Re: what affects hosta growth

Hi Jennifer, your reference to slugs is what got my attention!  I can 
hardly believe it, but here in the western North Carolina mountains we 
have absolutely no slug damage, and have never had any in the 14 years 
we have been here.  We have low humidity most of the time even though it 
rains (heavy) at least once per week. We have over 1000 different 
hostas, and heaven only knows how many individual plants. There are many 
clumps over 4' wide and one almost 6'. Visitors (mostly hosta buyers) 
are simply stunned at the sight. However, even in this apparent hosta 
paradise, there are some that just don't grow well here. It would be 
nice if someone could, at last, find out why. Good luck to all,
John Lanier

-- 
MissVitro Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory
John and Laura Lanier
jlanier@yancey.main.nc.us
81 Summer Trees Lane
Burnsville NC  28714
Ph. (828) 682-4174



Jennifer A. Bishop wrote:

>At 08:31 PM 06/14/2004 -0400, Mary wrote:
>  
>
>>The only reason that I began my hybridizing program was that I wanted
>>something that would grow in the south. Many plants just will not survive
>>here. In one way it was fun to find that once I have something that grows
>>here it grows even better in the north but the  other side is when I go
>>north and see the size of my plants there I feel like crying when I return
>>home. At that time I stop to be thankful that we can enjoy what we have.
>>Mary
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Mary,
>
>I live in Manitoba Canada where we can get -40 and often times without
>snow cover early in the season, and then we get terrible springs with
>thawing and then hard freezes again, our summers can be very hot for
>long periods of time and dry beyond believe for a 2 or 3 weeks at a
>time.  My growing season is only about 105 frost free days give or take.
>This year we had 20cm of snow on May 13th and the hosta had already
>started to come out of the ground and some had unfurled already
>(because we had some nice weather in April and the first week
>of may). We have not had more than a half a dozen days since May 9th 
>where the temperatures have gone above 22 deg cel and those have not
>been all in a row.
>
>I tell you these things about my extreme growing conditions so that
>I might relay to you that your hosta are some of the best growing
>hosta I have in my garden. I am fortunate enough to have about
>20 of your named hosta and I added about 5 small new ones this
>year.  They are absolutely beautiful, they almost glow right now 
>and because it gets so cool still at night we have almost no slug
>activity yet so they are almost pristine in appearance. 
> 
>Over the years Total strangers have come off the street and walked
>through my  hosta beds and without fail  if I see them and go to talk to them
>they will always point to one of yours and ask how I get them that large and how
>beautiful they are.  
>
>Thank you.
>
>Best Regards,
>
>Jennifer Bishop
>Zone 2 (maybe 3)
>Winnipeg, MB CA
>
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