Lotsa Hostas

If you are a friend of mine on facebook, you no doubt have heard me wax poetic about my garden. It is no exaggeration to say that I LOVE my garden. Sometimes even I am shocked at the extent of my adoration for all things green (minus creeping charlie).

My first summer caring for the parsonage gardens introduced me to hostas. I didn't even know what a hosta was. I was clueless about midwestern gardens. The only reference books I owned catered to West Coast gardeners. Plus, the area of California I lived in would literally be hell for a hosta... dry and HOT, hence my ignorance about them.

In the last three springs of caring for these wonderful faithful growers, I have come to adore the hosta. My goal is to learn all the different varieties growing here in our yard. For now, I know them only as green hostas, blue hostas, yellow hostas and striped hostas; small hostas, tall hostas and ginormous hostas. Lotsa hostas!

One of the greatest traits about the hosta is that you can divide them and plant them nearly anywhere semi shady and they will thrive. (In my head I hear this translation: "FREE PLANTS!") They are fantastic to grow under trees and along lawn edges. The leaves gracefully arch or fan and they are perfect for hiding the dying foliage of early spring bulbs such as tulips or hyacinths.

To the left you can see some hosta shading the base of my delphinium plants and covering the remnants of purple hyacinth. The next picture shows some hostas that I transplanted earlier this spring. They will be the forefront for my gladiolus just beginning to show here.

The verigated hosta in the picture below is hiding an Easter Lily... which doesn't really bloom at Easter, but actually, in June. Notice the beginnings of flowers on the hosta. Not only do you get wonderful foliage, but the flowers are often beautiful as well.

The pictures here are a small biopsy of the numerous hostas here at the parsonage, and as long as I am tending these gardens they can only increase in numbers. Viva la Hosta!!!