I just moved into a home with all kinds of beautiful landscaping...?

Question

There are hostas planted on either side of a walkway, and the hostas have grown so large that the walkway is now shrinking to almost nothing. I know absolutely nothing about gardening and I am wondering how I can cut these back properly without digging it up completely..Any advice??

Answer 1

Cutting back the leaves will NOT help you with your problem. The plants will only be bigger next year.

Answer 2

If you cut the leaves back some it wouldn't hurt the plant.  The best way to do it would be to cut carefully with garden shears - tedious. A weed whacker would make a mess probably.  In the spring when the hostas are just poking up you could move them back from the walk.  That would be a good time to divide them up and spread them around the yard or give some to your friends.  They are easily divided just by cutting into them with a shovel.  You can divide them into small clumps or large.  They are very forgiving.

Answer 3

Th reason they are so big is because the roots are big and probably never been divided.  They need to be divided to make the plants smaller.  Common issue with hostas.

Answer 4

Hello Jaime,

Congratulations on your new home !

It sounds like your Hosta plants need to be "thinned" out .

Here is an option to "thinning" your Hostas until Spring  :

The easiest thing to do,is to remove some of the foliage stems from the outer edges of the whole plant ie;  the front and back sides of the plant .

To do so, use pruning shears or manual hedge trimmers and cut the whole foliage stem back to 1"or 2" above the soil .

NOTE: If the Hostas have other plants that are planted directly behind them,then there is no need to cut back the Hosta foliage  on the backside of the plant.

Thinning is best done in the Spring,and the correct way to thin,is to dig up the plant and divide.

See link at the bottom.

Since you're a beginner gardener,"thinning" may seem like an intimidating task .

Don't worry,it isn't difficult at all,but it is time consuming.

After your finished thinning ,you'll have a lot of extra plants for propagating !!

Don't throw them away,instead,offer them to family,friends,neighbors or freecycle them on your local freecycle Yahoo Group . :-)

I do landscape design for my neighbors, friends and family.

If you have more questions,feel free to email me, at [e-mail]

Happy Gardening !

Regards,

Martha

Answer 5

Hostas are very hardy and they need to be split every 4 to 5 years.  Hostas grow from a tough root mass and can easily be split up into different plants.  Wait till very early winter or early spring after all leaves have died.  Take a shovel and split the root system.  You can either dig up the whole plant then take a machete to it or just cut the whole plant in the ground with a shovel.  replant the part you cut off into another area but the remaining plant will be smaller.  Repeat when the plant gets too big again.  Hostas are tough so do not be afraid to get physical with it.  You can even put the parts you split into pots and resell them  Just make sure you water them back into the ground when you are finished.  You can also divide the plants when alive and growing too but it is not as easy to cut

Answer 6

Don't worry about cutting back the hostas-they'll die back naturally over the next few weeks.Being perennials

growth will restart next spring and the cycle continue.