Remember hosta loves water. So, put it in a location where you can get
plenty of water...or licks. Thanks Paisley. In this video I'm gonna show you how to grow
huge hosta and other plants. I'm gonna show you the tips and tricks that
I use to get great results in everyone of my gardens and plantings. As many of you know, I love to do plantings,
cuttings, flower beds and things of that nature and I'm going to show you how I get the best
results. Tip # 1 should go without saying. Make sure you start off with a healthy plant. Tip # 2, start of with a good growing medium,
and I'm going to show you that now. So, one thing that I found here in Georgia,
and it will apply to other locals is growing medium. Personally, I like to use what they call here
at the local suppliers, soil conditioner. Now, all this is pretty much is ground up
pine bark, mulch, ground up pine. Its not much more than bark thats been ground
to a fine grind. Now this has been sitting in my pile for a
while, so its probably broke down a lot more than what you will see when you get it. But, I'm telling you this stuff breaks up
soils amazingly. If you've got a clay soil or a compacted soil,
this stuff will break up that soil and keep it from hardening up like concrete. And, I just use, you know for a little 1 gallon
container of hosta or a quart container of hosta, I just use another quart just like
it and mix it in the hole. I dig the hole a couple or 3 times bigger
than the hosta plant itself, mix this stuff in accordingly and I go by look and feel. I don't stick with a certain proportion, formula,
ratio, algorithm whatever. I just mix it as I see fit. I want that clay soil to be broke up as deep
as I can get. That's my biggest tip to start your plant
is use a good growing medium, break up that soil. Even if you have good clean dirt, the hosta
roots will not survive if they are choked out with no oxygen. They've got to breath. Now, when I say oxygen, I don't mean a huge
air gap in the hole, I just mean the soil has got to be able to let the roots get the
moisture, the nutrients, the oxygen it needs to grow well. We got to break those soils up with something
organic. Tip # 3, Plant Food. I use Miracle-Gro all purpose plant food. We find this stuff at the dollar store super
cheap throughout the year so, i buy as much as I can get. I do plant food every 2, probably every 2
weeks. I dose the plants as much as possible with
plant food. So, in another video I've heard of using Milorganite
to start off feeding your hostas early in the season. Now, you can check out the video below, its
from Funky Gardens. He does a great job explaining how to propagate
hosta, how to divide hosta, and how to feed and start your hosta. And I can testify, his results and my results
are pretty much the same. I have not tried the Milorganite in my garden
but I plan on doing it next year. But, you can see this hosta behind me is absolutely
huge and I just use Miracle-Gro. Once I start seeing the buds come up above
the ground I start using the Miracle-gro and I feed it regularly. Another thing that doesn't get discussed enough
when it comes to hosta is placement and location in your garden. As you can see right here, the sun hits about
halfway down the middle of this hosta and right now we are still early in the day. But it gets part shade to part sun for most
of the day. It does absolutely great. During the hotter part of the year, it does
show a little bit of discoloration around the edge of the leaves where it gets too much
sun and too much heat. But, it absolutely performs great and grows
like nobody's business. So, make sure you pick out a good location. Find out what your directions say, and find
out what your local nursery suggestions are for where you should plant your hosta in your
garden. Well, you are thinking, how much should I
water my hosta. Remember, a hosta loves water. So, put it in a location where you are going
to get plenty of water or licks. Thanks Paisley! So, for reference this hosta we purchased
back in 2007 at a nursery in Winston Ga. and it was in a little quart container and we
put it in our yard at our old house with heavy clay soil. And, it didn't do so hot. So, my wife being the plant murder she is,
pulled it out of the ground and put it in a pot. And believe it or not this thing took off. I'm going to show you a picture here what
it looked like when we first planted it in this yard. The plant took off. I took the plant out of the pot and put it
in the ground here and this picture right here shows what it looked like when we first
planted it. And we started miracle-gro on it this year
and this thing has absolutely doubled in size. That is the same rock sitting inside of it. It may have even tippled in size. This is probably the only plant that my wife
has ever had that survived the apocalypse that is known as my wife when it comes to
plant. But, I got it in the ground and it is doing
great. This hosta right here was literally 2 leaves
last year. My cousins daughter pulled it out of the ground
and nothing left but this right here, but look at how good this thing looks now. We are miracle-gro 'ing it the same way. Look at that, it is just shooting up. There is another hosta that we just purchased
from Home Depot and it is doing wonderful. Already blooming. Look at the blooms on that thing. This is the first season, literally it has
only been in the ground maybe a month. And I actually dug a sport off of the main
hosta, the big hosta here. I dug this off of there and planted it just
to see how it would do. I wanted to see how it would react with me
just cutting a small piece off and sticking it in the ground and you can see what it is
doing. Yeah, that leaf right there looks terrible,
but it already has a couple of new leaf growths down here. My wife didn't want me splitting her big hosta,
so I am trying to get my own large mound of hosta here so I can divide and conquer the
rest of this flower bed. Growing hosta can be fun. Remember these few simple tricks you can have
a blast growing these huge, huge hosta. Remember, plant medium, plant food, amount
of sunlight, and water and you too will have a healthy happy hosta plant.
