Yes, it's your clematis. Lucky you! Looks like good growth for 2009.
What's this I wonder?
zone 7 must be divine clem climate. more like england and ireland, with just enough of dormant period to do the trick. yummy.
good thing I coverd everything with leaves yesterday.
It's snowing like CRAZY here today! Of course we never see snow so a couple of inches to us is crazy! lol
pulled the leaves and mulch back just checked the hellebores.....they have fat, reddish green shoots emerging. covered them back up as it is very cold here. hostas barely emerging, but the helles new shoots are about 2 " out of the ground.
covered them back up and hurried back in to get warm!
here is a vase of hellebores from last spring. can't wait to see them this year!
of course, the hellebore is the same family as the clematis...but you knew that, right? according to mary toomey they can even be cross pollinated. you can see some of the similarity if you look at the back of the flower (no sepals)...and think about clematis cirrosa freckles, almost looks like a hellebore, doesn't it?
Wait a second... Niobe, you have hostas sprouting in Ohio? Thought it was colder than that there.
well they are barely sprouting. i am in zone 5 a. it is like a micro climate between the lake efftect to the north and east and the ohio river valley influence to the south and west. surprisingly less harsh than most imagine. and my 2 acres is pretty protected, nt to mention heavily mulched. however nothing like the carolinas and tennessee.
i have a few things rated zone 6 that come back, like montana spoonerii but not warm enough early enough for it to flourish. and other zone 6 clems have not made it even tho i have given it a go. but the hellebores are up nicely and the hostas are starting. we have had some 50 degree + weather but tomorrow will be in the 20's.
spring has not spring but hostas and hellebores are pushing the envelope.
Very cool. I'm pushing the envelope up here with Peach trees, and trying the Basjoo banana this year. I have a Baileys Hardy Peach that has given us about 10-15 peaches every year for about 8 years now, and planted several of the hardier rated zone 5 peaches but they are too new to produce yet. So far they've all lived 2 or 3 winters in Zone 4.
Rumor has it that peaches do just fine in the early stages of their life up here, but then one year they push a big load of fruit and never really recover. Not enough time to recoup for the winter. Luckily the city squirrels strip the trees of most of the fruit to help keep the tree alive I guess.
Hostas
The nice thing about early sprouting hostas is if the main buds crap out from a freeze it will force some of the dormant lower buds to wake up giving you a bigger clump faster. I've been know to go out early in the spring when they are just starting to poke and smash the living heck out of that main bud with a hammer. It has worked on my tokudamas and montanas. And get this, on one of the tokudama FlavoCircinalis plants a smaller side bud sported out to an all gold leaf and has remained stable for 2 years now. Don't know if the hammer gets credit...
perrypost - about the hostas - - - are you SERIOUS?
I've become a hosta freak these days & I could never imagine a hammer???
In the past. Especially to get those darned tokudamas to get multiplying. The idea spawned from reading about the Rossing Method. I call mine the Bonking Method. Some people go do a stomping dance in the spring. They call it the... "Stomping Method"! I wouldn't recommend it until the crown has become established a couple years.
There is a discussion about it over at GW. Here's an excerpt from it:
(that site is horrible with pop up ads everywhere, but if you're daring:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/msg0314082314057.html)
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..."stomping is actually just what it sound... if you stomp a hosta, just as the "eyes" are starting to come up, or grind it with your heel, or cut the eyes off at the base, or tell your husband to rototill the garden and forget to tell him to watch your emerging hostas, (can you tell that one happened to me), it all has the same effect on the hosta. It forces the hosta to send up new, usually multiple "eyes', as a response. The new eyes will be smaller, but you'll probably get more. Someone else feel free to jump in if you want to be more scientific....
It's really hard for me to do this on purpose....
Rossizing is when a knife is inserted into the base of the petiole and pushed down into the crown. The cut surface then dries and forms a callous tissue. New vegative buds then form along the cut and produce new plants.
This method is attributed to Henry Ross of Ohio.
Stomping is when you actually go out and stomp, or intentionally step on the Hosta."...
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wow, not being a hosta addict (believe me i have plenty and appreciate them for their easy, shade tolerant look and feel in certain areas (even if i don't remember their names).....and every few years i just go out in early spring stick a shovel under the hosta, lifting it up , then stick the shovel in to remove a clump of the big clump and move the piece i shovel off to a new locale.....not much work, especially considering that i am getting a nice "new" plant to extend the landscaping (or give away or whatever)
haven't done this to my big blue hostas, however. still trying to see how big can big be with them. in fact usually moving them to make more
room for the big blues.
how often, ie every year? do you stomp on them or otherwise inflict damage without lifting them up?
To divide hostas I simply use a very strong knife and cut out (like a piece of pie) the chunk I want removed and lift that. Compost goes into the vacancy and a jug of water.
have to try that pirl. i like using the shovel so i can do it standing up, but you rmethod woul dprobably not uproot the whole plant. when i do it i am uprooting the whole plant and really starting two over. hostas, bless their hearts, are so easy here at my place that i rarely give them a second thought.
this year i am going to treat them better.
The blue ones grow the tightest for me so I hate even cutting through them with a saw. I'll have to try a jigsaw someday.
Here is a collage showing half the eyes and half of the grown hosta, Love Pat. They look so innocent as eyes but they're packed in there.
Niobe, Stomp and Bonk every spring if you want to. When you do it you tend to get smaller leaf and clump size over all for that year, but more eyes growing. The following year would be the overall huge size increase.
Ginsu. I ain't kidding. The best hosta tool in the world is a Ginsu knife set. The big one you just stick in the ground and cut away the clump you want, and use the small one for dividing clumps on the table, like with those tightly clumped blues pirl is talking about. When they get dull, return them for a new set. Lifetime warranty! Even Tony Avent over at Plant Delights promotes Ginsu for hosta work.
Really. Get a set.
i like the idea and really do want to divide my hostas this spring so i have enough to landscape a new area. however, bending over to do it sounds worse than standing up with a shovel to do it.
maybe my husband can sharpen my shovel or something.
at any rate, you guys have inspired me to do it.
i want to do this as early as possible in the spring, probably end of march.
thanks for the inspiration.
No offense PerryPost but, I strongly have to disagree with this method. One to each their own, but not for me.
Seriously guys, do a LOT of research before you do this. I personally will never, ever do that. Especially knowing how much money hostas cost & if you really enjoy them from year to year. Hostas give you more plants willingly & happily year in & year out.
It's basically forcing your plants to do something that is not "natural". Genetics of hostas knows what to do. They multiply rather quickly on their own without being forced to do so. Every single year people go out to examine their hostas & realize "wow, I've got babies!" They easily multiply every year without being forced to do so. Plus, it "could" inflict damage that you don't realize and their goes a perfectly good hosta down the drain. All for what? An extra eye or two?
Does anyone seriously think that people with fabulous hosta gardens go around "stomping" eyes to get them to multipy or get larger quicker? No. It's called patience, water & nutrition just like any thing else.
That's my 2¢.
Kristy
Kristy, as you say, to each their own. Like I said earlier, I employ this primarily for the toku's and montanas which are notoriously slow to multiply, and when it really comes down to it, I'm a propagator by passion.
Kristy, I don't want to start an argument with you, and I'm not trying to, just want to counter your "not 'natural'" comment with the idea that stomping could actually be a mimic of "natural" hosta experiences. Suppose a herd of water buffalo (or whatever large hoofed animal is in their native habitats) come munching their way through the grassland valleys where hosta actually really grow. The cattle will totally trample the main hosta eyes, but luckily, hostas have a back-up plan. Dormant secondary buds!
I just made that all up, of course, except that most hosta species DO actually live in grasslands and not woodlands, according to Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery. They leaf out before the grasses and get dappled shade from the grass during the heat of the season. One could argue that planting hostas in woodland shade is the "not natural" part.
I'm all for trying out new ideas when I stumble upon one.
I'm certainly not for an argument either and don't intent to, I have much more important things to do than discussing stepping on plants, but rossizing has nothing to do with "stomping" on hostas. This is propagation and stepping on them is not "propagating". It's essentially cheating nature. As someone else stated, it's robbing Peter to pay Paul. I know it doesn't kill them but it does set them back as they try to "regroup" from the damage that was inflicted upon them. Hostas do have their backup plan as as you stated, secondary buds but they are wasting energy & nutrients trying to fix the damage instead of putting out leaf growth to begin there season. Now while they are dormant, that might be a different story but I have no idea and aren't willing to risk my hostas in the process of experimentation.
I think most realize that stepping on them isn't the smartest thing to do. But if someone wants to play backyard scientist, by all means. Have at it.
I think you just nailed it on the head...
back yard scientist! LOL!
racing boys...what is your thought on the best way to divide, if the plantsa re maturing and need more space?
should you just transplant the whole plant? or is lifting and dividing with a shovel as i have traditionally done to my hostas every few years ok?
i think you have expressed some good thoughts. i appreciate my hostas, but take them for granted. some of mine have overgrown the space i allotted and i want my big blues to have ample space to expand.
the likelihood i would do anything requiring bending over or kneeling on ground is unlikely...i centainly could but prefer standing and using a small shovel. and i usually do the task when the ground is very wet, whcih makes it easier and i think helps the host re-establish and establish for the piece i remove and transplant to a new area.
Pirl has a very good explanation above:
""To divide hostas I simply use a very strong knife and cut out (like a piece of pie) the chunk I want removed and lift that. Compost goes into the vacancy and a jug of water.""
Personally, I don't dig up the whole thing to divide unless you are going to move the whole plant somewhere else.
If it is still in the ground completely, use a shovel where you want to divide and push it down quickly to "slice" it. Then using the shovel, dig & lift out the division. This way, you don't disturb the entire plant. Put compost and soil back around the plant you cut from and water well. It is perfectly fine. It will continue to give you more babies every year just like it always has.
What you have done in the past is ok too, just more work and stresses the plant a little. If you dig up just the section you want to take, it's a lot less work for you and the plant.
It's also easier to do this in the spring when the eyes are just coming up where you can see exactly what you are doing and leaves won't be in the way. But you can still divide whenever you want with the exception of maybe full blast summer time. That is a stressful time for hostas or any other plant.
Ditto!
Pirl, your Love Pat is gorgeous! Is it a slow grower for you?
Yes, it's a slow grower. It's now about 15 years old.
I read somewhere it was slow, but wow. lol
It's a beauty for sure!
thanks. i haven't divided the hostas in a couple of years. will use more care this year, with the shovel method and try not to disturb the plant. the ones that need to be moved entirely will obviously have trauma to each piece.
thanks again
they are hardy little things, they will be fine.
And your welcome! ☺