Empress Wu

I have always bought established plants when I buy my hostas, but the year that Empress Wu came to my attention, the limited number of plants made them extremely expensive and since none of my local nurseries had them anyway, I decided to mail-order a starter plant. I knew just enough about "starter plants" to not allow myself to get my hopes up too high, and sure enough when the small box arrived holding not one, but two of my precious new plants... they had only two leaves which were about the size of a tablespoon. For three summers I have watched my Empress's increase in size. They now equal or surpass Sum and Substance in leaf size and surpass any of the plants in height. While I still won't buy many starter plants, as I like instant gratification much better, I have drawn a lot of satisfaction watching the Empress grow from something easily stepped on or pulled out as a weed, to a plant which is claiming more and more presence in my garden.