Welcome to myhostagardens.com! I created this site to keep a record and a journal of my gardens, particularly my hosta. I love comparing photos from year to year and tracking the progress - or lack of progress – that a plant makes from year to year. I am an addict. Addicted to digging in the dirt and in love with hosta.
How to use the site
Use the sidebar to look up a plant —->
Or check out recent posts —–>
Leave comments on any page!
One important word, this is not a commercial site and I don’t have plants for sale so trying to order them probably won’t work. I do though, provide a list of links on the sidebar “Where did I get it?” that will take you right to the places where I purchase most of my plants. Additionally, I try to mention where I purchased each plant in its description so it’s possible that you can still find it at the same place.
Besides hosta I have a lot of other plants, particularly Iris. The majority of plants I have are drought tolerant and I love Iris because I can simply ignore them forever and they still love me back each spring. You might think with all of these plants that I’m a gardener but I’m really not. I’m more of a plant collector and it just happens that every once in a while the gardens look good. Most of the time they are the subject of my experiments while I zen away the problems of the work day with my hands in the dirt.
What’s the history here? I used to have a regular website but I switched to a wordpress blog in the spring of 2008 so that I could more easily post updates and changes while sorting all of the entries by category. Yes, I was looking for an easier option but most importantly I lost my old computer and the Dreamweaver software I had on it so editing the old site was just not going to happen any time soon.
Grab a cup of coffee and stay a while!
Sue
I am a beginner hosta enthusiast. I have few hostas in my garden and i love them all. I have one hosta that i bought from a lady on a plant sale and i am trying to find out the name hence looking at websites which can help me identify it. i’ve enjoyed reading your entries and learned a lot from them. keep posting and i would love to see more pictures in the future.
lily
Lily, thanks for stopping by! You might want to try to register and post your hosta on one of the hosta forums like Hallson Gardens or Hostalibrary. Someone there is sure to give you a hand identifying your plant :-)
Sue
Sue, I found out the name of my hosta, it is Undulata Erromena. Thank you.
That’s cool, Lily! They are like potato chips… you can’t stop at just one.
Enjoyed your site. Do not see many people that have more hostas than my wife, but think you might.
Thanks Mike,
Sounds like your wife has great taste in plants!
Hi Sue,
Mike from the west side of South Jersey. Sorry to see all of your damage. It was just as bad over here. Wehad a combo of vole and crown rot from the lovely summer drought/wet winter we went through. Looks like we will have lost almost a hundred hostas altogether with many more trying to be TLC’d back to life.
Love the site. Hope all finds you well.
Mike
Mike,
It sounds like you are VERY VERY close to me – west side, South Jersey! So sorry to hear about your losses. I also thought that the droughts combined with the crazy weather (I couldn’t help think – I wish this rain would have come at the end of last summer) had done in a lot of my hostas. I zeroed in on the voles but I definitely had some rot as well. The voles are still doing damage. I’m heading out to move a bunch around and permatill a new little bed today.
I’m in Salem County. From the loos of your soil in the pictures, you must be close to the shore. The lovely wife saw a vole while she was mulching yesterday, so it looks like MoleMax time. I moved about six hostas yesterday before the t-storms hit. I had two 2-gallon size Guardian Angels that I now have about six eyes left. Got the knife out and scraped out of of the rot I could find. Guess we’ll just wait and see.
Mike, I’ve used a Bayer rose product to try to keep the fungal issues down to a dull roar this year. I’ve still had some plants with some rot but not as much as last year. The thunderstorms in the hot weather are killer. I’m in Camden County so very close by. Still a sand pit though!
Hi Sue,
It has been a while since I talked to you the last time. I have added almost three dozens of hostas in my garden. From time to time I read your entries when I need some infos on the hostas I bought.
Lily, Hi! Thanks so much for reading and I’m glad to help. Told ya you wouldn’t stop at just one :-) So many to choose from and so beautiful!!!
We have some giants that have been growing a few years. This year we are dividing and thinning and giving starts to friends who want them. We are looking for ideas for companion plants. We want to leave gaps rather than having a solid wall of hostas and we want things that will be interesting and attractive.
We are trying to get our yard on the local garden tour next summer.
We live in Seattle and our back yard is the definition of partial-shade (we live in a ravine). The hostas are both in the deepest shade and the sunniest and they all do equally well. The soil is fairly rich and drains really well. I hate to water back there and do it only in the most extreme drought conditions (rare where we are) so I definitely want drought-tolerant plants.
What suggestions do you have?