Hosta tour two

[Linda P]

Okay, it's still winter, even though the temps here are supposed to hit 40 today. By the weekend it will be back around zero or below for lows.
After a good weekend of hosta talk at Winter Scientific, I'm even more anxious to see spring!
We'll start as you come into my driveway and look to left, towards my house.
Linda P

[DBoweMD]

Very nice! All of mine are still under about a foot of snow, but we too will get above freezing today, second day in a row. It was 18 days in a row below freezing before that in Cleveland, longer that the norm.

[steg]

I really like the Antioch, it looks great. Can I ask what the tree is behind it?

Dave - we were up in your neck of the woods last weekend. Ridiculous amount of snow. Unfortunately too cold to really enjoy.

[jgh]

Isn't that lovely! Love the blue and yellow and gray contrast in the second pic. Love the variety of textures with the companion plants in the third.

And a good time to hop up on one of my often repeated hobby horses... to point out to those readers of this page that are still in the early stages of hosta addiction - new varieties aren't necessarily better than the old ones! Collectors (like some of us here) are crazy and always in search of something new. But the great old varieties like Antioch give immense beauty for little cost (or no cost if you hang around people with lots of hostas.)

If you are going for a collection to show off to other hosta nuts, you need lots of hostas and lots of variety and some of the newest things. If you are looking for a beautiful restful shade garden, you can make a lovely arrangement with hostas that cost $5 a piece in gallon sizes.

[Linda P]

My, my. It's back below zero again. I typed a 200 word essay for this thread yesterday, went to post it, and lost it. Let me start again!
Dave, good to hear from you. I keep chanting...the snow is good for the hostas...the snow is good for the hostas.....
Steg, the tree is a heptacodium, or seven sons flower. It's one of my absolute favorites in the small tree/large shrub category. It's covered with tiny little highly fragrant flowers beloved of hummingbirds, bees and butterflies for several weeks starting in late August or thereabouts. These are followed (in most years, unless we get a very early frost) by bright coral-red bracts, and then there is the lovely exfoliating bark when the tree gets some age on it. I"ve chosen to grow mine as a multi-stemmed tree. For me, it's a must if you have the space.
jgh, as usual, you are right on the money. I have a large number of the oldies but goodies, though I also chase the new and different. This Antioch came from a friend's garden in 2000. I had somehow overlooked getting one, and she was moving, so I chopped a piece off her plant. I've always enjoyed it, and have it placed where I can see it every day. There are hosta maniacs who walk by it and say...oh, another antioch (no caps to denote the tone of voice used) but I don't think a hosta garden should be without it.

The minis here are Hi Ho Silver, Cameo, Tiny Tears, Lakeside Zinger and Zing Zang, Pandora's Box, and Daisy Doolittle.

[Mary Ann]

Hi Linda,
Nice angles and arrangement of beds I've never seen before. I love meandering gravel paths.

[Linda P]

Thanks, Mary Ann. I really like gravel paths, too. I hope one day to add more of them. The spot where the path is now was just a bare weedy place when we moved in. Grass didn't grow there very well. Once we got our old porch deck torn off and replaced, I commenced to remedy that problem.
By the end of summer, the path is usually nearly covered over with nicotiana plants that come up in this area and fall out onto the path.
Mary Ann, the little spiky hosta nearest the sidewalk, behind Ginsu Knife, is a seedling from you. It was in the strawberry planter that you donated as a door prize at Peggy B's. I've really enjoyed this little guy! Seems that he's going to stay small.
Linda P

[newtohosta-no more]

I'm enjoying this tour so much. It's nice to see all these lovely hostas and the way you have them incorporated into your garden. So pleasing to the eye. Thanks for sharing these pics of your garden with us.

[Linda P]

Thanks, Joan! I'm glad that you are enjoying the pics. Anything to get through this long white winter!!!
We missed out on the snow this round, still under that dome of cold air. It was -2 this morning, but it's all the way up to 10 now!!
I forgot to mention in the last post that the iron teakettle in the middle pic belonged to my great-aunt and uncle. I love using stuff like
that in my garden. Last year my dad gave me the iron rim from his mother's old horse-drawn buggy. I haven't quite found the right place to feature it yet, so it's just hanging on the wall on my porch.
These last two pics pretty much complete this tour. I'll start a new thread later, continuing the walk into the back yard.
Linda P

[eastwood2007]

Just beautiful, Linda! I do hope you'll keep showing your gardens.

I, too, love how you've incorporated things for decor in your gardens. I'm going to study your photos and layout more...when I try doing that, it looks more like I just forgot to pick the stuff up that the wind blew into the gardens....I need more practice with that!

[ConnieD]

Linda,
Love the garden tour. Marlys and I were just talking about trying to visit you sometime this summer and after seeing these pictures I know we have to definitely try to find a time that works out for all of us.
Thank you for posting the pictures of your lovely garden.
ConnieD

[Linda P]

Charla...just keep moving the stuff around til you like the way it looks! It doesn't matter how it looks to anyone else, as long as you like it. WHen I started with the rusty junk in my garden it didn't always 'flow'...but now that I have a good amount of it, it's begun to make a statement. The trick is to know when not to add anything else.
Connie, I'd love to have you and Marlys visit this summer, and I need to get out to visit your gardens, too. I'm still bummed that I couldn't make it to the get-together!!!
Linda P

[tsbccowboy]

Linda P,

Thank you for letting us tour your gardens with your photos. It sure helps make the Winter more enjoyable.

......and by the way, they look pretty good to others,
Cowboy

[Mary Ann]

Linda, I just noticed the little gabled house in that teakettle bed. Looks charming and proportionate. Do you have a closer view of that?

[Linda P]

Here's one from 07. I got this little house on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I spray it every year with a couple of coats of low-gloss poly to keep it from rotting away. It sits on a flat piece of limestone to keep it out of contact with the soil as much as possible. I don't take it in over the winter, but this year one of the big storms blew it over, and it's half buried under the snow. I think the fairy family moved south for the winter anyway.
Linda P

[playinmud]

Linda I love your gardens. Thanks for a bit of green on a cold winter day. Hard to believe that in a few months everything will be popping up out of the ground and unfurling!! And I love your fairy house, what a cute idea!