CAC in the ground, it’s hard to tell if it was planted too deeply, it’s possible. I always have a tough time with this myself. The fact that it was planted it the fall maybe could be a reason, perhaps it didn’t get established??? Anyway, I would pot up the two larger pieces and I think I would toss the other piece. It will not grow new roots in water, to my understanding and keeping it in water for a long period of time could cause other issues possibly. If you want, you could pot it separately and see how it does. If it does well, replant with the other pieces or have it as a second plant.

Prairie Sky looks so disorganized for the nicely shaped hosta it is. Was it in a spinout bag?Not sure what you mean by the crowns being wiggly….. the roots look good overall…..though I do see some black roots (I think), usually they are mushy and I pull those out. The concern over the yellow leaf needs a better picture, it may just be heat, as is the case with your other leaf that burned. I encourage you to perservever with both. I love my PS. Here it is, about 4-5 years old:

debra

After removing my Royal Wedding an hour ago and finding it had dry rot as ken suggested, on your left PS, I may see a circular area with no plant matter. Do you see that? If that is the piece with the yellow leaf, that could be dry rot and the reason for the yellowing leaf. I’m an amateur, so I hope ken or others chime in in.

debra

Thanks Debra. Both pieces of Prairie Sky have some old crown material attached; I'm not sure what to make of that.

As for being wiggly, what I meant was I could tug on the leaves and they were firmly attached to the crown, but the whole plant felt quite loose in the soil.

Take a look at the photos in my post on Royal Wedding. You can see the dry rot in my photos.

debra

Thought I'd share a small update...

My Prairie Sky can't seem to get a break (or it did get a break, depending on how you look at it):

That's a rather lightweight pine branch that did the damage -- and not just to the plant, but to the pot too.

Cool as a Cucumber, which I potted up in two pieces, is faring better:

The original leaves on the smallest eye all died back, but it's trying to put out new growth.

(There's another little leaf just barely visible behind the larger one.)

Pine trees can be brutal (this is Island Breeze):

Ben, it looks like you did a good job to save your plants. From what I can see in the photo, your smaller Cool as a Cucumber is planted too deep in the pot. Best to take away some of the soil.

That’s always something I struggle with too. Is it planted too low? Is it planted to deep? I try to aim for being able to see the little hairy remains of the leaves from previous year. I think if those are covered, it’s too deep. That’s my understanding——correct me if I am wrong about that.

debra

Ben, I don’t have pines but the twigs from my maple and the city’s locust drop plenty of twigs and sticks too.

debra

I certainly don't want a pine tree! I have my share of tree problems with my two aging huge maple trees.

Debra, I understand that when planting a hosta into the garden, one wants to have the soil slightly higher than the soil around it, This is because the soil will settle and the roots will pull the plant down. So starting off a bit higher is a good thing. As for how deep? I try to just barely cover the roots. I can always add a bit more soil if it needs it. But if the plant is too deep, it's hard to remove some of the soil as you will make a depression in which water could sit in and rot some of the crown.

Thank you for posting this. Now I have to go and check mine. Sure have few strugglers too.

Debra, I know just what you mean by the "little hairy remains"; I'll try to use that as a good guideline.

I was able to gently lift the plant a bit higher, since it is in loose potting soil, rather than remove soil.

Very interesting discussion. I had a large Cool as a Cucumber hosta 10-12 crowns and 3 years ago it came up as one small crown which died that season. Same thing happened to a friend who had the same thing happen to it last year. The other hostas in that bed of mine were very healthy as they were in my friend's bed. We both got them from the same grower years ago. We'll never know why they failed.

That was disappointing Miles, to have lost a large Cool as a Cucumber. I used to have a poor draining area in my garden. Other than undulatas, no other hosta seemed to thrive there. They would get some crown rot so they never grew to maturity. That area always brought spring disappointment. Do you think the drainage in your garden where Cool as a Cucumber grew could be an issue?

Nope everything else grows very well it's just that plant that sent up one set of leaves and then died that year. what's so odd is that same thing happened to my friend's plant 2 years ago.

Maybe it's just a finicky plant?