Hosta Meditation

Sum and Substance (lime colored) with Humpback Whale (front left).  I'm excited to watch Humpback Whale grow as huge as the name portends

When we purchased Red Oak House, we were thrilled to have so many mature trees, however, we recognized how these should shape what we would do with our landscaping, especially in the smaller front yard.  I'm no fan of mowing grass and it grew in a rather insipid fashion under the shade of the red oak.  Hence, I purchased these two books straightaway and proceeded to transform the front yard to a shade rock garden, dominated by hosta.

My dear friend Bernnett first turned me on to hosta and directed me to the Minnesota Arboretum, where they were displayed in glory.  Yet, I'd not had the opportunity to grow them in earnest until we bought this house.

Once we'd identified the sprinkler lines, Jim tilled up the grass, and we began to haul rocks.  I'm certain the neighbors thought we were nuts, particularly when we had the two huge boulders delivered (in fact, just this spring, Dave, from across the street, the senior inhabitant of this block, informed me that, in spite of his misgivings, my yard had begun to look quite beautiful, confirming my suspicions).

It takes patience to complete this transformation, and, indeed, it did not look very nice the first few years.

I love hostas colors and their clever names and different sizes and shapes and textures.  As I tend these, I think how much fun it must have been for the propagator to cultivate and name these.

Now my garden is the peaceful place of meditation and shade that I had envisioned, and I've accumulated 120 varieties of hosta.  These are punctuated by other shade plants such as astlibe, ligularia, ferns, globe blue spruce, and impatiens (these I buy by the hundreds in the spring from nearby greenhouses).  For some reason, the impatiens are slow to bloom this year.

Gentle reader, I hope you enjoy these photo highlights of some of my hosta.

Blue Cadet Hosta

Prairie Moon Hosta (I'm partial to plants with prairie-like names)

Nakufu Okome Hosta (an homage to the time I lived in Okinawa)

Judie Blue Eyes

Praying Hands Hosta with Lady in Red Fern

War Party (this I bought at a yard sale and was promised that after a few years of sulking it would get huge, a promise that has been fulfilled)

Gypsy Rose Hosta

Blue Ivory Hosta

Golden Prayers Hosta

Fire & Ice Hosta

I adore the miniature hosta.  This is Chickadee.

First Frost Hosta (which has become one of my favorites)

Bitsy Gold Hosta

Green Mouse Ears Hosta

Little Treasure Hosta

Gold Drop Hosta

Summer Groove Hosta

Little Sunspot Hosta

Lemon Delight Hosta

Humpback Whale Hosta

Krossa Regal Hosta (back) with unknown

Namaste.