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In the North,
you should be able to plant hostas through October, in the South, through
November. Obviously it depends on the weather, so we're not going to
give you a specific date to stop planting. We think that most advice
on how late to plant is rather conservative, which is fine. Sometimes
it's better to be safe, especially when you are advising others.
Fall is about
the only time I have to plant, so I generally carry it to the extreme and go
almost until the ground freezes. I find that nearly all of the winter
losses I have are due to voles. I suspect that when a vole is deciding
which of your hostas to eat, it really doesn't care when you planted it.
Most important
is that you plant in well drained soil and make sure that the plants are not
dry going into winter dormancy. Obviously the weather is different
each year, and I don't pretend to know the last safe planting date for every
nook and cranny of the country, but I would think that planting through
October is safe in all but the coldest areas of the North, and of course,
the further South you go the later you can plant safely. Generally, we
stop shipping towards the end of November.
The advantage to
ordering plants in the fall is that you will generally have significantly
larger plants next year than if you wait until next spring to plant.
We propagate constantly, but the plants you receive in the fall usually are
a full growing season older than those shipped in the spring. Since
they multiply over the winter, you get the year's increase instead of us.
I would probably
be more conservative in planting the smaller varieties late in the year,
especially in the North where the ground heaves during the winter.
Their small root systems are much more vulnerable to damage than the larger
varieties and they may not make it through a harsh winter if planted late.
Our plants start
going dormant here in October, depending on the nighttime temps and the
variety, so at some point, the plants we ship are not going to have any
leaves, and if they do have leaves, they're going to look pretty awful.
Just remember that pretty soon the plants in your garden are not going to be
very pretty either. That's the way hostas work and it's nothing to
panic about. Just plant with the rhizome and dormant eyes at about the
same depth they were in the pot, or maybe a little deeper, water them in and
leave them be until spring.
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