Gigantism, year of the giant, something in the water?

[HostaDesigner]

I have several plants around the yard that are enormous. Just huge. I've had big plants before, but these take the cake. I'm 5' 11" for comparison. My apologies for enduring my scary mug.

Big lily.


Sword Fern (?) next to Dawn's Early Light. Last year, this fern was only about 2 feet. It's pushing 4 1/2 feet this year. Weird.


Nearly 6 foot crocosmia?? Something ate it's Wheaties this year.


A sea of huge hostas. Ok, I admit. I'm kneeling.


A 7 1/2 foot Conca d'Or lily. Wowza.

[JaneG]

Wow, those are BIG!!! But I'm most worried seeing your "Dawn's Early Light" . . . definitely gotta move mine if that's what it's going to do!!

Whatever you are doing, keep it up. It's working!!

[steg]

Awesome......

[renaldo75]

Cool!! I had a Casa Blanca lily that was about 6 feet tall several years ago. It's never been close to that since. And last year we had more rain than previous years & it was maybe 3 feet tall.

[eastwood2007]

Wow! Amazing!

Things are growing really well here this year, too. Sometimes it seems that the same things are happening all around the country and even around the world at the same time. I remember in 2007 that alot of people had hostas emerging too early. I even remember Pia talking about chicken grit to keep them covered up and slow them down.

Something this year, is I've heard alot of folks say (at least 3 besides me) their hostas were lush and green then when the hot weather hit they got sun scorched.

Does anyone else here have either of these same things happening? I would be curious...

BTW, hostadesigner, I'm thrilled to see your mug! Thanks for sharing the pics. Your gardens look beautiful.

[newtohosta-no more]

Those are some pretty impressive plants! The pic with you kneeling by the hostas make it look like they are going to eat you up!

[jgh]

yup... things are big here too...

and Charla, the burn you mention is also something I am experiencing here and heard from other folks in various areas. Mine primarily affects older foliage which supports the contention that the plants as a whole benefited from a cool spring, but some of the foliage was damaged by late cold snaps and by our drought - and the damage really started to show after some hot weather hit.

[govgirl75]

Same here. I have a couple August Moon with scorch. They are in the same place they have been all along and have never done that before.
A number of my perennials are blooming early and are quite large.
The corn here is also huge. The rule of thumb as I learned it as a kid was corn was supposed to be knee high by the 4th of July. It was chest high and is now taller than I am. If we don't drought, we will have corn early this year.

[Spider]

Weren't you guys all complaining about an unusually cold or snowy winter? Wouldn't that have something to do with it? Then you guys had a lot of rain this spring.

[flowerchild59]

Great to see pics of you and of your beautiful gardens. I love the pic of you kneeling, what an awesome bed of hostas.

[Chris_W]

I was thinking the same thing as Spider - might have been the long, unusually snowy winter. Love that sea of hostas too, and those lilies are amazing.

Can we get you to smile next time maybe?

Thanks for sharing

Chris

[renaldo75]

That old saying about field corn 'knee high by the 4th of July' was true for the old varieties, but it hasn't been for years with the newer hybrids. Most of the corn in my area was already tall & tasselling shortly after the 4th.

[jgh]

yup... even here in the North the saying changed from "knee high..." to "waist high..." and with the latest hybrids, they are going for "Shoulder high by the Fourth of July."

[morgansrgr8]

This is a crazy year. I have a purple cone flower plant taller than I am. And I just put it there last year. I saved it from being destroyed when they started stip mining coal just down the street. I guess its showing its appreciation.

[redcrx]

I have a white phlox on the south side of my house that is about 6 and a half feet tall. Normally 5 feet is tall for them. But I have many others that are normal height.

[govgirl75]

I did not realize that corn hybrids produced faster growth and significantly earlier harvest. I live in the midst of several farms that produce feed corn and it is unusual for them to be chest high so early. And I had not noticed that local corn has been available any earlier than the it was 20 years ago when I was canning it for the family. I will say the corn is much sweeter and holds it's sweetness longer than back then, though. At any rate, it was bigger this year than it normally is.
Glo