Hallson Gardens

My LBS is much smaller than ventricosa and the leaf is wider, more heart shaped. Both are nice and dark, with a satiny sheen - LBS seems darker, but this may be due to location differences. As with many smaller hostas with smaller root systems, LBS seems more finicky than the species: one of mine di...

Andromeda 2013-S.jpg This is my unique 2008 seedling of Spilt Milk. It's a small hosta with very thick, tough leaves, as yet unregistered. I showed it here in 2010: https://www.perennialreference.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=53627&p=466976&hilit=andromeda#p466976 You can see its leaves have widen...

With three of us at home and 15 non-hosta people living in homes adjacent to mine, I'll leave the planet with 54! And I'll share.

My approach to areas I want to defoliate is to pull/trim the growth down, lay down a few layers of newspaper or a single layer brown paper composting bags, and then a couple of inches of compost (or bark mulch) on that. The paper layer acts as a decent biodegradable barrier. Without light, most weed...

Ah, the name? easy one, a little astronomical allusion to the connection between our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and the nearest one just like it, which is the spiral galaxy Andromeda. In Greek mythology, the Milky Way was the result of the goddess Hera's spilt milk...

Well, the pod parent is definitely Spilt Milk, but as I don't keep record of my hand-pollination exercises, there's no telling the pollen parent. Might have been natural/aka bumblebee, or my own undocumented efforts. But it's a good grower, has several eyes already, and I'm looking forward to seeing...

Here's one of my more interesting seedlings from 2008. As you can surmise from the handle of the plastic knife/label, it's quite a little one. The pod parent is Spilt Milk.

Interesting. My TOC had developed an all-blue eye last spring, so I separated it off, and gave it a different name (Class Act), as I had no idea the all-blue version had already been named. My Bulletproof Class Act :wink: has two eyes this year, one all blue, one the typical TOC. I'm inclined to lea...

Hmmm, this is only the 2nd spring for my very young Mountain Snow. Although it IS on the north side of a big blue fir, everything else in its vicinity has been above ground a week or (much) more. My On Stage is in a much sunnier spot, and showed its mettle a couple of days sooner. To tell the truth,...

Oh yes, of course! With limited garden space, it's inevitable. I treat my neighbours to my castoffs; gave a Komodo Dragon and two Wide Brims to my neighbour, and we're both very happy, as they're outside his fence line, and I can see and enjoy them too. It sort of extends my own garden space (shhhhh...

Found one tiny pip of Mountain Snow just poking out of the ground yesterday, and that makes my garden officially awake!

Um. Yeah, I guess it is. Diatomaceous earth (aka cristoballite, aka amorphous silica) is listed as one of the ingredients on my bag of "swimming pool filter powder", the other being crystalline silica, aka, ordinary quartz sand. I think the sand is included to prevent accusations of false advertisin...

Hi, Ann! We MUST get together once everything unfurls! Loads of my OP seedlings are cropping up all over the place, including a wonderful little striped Spilt Milk baby. I found five tiny pips poking through the earth yesterday - On Stage is officially awake! Mountain Snow is still sleeping, though....

My Mountain Snow & On Stage are still underground. Everything else is up - some, in the shadiest, coolest, darkest reaches of the garden still low and tightly furled, but neither of these come-latelies are in these locations. I'll be happy to see them awaken!

I use diatomite; I get it in 25-lb bags from a pool supply store. This is the best time of the year to apply it, when the hosta eyes are already above ground but the leaves not yet unfurled (mostly, in my garden). I put liberal amounts of it on and around the crown. Diatomite has strictly physical d...

Aristocrat, tattered?! never. Are you sure you don't have Wide Brim or another of the lookalikes? Aristocrat is a cast iron plant, not the fastest or largest grower, but always gorgeous till the bitter end of summer, except for the occasional rabbit-predated leaf. Honestly, I'm as surprised as the r...

Another hand up for "yes, fertile". Mine sets seed easily and these have produced a number of interesting (very thick-leaved, not necessarily very large) seedlings. Give it a try!

Fortunei Aurea is quite a striking albescent gold, with a light dusting of bloom on it, good corrugation, and relatively slow growth. It's definitely not a smallish green fast grower like your mystery "Hummies' Delight". Regretfully, I can't offer you a better name possibility.

Believe it or not, my whole garden is still looking darn good. I took a spin round it yesterday, and it seems that the shutting down is much postponed in comparison with previous years, probably thanks to our very wet and relatively cool July. Raspberry Sorbet & Plantaginea are still in bloom, as is...

As far as 'fessing up goes, I trim my hostas year-round. I have a scourge of rabbits in my neighbourhood, and they love to snack on young hosta leaves and later in the season on hosta blooms. So I do what I can to remove the leaves with big bites gouged out, and the chopped in half scapes. Many's an...