Zilis Talk this weekend

[greenguy]

ok you brought it up - books?

[steg]

Books....not his (yet)

The books were a history lesson from the first book about hostas through the currently available ones (again, not his newest). It was interesting to hear the beginning books describe anywhere from 9 to 40 hosta varieties - wow have things changed.

One he particularly like:

Eunice Fisher - Hostas: The Aristocratic Plants for Shady Gardens

His is still looking like fall, hopefully september.

~7500 Described, 9 x 12 book, 7.5 lbs ---> not a pocket guide

[DBoweMD]

He mentioned it will be about 1000 pages.

[greenguy]

can anyone list his favorite hostas?

i think i have his list at home of his favorites from the last time he was there

[DBoweMD]

From The talk June 21-22 2008
31 hostas every collector should own:
Blue Angel
Blue Mammoth
Dorset Blue
Fragrant Bouquet
Frosted Jade
Gold Standard
Golden Tiara
Green Piecrust
Halcyon
June
Krossa Regal
Liberty
Montana Aureomarginata
Night Before Christmas
Olive Bailey Langdon
Patriot
Paul's Glory
Piedmont Gold
Pizzazz
Plantaginea
Aphrodite
Sagae
Spring Fling
Stained Glass
Sum and Substance
Summer Breeze
Sun Power
Tokudama
Tokudama Aureonebulosa
Tokudama Flavocircinalis
Victory

[DBoweMD]

Next List from same talk
"25 more Hostas to own:
All That Jazz
American Sweetheart
Blue Hawaii
Blue Mouse Ears
Corkscrew
Cracker Crumbs
Day's End
Frosted Mouse Ears
Gay Blade
Great Expectations
Hanky Panky
Key West
Niagara Falls
One Man's Treasure
Orange Marmalade
Pineapple Upsidedown Cake
Powder Blue
Rainbow's End
Rainforest Sunrise
Silver Bay
Striptease
Ulysses S. Grant
Whirlwind
Winsome
Woodland Elf

[DBoweMD]

NEXT LIST, same talk
25 Underrated hostas:
Aztec Treasure
Blaze of Glory
Border Bandit
Brave Amherst
Cascades
Crested Reef
El Capitan
Eventide
Flapjack
Gay Blade
Ginbuchi Tachi
Heart's Content
Kinbuchi Tachi
Lemonade
Mount Tom
Muriel Seaver Brown
Nancy Gill
Regal Ruffles
Sea Blue
Sea Lotus Leaf
Shirley Vaughn
Silver Lode
Spinach Patch
Ventricosa Aureomarginata
Zager's Pride

[DBoweMD]

Hostas to avoid:

"Virus Infected"
Break Dance
Leopard Frog
Lunacy
Panda Bear
Walden
Watercolours

"Sawtooth Edge"
Brim Cup
Lakeside Beloved
Lakeside Kaleidoscope
Knockout
Snow Cap
Sugar Daddy

"Drawstring margin"
Creme de Menthe
Evening Magic
Exotic Frances Williams
Fair Maiden
Hoosier Homecoming
Lunar Eclipse
Northern Halo (some selections)
Nutty Husband
Winning Edge

"Spring Dessication Burn"
Golden Sunburst
Borwick Beauty
DuPage Delight
Frances Williams
Golden Nugget
Midwest Gold
Samurai
Sunlight

[DBoweMD]

"Solutions to Spring Dessication Burn"
1. Gold Margined cultivars that don't burn:
Abiqua Moonbeam
Day's End
Garden Treasure
Laura and Darrell
Olive Bailey Langdon
Russell Lee
Standing Ovation
Tyler's Treasure
Tokudama Flavocircinalis

2. Gold Centered cultivars that don't burn
Brother Stefan
Dick Ward
Paradigm
Summer Serenade
Tokudama Aureonebulosa

3. Gold-leaved cultivars that don't burn
Blaze of Glory
Golden Bullion
Piedmont Gold
Sunlight Sister
Treasure
Zounds

[JoshS]

Hostas to avoid:

"Sawtooth Edge"
...
Sugar Daddy

Well, at least he isn't bias!

Mine is about to get the shovel.

[DBoweMD]

Mine (Sugar Daddy) still looks pretty good Josh. If you want to send it my way from Chicago, I can see if it grows better in Ohio or if it's just a bad TC. I have a really ugly Northern Halo, we could trade them!

[renaldo75]

Thanks for posting this, Dave. I guess I've done well by Mark's standards with the 1st group at least. I have 30 of 31. I've never gotten Victory cuz I have no place for it to take over. 11 of the next 25. 6 of the underrated. And 6 of the ones to avoid. I've never had a problem with Fair Maiden drawstringing. Just dying after dry rot. My new one looks fine. And Saturday afternoon Marlys & I were just discussing how terrible Zilis says Golden Sunburst is in the Hosta Handbook. Neither of us has ever had a problem with it burning. Mine gets hours of midday/afternoon sun & always has & its never burned. Maybe what we both have is something else.

[JoshS]

Mine (Sugar Daddy) still looks pretty good Josh. If you want to send it my way from Chicago, I can see if it grows better in Ohio or if it's just a bad TC. I have a really ugly Northern Halo, we could trade them!

I think I'll pass on your Northern Halo, Dave! Actually, I'm going to try the Sugar Daddy in a deep shady spot to see what happens.

See you next week!

[Chris_W]

Hi Josh,

I have Sugar Daddy growing in deep shade and every year it has done fine and has been one of my favorites. This year, however, we had a 2 month drought that affected the first set of leaves in some places, but the next flush of foliage is great.

I think I mention this in our online catalog too, that Sugar Daddy definitely needs more water and shade for the best performance.

Another I'm not all that surprised to see is Fair Maiden, but then again it is often listed in the personal favorites, so it needs good placement too.

Thanks for the information about the talk. I totally agree on many of those plants on the list

[greenguy]

Dave thanks for posting the all of the lists. It is very interesting to me for some reason. I will probably be looking the lists over for days/weeks.

[KLK7]

I am surprised that Spring Fling is on the first list. I understand all the remaining members. Someone who owns one that is successful, can you please enlighten me?

[renaldo75]

Spring Fling is an absolutely gorgeous piecrusted hosta with a white margin. You don't see too many of those. Kim Larsen ['Kim' here on the forum] just won Best of Show with her Spring Fling leaf at the National Convention. The pic Chris & Brian use to advertise Spring Fling was a leaf from my plant a few years ago. Beautiful, elegant, stunning.....just a few words I'd use to describe this hosta.

[JaneG]

Thanks for the lists - - - I just cut-n-pasted them into a document and printed it so I'll have it handy whenever I stumble upon a hosta-acquiring opportunity!

[DBoweMD]

Spring Fling is an awesome plant, I have several. They grow well, and the white picrust edge is evident at a young age. The leaf size really surprised me when it matured, was about double the size I expected. In other words it looked like a mature plant when it was still immature. You don't have to wait for it to show its stuff.

[Linda P]

Thanks, Dave! I copied them too.
Spring Fling is a great plant here, also. At my recent garden walk, I had a lot of questions about it. No one was familiar with it, eveyone wanted it. I was thinking maybe I should put a motion-detector light on it.....
Linda P