H. 'Red October'

No self-respecting Hostaholic can resist a sale, like the one I saw the July 4th/09 weekend at our neighbourhood 'boutique nursery'. All their seasonal stock was on sale and I had to show great restraint. This 'Red October' however did come home with me, as did only one other Hosta, 'Lakeside Down Sized'. As you can tell, this pot was well-packed and will end up getting divided.

Look at this MASSIVE root mass, when I said the pot was filled I had an inkling of what to expect, but no this! There were so many knotted roots that I had a hard time washing away sufficient potting media to get a better look at where to make the cuts in the crown.

Eventually, after what seemed took like 15 minutes or more, there was sufficient exposure of the root mass structure to allow me to make a few cuts with my trusty old carving knife. First I more or less cut the crown in half and then took one of those two and cut it in half again.

So, I ended up with 3 multi-shoot plants, 2 in #1 pots and 1 in a 2 gallon one. They'll probably look a little floppy for the rest of the year, but that doesn't bother me. You might say I ended up with 3 for the price of one, AND, it was on sale to boot!