Buying hostas -- where?

[TheOscarGuy]

I am new to Hostas. Last year we bought 5 plants from Home Depot and planted them. They seemed like they would shrivel and die -- we also had deer eat the plant leaves and I was sure that they were a goner.
This year the plants have come back to life, with more leaves than I remember from last year. I love their look and can not wait for them to get older.
We have another area in our yard, top of the slope, where there is plenty of shade (though it does get some morning sun). I would like to plant Hostas there. I am a little confused as to where to source them from. I found from these forums an online vendor:

http://www.gilberthwild.com/Hosta-25-Mi ... fo/O%2D25/

and was thinking of getting 25 mixed hosta plants from here. But my wife pointed me that Home Depot typically carried plants that are $3.50 per plant. Her reasoning was that we can look and see the plants we are buying (from HD/lowes) and the price seems reasonable, why not buy it from local HD rather than online vendor.

Price wise I don't see much difference -- $50 for 25 plants from Gilbert H Wild and $10 for shipping takes it to $60 for 25 plants. HD is still costly but not by that much, and all of this under the assumption that both plants are similar in size.

Am I missing something here? My goal is obviously to have a dense, fully grown foliage from plants I buy as soon as possible. To me, there does not seem to be much difference in plants I am getting -- can someone school me if I am making a mistake buying it from HD and not from Gilbert? Is there sizing difference between these two? Quality? I am easy to please, and I like the ones I got from HD last year. I thought I will mention that again, I am not a Hosta expert!

I can not see HD plants online, but lowes has something comparable here:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_51130-33652-NUR ... &Ntt=hosta

to give an idea of what I can get from local HD/lowes, vs Gilbert which is posted on their website.

[andy10917]

If you need the instant gratification, by all means buy the HD stuff. The Gilbert Wild stuff with come as shriveled roots, 10 to a bag. I love them, but they take time and effort to take off. I buy them 100 at a time ($1 each). They pay me back with better growth in Year 2, and I have never had a Hosta with Hosta Virus X, but I've seen them at the Big Box stores.

[TheOscarGuy]

Are they bigger than what you get at local stores?

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[andy10917]

What you get in the mail is a bag of roots. In the bag are dried-up, shriveled roots (and nothing more) that you are 100% sure are 100% dead. The roots for one plant weigh less than an ounce.



Want to see how a bed of 223 of them happens? Read Creating Hosta Bed #214.

Here's a discussion of the same bed at Age 4: More on Hosta Bed 214

[TheOscarGuy]

So there isn't any difference in size then?
That is my primary goal - fastest growth to fully grown plant in next two three years.

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[TheOscarGuy]

Ordered 25 from the bunch variety (mixed) and 5 giant ones. I simply could not find Giants in box stores and had to have them as well after seeing pictures and videos online.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[TheOscarGuy]

Got the hostas yesterday. The larger variety of hostas were small plants and the smaller onces are roots. They gave me extra variety as well, and its marked which type it is so thats nice. Planted the large ones today and plan to do the small once in the evening or tomorrow.
I will update this post with pics. on their progress.

[andy10917]

The "giants" are tissue-culture plants and will take several years to reach "giant" status. It is likely that the root plants will be larger this year.

[TheOscarGuy]

The "giants" are tissue-culture plants and will take several years to reach "giant" status. It is likely that the root plants will be larger this year.

Good to know.
The free one is a root plant as well, so that should also grow quicker this year.
I am seeing more and more opportunities of planting hostas everywhere! Yesterday I suggested we rip out some turf and grow Hostas there simply because its right by our driveway and would look pretty as you enter. The wife shot down the idea.