As a newbie gardener - I am waiting and waiting with anticipation to see when there will be any signs of life from my big blue boy hosta that came up so beautifully last year. It was very small when it was originally planted and it grew wonderfully. Is it coming back? Where, oh where, is my blue boy?
Jo, while I don't have Blue Boy, Hostas do not all come up at the same time in the spring. For example I have a couple Striptease and while one is just barely breaking ground, the other one is still snuggled in. A lot of how soon any given Hosta will break ground depends on how quickly the patch of soil it's in gets warmed up in late winter/early spring. If it is mostly if not completely in the shade this time of year, it will be slow to warm the soil and subsequently any Hosta under those conditions will be slow to break ground in the spring. I wouldn't worry about it at this point, it's still quite early, plus I have found that this year my plants are a good 10-14 days behind where they were the same date last year. I'd start worrying about it only if you don't see any signs by the end of the month... patience my dear, have some more patience....
Re: Big blue boy hosta-re patience Aaaahhhh... patience. That is what my tai chi instructor keeps repeating. Thank you Master Pieter.
Don't you know a watched Hosta never sprouts? Forget about it and they will return soon enough on their own.
Im in Mission and both of mine haven't come to visit me yet either. I am watching them though... guess thats why! lol!
Hey Creeping Jenny... I am in North Vancouver... and Big Boy is JUST starting to peek through the ground to say "Hello World". I agree with you Cereusly Steve... watching for them doesn't make them appear any earlier... but since this is my first time round waiting for them to spring into action, and I had a $$ bet on with my husband as to the exact date we'd start seeing them... I was just kinda wondering. Pieter was right... wait for the ground to warm... and they will come...
Way to go Jenny! In my yard I have the bulk of my Hostas in pots, some under shelter, others out in the open and certainly most of the ones under shelter have leaves unfurling quite nicely. In early February I usually put up a small 'greenhouse', which is really a misnomer since it's at best 6x5x2, but it gives me the capacity to start somewhat earlier with cuttings and seed, and I can take it down when no longer needed. This year in order to weigh down the rack that holds the trays and pots I used a few 5 gallon pots with Hostas and it's not that hard to understand that with the extra heat these pots received that those Hostas are about 14 days ahead of their respective brethren out in the open. There is quite the variability amongst the multitude of Hosta cultivars in terms of how 'early they rise' - which comes from their genetic make-up - couple that with differences in placement and how quickly soil temperatures rise in that spot in the spring and suddenly you find that it'll be a period of a month or more before all the Hostas in a garden have broken ground. And when the last ones finally do, the first ones are beginning to unfurl already.
Mine are in pots too! Under my awning in the front (North facing) I dug them out of the garden in the front of the house when we moved in. I was grass seeding the garden(Bizarre spot) but wanted the hostas. Im debating putting them in my new bed.
