5 quick questions of you

[HostaDesigner]

I thought this might be kinda fun. Just some random tidbits of info about everyone.

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta?

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun?

4. What is your most disappointing hosta?

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac?

I'll start:
1. I worked for a wholesale perennial nursery in high school/college when I was age 16 thru 20. After about a year on the job, I had a new respect for gardening and growing plants after working in the trade for a while. Hosta 'Frances Williams' was the first to grab my eye. I was fascinated to see how big they grew with such intense color. The rest is history.

2. Fragrant blooms! NOTHING smells better than a huge bloom of plantaginea. No flower I've smelled comes close. Not even oriental lilies.

3. Uh, yeah LOL.

4. I have two. 'Abba Irresistable' and 'Tattoo.'

5. Yep. My father-in-law. It's insanity.

[Noreaster]

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?
I just started gardening about 4 years ago, and I'm an absolute beginner. Once I determined what I could grow in my yard (shade plants only), I immediately glommed onto hosta...My inlaws have some big blue ones and I've always admired them in their yard. I was excited that I had the right conditions for them. I also remember seeing Frances Williams somewhere and just loving that color combo of blue-green and chartreuse.

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta?
Has to be slug resistant because this place is infested. Then, everything else- color, texture, form, etc. Flowers and petiole color are least important to me.

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun?
No, don't have the patience or the room.

4. What is your most disappointing hosta?
Super Nova, Fireworks, or Island Charm...all losers.

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac?
Possibly...best friend in VA was supposed to buy some this year. I know she'll get hooked.

[HostaDesigner]

Island Charm...all losers.

Ugh. Forgot about that one.

[govgirl75]

I started gardening as a teenager and someone gave me some hostas. They were easy to grow and very pretty, so I always looked out for them. My parents moved from that house, so the small group of hostas I had stayed there. Later, after I got married and had my own home, my MIL and I would see old houses being torn down and would, with permission, of course, dig some up from the yard. We were a kind of hosta rescue. As the years went on, I would buy one here or there, but I never had lots and lots. I retired this summer and took my first trip to Hallson's and bought 9 new plants and my friends who went with us gave me several plants as well. We are planning a large hosta bed for next year, so I will have room to put many more.
For me, the leaves are the most important feature. I love them all-solids, spotted, striped, yellow, cream, white. I am ever amazed at the different textures, edges, sizes.
I have not deliberately grown them from seed, but have had grown free range seedlings. It is always nice to have another plant.
I have not had any hostas that I was disappointed in. I have had some difficulty with August Moon, but am not disappointed in the plant. Maybe I don't have enough plants yet to have gotten a loser.
No conversions, yet. I have friends who collect hostas, but I had nothing to do with that.
Glo

[Rosenzobel]

Hi there- I will try to answere- but my english is not that good as you know!?
1. How did I get to a hostamaniac?? I don´t know- I bought my first ones ( Sieboldiana elegans) nearly 12 years ago-just to fill some space in my garden. These monsterns doing wll until today.

2.What featrue??? the colour of the leaves is the most interesting for me ( thats why i love my "Purple Haze!)

3. Yes I did (do) this is the first year I´m doing that-the past years I thougt my Hostas all getting no seeds- but this year I´ve seen many Babys under my sieboldiana an just potted 10 of them -they are still doing well- but it is just for fun (yet!)

4. Love Pat- I love that one but it won´t grow in my garden-another one that won´t do well is Hotspur and Tattoo!

5.Yes I did- my Mom....

greetz mel

[sugar]

I thought this might be kinda fun. Just some random tidbits of info about everyone.

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta?

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun?

4. What is your most disappointing hosta?

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac?

1. At first , I didn't like the plants in my mothers garden because of the ugly flowers. But they grew on me, and added some plants in my first home's garden.
When I moved, I planned to add a few hosta to my garden, but found the Dutch Hosta Association and got lost in all those lovely pictures. Afterwards, I found a hosta grower not far, so I ended up adding 50 plants in my garden instead of 5.
After that, I started visiting the Hostacollectie (Danny Van Eeckhoute), I have about 150 hosta in my garden...

2. Difficult question. Most important feature I'm looking for is substance. I don't want any poor hosta in my garden.

3. Yes

4. All Hosta lacking the substance to be a nice hosta : almost all fragrant ones (Fragrant Dream, Fragrant King, Guacamole, ...), Kiwi Spearmint, Dixieland Heat

5. No

[Linda P]

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?

The first hosta I remember seeing was a plantaginea, when I was so young that I had to look up into the blooms. I had to wait for decades to have a place to grow them myself. In the meantime, a friend discovered Hornbakers nursery, a hosta speicalist, and the two of us started collecting and sharing hsotas. I had probably 150 different hostas before I realized that I still didn't have a plantaginea. We bought our farm in 1986, and then I had to plant trees and wait for shade to get started. I would have to say my hosta collection started around 1988. During that time, I discovered that many of them did well in more sun than I would have guessed.

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta?

Love those ruffled edges, and the great variety of forms. Substance is important, as I live on a hilltop and they have to deal with a lot of wind.

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun?

Yes. Far, far too many. Right now I'm trying to find places to put last year's seedlings (just finished sorting out the ones from 2007 and getting them out of the raised beds and into the ground) and I'm already thinking about what to grow over the winter.


4. What is your most disappointing hosta?

Probably Fireworks...tried it twice and can't get it to grow. Oh, and Cat's Eye and Blue Ice...both of them were doing well until I moved them to the mini bed, where they promptly croaked.

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac?

Yes, several.

[twoblackdogs]

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?

Moved into this house 12 years ago - mostly shade or dappled shade, clay soil (which I amend). Hostas work and when I travelled didn't have to worry about if they would croak.

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta?
Bright gold (like Great Lakes Gold, Treasure, Garden Party), BIG! Like Sum & Sub, Elatior, the Angels, ruffled edges, like Queen of the Seas...and fragrance - I have Venus & Aphrodite around my deck, as well as other fragrant ones.

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun? Yes - some from Spartan Glory, Spilt Milk - but not seriously yet .

4. What is your most disappointing hosta? Orange Slices. Not enought green to make chlorophyll to help it grow IMO. It bit the dust this year. I won't get another.

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac?
Yes, my friend Karla!

[ViolaAnn]

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?
Well, about a dozen years ago I realized that my once-sunny front yard was no longer sunny because the trees we planted had grown. I bought a couple pretty standard hostas. And only after I started getting serious about them did I realize someone had given me a 'Clausa' (rhizomatous - guess why they gave it to me!) and that it was also a hosta.

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta?
The variety of shapes of plant and colours of the leaves as well as the many different sizes.

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun?
Yes. I have a lovely seedling from 'Outhouse Delight' and another lovely one from 'Korean Snow'. I'm naming them after my grand-kids. 'Lakeside Mom' is new this year and I'm hoping eventually to get interesting seedlings from it and from 'Ice Age Trail' if IAT ever blooms for me.

4. What is your most disappointing hosta?
'Brim Cup' is no longer in my garden. 'Center of Attention' is next to go. Unlike some of you, I quite like 'Island Charm' - at least this year. And 'Blue Ice' does well for me too. I'm having lots of problems with the entire 'Baby Bunting' family this year which is exceptionally wet.

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac?
Well, I'm working on my daughters. Neither has as much space as I do though. My next-door neighbour is coming along too.

[digs57]

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?
Many, many years ago, before I even knew the word "hosta", I tried to compost a Honeybells, but the darned thing refused to die. I still have it. My next hosta encounter was with a beauty called Canadian Shield - still not knowing it was a hosta, I snatched it from the jaws of a backhoe during a neighbourhood renovation project. I still have that one too, along with over 300 others....

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta? Colour, shape, slug resistance. Not necessarily in that order on any particular day. Think June and Radiant Edger. And Liberty.

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun? Yes, 3 yrs running (I think I'll take a break this year). I've added the nicest of the blues, golds, some neat acid greens, gold with red legs, etc, etc, to my garden. Ice Age Trail & Spilt Milk have produced a few very interesting youngsters, but they're last spring's sowing, so still very small.

4. What is your most disappointing hosta? I despise Wide Brim in all its iterations (have 3), so I'm going to donate them to my neighbours new fence project, where there's more sun & hopefully fewer slugs. My second "about to go" is Gold Edger: muddy colour, burns at the touch of the sun, I've tried enough locations to know, it's just plain too ugly to tolerate. I'm definitely not partial to the minis, either.

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac? Oh yeah. Mom, sis, hubby, boss, neighbours....

[scootersbear]

Went to a plant auction at a local nursery and they got to the hostas and nobody bid on them so I bid a quarter for them , it was at my first house so I needed some plants to decorate the place. They weren't very big but after a few years they grew and I liked them. Plus everybody said you can't grow hostas in Colorado so it was a pleasure proving them quite wrong.

they remind me of tropical house plants with the folage

1000s and 1000s of them and that was just only last year

the ones that died

not really but I've taken pics of mine to a few nursies around here and because of them seeing mine have ordered a few more varieties

[Pieter]

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world?
2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta?
3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun?
4. What is your most disappointing hosta?
5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac?

1. Can't quite recall, but it seems to me it started about 8 or 9 years ago when I discovered there was such a thing as fragrant flowered Hosta. When I located some locally I quickly discovered I was on a slippery slope....
2. Substance. And fragrance....
3. Yep, watching a couple of BME seedlings from earlier this spring, green of course...
4. Island Charm. Morning Light.
5. I'm working on my youngest brother and his wife, they're big into Rhodos but are slowly starting to see the benefits of some companion plants, such as Hosta. Never mind they gave us our very first Hosta 20+ years ago - which was a NOID at the time and has since proven to be Fortunei Hyacinthina.

[Rosenzobel]

well- i´ve got a question:
everybodys telling about bad "Baby bunting" and family- i´ve got baby bunting since last year -in a pot- and it´s doing well-but this summer-all the old leaves became translucent and then went brown and i thougt-uffff-thats it- maybe a fungus or something else-than it became all new leaves-more than befor and looks brilliant now- is that normal on baby bunting???I´m afraid-that it has got botritys or a virus- but when i read all yout experiences -i hope-that this will just be the way babay bunting acts?????????

(excuse my bad english-i was trying to fid the right words- not that easy-some word seem to be missing in my english vocabulary..... )

[joesandy1822]

1. How did you get your start into the hosta world? My great grandfather, age 92, is to blame! He has a gazillion hostas, which he is always more than willing to share with me.

2. What features are you the most attracted to in a hosta? Bright, double colored or variegated, wrinkly hostas.

3. Ever grow any from seed, if even just for fun? Nope. Didn't even know you could!

4. What is your most disappointing hosta? I love them all! I just hate all the holes the slugs like to chew into them.

5. Have you successfully created another friend into a hosta maniac? Yes!!!!!

[Pieter]

well- i´ve got a question:
everybodys telling about bad "Baby bunting" and family- i´ve got baby bunting since last year -in a pot- and it´s doing well-but this summer-all the old leaves became translucent and then went brown and i thougt-uffff-thats it- maybe a fungus or something else-than it became all new leaves-more than befor and looks brilliant now- is that normal on baby bunting???I´m afraid-that it has got botritys or a virus- but when i read all yout experiences -i hope-that this will just be the way babay bunting acts?????????

(excuse my bad english-i was trying to fid the right words- not that easy-some word seem to be missing in my english vocabulary..... )

Sounds to me like you had root problems -poor drainage probably- and the old roots died. New leaves sprouted from the crown and new roots have now grown, so it looks OK again, but the underlying problem is still there. I recommend you take it out of its pot and either plant it in the garden, or replace the plant medium with a mixture that drains much better. When you take it out of its pot I think you will find plenty of rotten roots.

[Rosenzobel]

@ Pieter: tX a lot!!!!!
I think you´ve got it- the pot where they are in have got really wet soil and the drainage is not that good- i thougt they are to dry and gave them extra water ( maybe that was the wrongest thionk i could do.......2 others in that pot looked OK all the time- maybe Baby Bunting is more sensitiv than the 2 others...???

[sugar]

well- i´ve got a question:
everybodys telling about bad "Baby bunting" and family- i´ve got baby bunting since last year -in a pot- and it´s doing well-but this summer-all the old leaves became translucent and then went brown and i thougt-uffff-thats it- maybe a fungus or something else-than it became all new leaves-more than befor and looks brilliant now- is that normal on baby bunting???I´m afraid-that it has got botritys or a virus- but when i read all yout experiences -i hope-that this will just be the way babay bunting acts?????????

(excuse my bad english-i was trying to fid the right words- not that easy-some word seem to be missing in my english vocabulary..... )

I think this is no problem at all. you are only experiencing the second flush of Baby Bunting, all the old leaves disappear, while there are new noses coming up.

[Rosenzobel]

@ sugar: thank you very much!...But baby Bunting ist the only Hosta that i´ve got who acts like that- all my other Hostas won´t losse nearly all the older leaves and get new ones- they just come up and in midseason they becom a few more new leaves- but still holds the old leaves...???( I hope you understand what i mean-oh my english.....brrrrrrr)

[sugar]

@ sugar: thank you very much!...But baby Bunting ist the only Hosta that i´ve got who acts like that- all my other Hostas won´t losse nearly all the older leaves and get new ones- they just come up and in midseason they becom a few more new leaves- but still holds the old leaves...???( I hope you understand what i mean-oh my english.....brrrrrrr)

I do understand your english, and that's exactly the way Baby Bunting behaves, and all BB sports as well.

[ViolaAnn]

With due respect, could we please return to the interesting original subject of this thread?