I LOVE my Great Ex.!!!!!

[rufie98]

I am a new hosta lover. I did not know that Great Expectations had a reputation as being a difficult hosta to grow. I would like to share a picture of my hosta and let you know what I did to be successful with this hosta. First of all, I had the hosta for approximately five years, and it grew, but ever so slowly. After five years, I divided it (left part of it in the same place and the other part went in a pot). I used a moisture control, good potting mix. And I couldn't believe my eyes! I watched this beauty unfold to my delight. That was last year. It did its magic all over again this year (left in the same potting mix). It's my pride and joy, and this hosta is responsible for me becoming a hosta lover!!! With anyone having difficulty growing this beauty, please refer to "Great Expectations . . . .?" in this hosta forum. It was a discussion at the end of April 2011. There is a lot of great advice there. Good Luck!

[Linda P]

A well grown nGreat Expectations is hard to beat! Congrats on finding just the right conditions for yours.
It's a beauty!

[rosemarie]

OMG, that is gorgeous!! I have tried GE twice, the first one, died a horrible death early, the second one I had in a pot and it was doing fine , put it in the ground, and I have no clue what happened to it! But I have a large pot on my deck on my south side. I just might give it another try. I do love that Hosta!!!

[wendys_garden]

You've got a beautiful GE there! I had heard that if you grow your GE in a pot for it's first couple of years, it grows better. I think it likes to have it's roots confined.

[Tigger]

Gr8 job with your Gr8 X!

David

[thy]

Yours is lovely
mine have, after a very slow start, been lovely until this year. Not really sure what went wrong, the dry and hot spring or the cold and rainy summer. It may have lacked water both periodes or just the one of them, I know I often forget my potted ones in rainy days, but the other big potted hostas seems fine, so maybe it just wanted to change its habbit

Think and hope it will come back full size next year

Pia

[LucyGoose]

Just Beautiful!!!

[Mark Raw]

Ages ago my Ge just got smaller and smaller until I couldn't stand to see it struggle any more, went in the bin. Am having slight luck with Dream queen at the moment but it's a single eye and think I have done well to get it back a second year.

[rufie98]

Thank you all for your compliments. It will be a sad day when I find this GE struggling or declining. This GE was divided two years ago, with this one going into a pot and the other part remaining in the soil. Yesterday I removed the hosta that was in the soil. I had planned to divide it into two plants, but then found some foreign roots entangled into it and ended up with four plants---three have one eye each and other other two eyes. Having experienced how slow this plant grows, I am wondering how long these divisions are going to take to grow to a nice size---a long time I think. I will keep each one in pots for now and hope that they will survive the winter. In regards to previous forum discussions I have noted that: (1) GE seems to like growing in pots that are not too large, (2) needs ample water, (3) should not be planted too deep and (4) a good amount of sun. So that's what I will be aiming for.

Since I am a "newbie," I have begun to purchase a lot of hostas! My husband wants to know where I am going to put them all! I am not sure, but I am loving it.
My favorite hosta so far is GE, but last year I got an Earth Angel and didn't think it looked that great. But this year, I am loving it too---2nd favorite so far.

[rufie98]

I forgot to say that since I love GE so much, I thought I ought to get Dream Queen, Dream Weaver or Thunderbolt. I thought they were supposed to grow faster??? I almost picked up a Thunderbolt at a reputable garden nursery but stifled myself since I have purchased so many recently. Next time I went back to the garden nursery, they were all gone. I guess, now the temptation is removed---darn. I think it has the possibility of being another favorite of mine. It stays on my list of must haves.

[thy]

Think the sun is the keyword for it and it is the only thing that give sence with mine, a bush have grown bigger and provide soome afternoon shade. When it went to the pot it was all for giving it all the sun I could give it in my latitude

[hostadom]

Morning sun and lots of water have worked wonders for my GE. I'm finding it to have a fairly decent growth rate when it's happy.

[jgh]

OK... I'll post a little more evidence that GE isn't always a tough one to grow. All three of these were started from tissue culture babies I plopped right into garden soil... no pots, no babying...

My oldest one - something happened to this part of my bed... maybe something affecting the roots. I originally attributed it to the nearly silver maple, but its been several years since I cut it down and it has never recovered... it used to be about 4' in diameter... the Rogersia leaf gives you some idea of its dwarf status.








This one was moved here about 5 years ago and seems to like the spot. It has been much larger, but I removed a bunch of blue sport last year and, as you can see, didn't get it all. BTW - notice how tall that blue sport is on the back of the plant. Might just be the growing conditions, but I've never seen Elegans tower like that...











Officially, this isn't Great Ex... it is Great American Expectations - supposed to be a faster, easier GE. I never saw any difference. Sure is a nice plant, though. and BTW - these are pictures taken in MAY... in MINNESOTA... crazy early!

[redcrx]

Here is my Great Expectations just above and to the right of Paradise Expectations. They are the same age. Mine needs more sun - if they were switched around it would look better.

[ogrefcf]

Jim, just wow! That's all I can say.

[rosemarie]

I am going to try GE again in a pot, on my deck, facing south; morning sun and we will see.After seeing all these gorgeous pix,I just had to give it another go! NOw all I have to do is find the x%&*connecting cord to my camera. (Supply your own cuss word!! I am a great grand-mother and I know a few!!! )

[Phil]

Wow! There are some beautiful photos in this thread!

[rufie98]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and pictures. Jim, your pictures are wonderful and I LOVE the detail you are able to capture with your camera. I was not aware of a Great American Expectations. Does look the same.

Since I have divided the other half of my original GE, I think I will try a little experiment---pot 2 and plant 2. Then I can get an idea of which growing area it seems to prefer. Last year I picked up a small blue hosta (don't know its name) and decided to divide it up in late summer. That was my first time to divide eachand every eye singly. Four single eyes went into the ground and four went into pots with good growing medium. Come spring, the ones in the pots won---grew 3-4 eyes next year compared to 1-2 eyes for the ones in the ground. Not quite an equal comparison since I am sure the soil was much better in the pot, but it was fun to see what happened. Now I can do the same with GE. My guess is that if they all survive, I probably will end up with one eye on all counts due to its slow growth---just a stronger eye.

[boops]

What a beauty-makes me want to try it. We'll see.

[rufie98]

Hi Chris. It has come to my attention that my photo (the first one in this thread) is being used on multiple websites to sell this hosta. Can you remove the photo, or at least shrink it to a smaller size so it will not be repeatedly used without my permission?