Hi All,
Any idea how long it will take my Sum and Substance to get to a decent height? I got it a couple years ago in a swap here. It has multiplied well, but is so close to the ground and gets no height. Is it poor soil or just a time thing.
Sum and Substance
I would think that it would have grown more than that in a couple of years... Did you check the roots to see if you have vole problems? Or, may be planted too deep?
Rose
I don't think I have any voles here in general. I'll check though. and I'll check the depth. It's not in very good soil, under a silver maple tree. Maybe I need to give it a new location or better soil…
I got it in the 2009 June hosta swap. Since then I was able to split it into 4 plants this size. Soon it will be the sum and substance ground cover!!! hahaha.
Under a silver maple you may have root interference.
I'll investigate later today, thanks
I have been busy this spring moving several hostas to a new location. They were planted in a bed that has a silver maple, a river birch and HAD a spirea shrub in it. The roots are so thick that I have to cut through the roots to dig the hostas out! Poor things...I don't know how they survived at all! Moving them to beds with lots of loose sandy soil so I hope to see some growth improvement next year.
Rose
Well that's just what I'm doing today. Inspection showed that they were not too deep and no root damage, but the soil is sandy and hard from all the fibrous roots. So I prepared another bed and will plant tonight after the heat. It really is interesting how much it has spread but not grown in height at all. I'll be anxious to see if this helps at all.
This is mine that I put in in 08. This yr it is twice as big. Need to get a pic. BEV
Nice Bev.
Well I put the two large "clumps" in one spot and then combined the two small clumps and put somewhere else.
They have humongous leaves. I have some blue seedlings out of Elegans that have 11.5 by 15 inch leaves. BEV
Well, here are the newly transplanted babies. Let's see how they do.
My S & S came from the nursery in pots, but they were slow to increase. They are now the nice chartreusey color you want with this variety and are all quite large. The two new{ going into their fifth season this year} ones however took about 4 years to increase to the proper height and size. Kinda slow, but worth the wait.
Martha
I'm looking forward to seeing if they do well this year after moving them. The drought was rough on them. Currently under a bunch of snow though!
Hostas love snow. Good mulch and you know they will have adequate water for quite a while in early spring.
Martha
That's what I'm thinking! Would like to have had snow cover for a while though. I think we had a couple of good rains in the winter though.
I'm not thrilled with the snow packed, icy roads, but I'm sure my hostas are going to love the snow cover this year! Last spring I had to get sprinklers going in March.
Most of our blizzard snow is gone here from the roads. It is snowing this morning, but may change to rain sometime today.
the only blizzard snow left is where they made big piles on corners and it iced over. We had several days in the 40's last week so it has been slowly melting.
Can't wait to see my hostas again!
Martha
We're supposed to be up in the 40's this weekend with rain. I hope we have more moisture this spring and summer. I've been looking at pictures on the computer and reading about some of the ones that I'm going to move (hoping to pick the right spot this time!).