Putting Hosta to Bed for the Winter

[andy10917]

If you're like me, the Hosta is uber-ugly right now as they shut down for the Winter.

But what you do now will affect how all of next year goes. Here's a few pieces of advice:

- don't cut them to the ground just because they went to an ugly yellow. They're sucking the food/nutrients back to the roots for storage. Wait until they are laying on the ground and completely brown.

- THEN remove the foliage completely from the area - don't leave them in place as OM. Especially if you had nematode damage (yellow streaks running along the length of the leaves) after mid-summer, leaving the leaves on the soil gives the nematodes a place to overwinter. Hot-compost them or get rid of them.

[mattya]

Good information, thanks Andy. I've been wondering what to do with the few hostas I have.

[xapabwa]

Mine are starting to yellow - such a sad sight. I don't leave my leaves lying around over the winter, but I do usually leave one of the scape stalks in place so I don't trample them when I'm doing winter and spring clean up.

Any disease/insect issues with leaving one spape in place?

[andy10917]

No, not really. The only problem is that if a lot of the foliage is left on the ground, the nematode population can overwinter and the cycle will repeat next year. Since there are no legal nematicides any more, the only defense is good cultural habits.

[andy10917]

Since it's that time when we're all tempted to remove all of the foliage from plants that are getting yellow and ugly, I figured I'd wake up this thread. It's specific about my beloved Hostas, but applies to many perennials that draw nutrients back to the roots for storage for next Spring. It can be a bad practice to remove the foliage before the plant completely collapses...

[HoosierDaddy]

Thank you for putting this in writing so I can show it to my wife!

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