My mom has always been a fan of hostas, a leafy garden staple for shady spots. I thought they were nice, but preferred the color punch of annuals and flowering perennials. Hubs was not a fan at all…he thought they were boring. Until now. Now we’re in hostalove.
The great change? We visited a hosta farm…yes, there is such a thing.
On a drive through Western New York, I spied this sign along the side of the road:
One hasty louie and we found ourselves at the home of Jerry and Ruth Murray and their sampling of 300 varieties of hostas.
We were familiar with the area-standard green and white medium-leafed variety….but everywhere I turned there were new shades of greens, yellows, and blues in leaf sizes that ranged from dwarf to something I’d expect to see in Jurassic Park.
The colors on some were so beautiful that they reminded me of a silk plant…too perfect to be real. But here, in front of me, was “June,” her yellow green leaves dipped in a margin of blue green, with streaks that ran to nearly the middle of the leaf. It was exquisite.
The names were as intriguing as the varieties: Night Before Christmas, Orange Marmalade, Whirlwind, Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Striptease.
The gardens are set up as a sampler, you stroll and note the names painted on flat rocks along the pathway. There are many to remember, so on arrival you’re issued a clipboard with a four-page inventory sheet that describes each plant’s color, leaf size, flower color and sun tolerance.
After you’ve surveyed the show gardens you can go back to the alphabetical stock area and make your selections.
While enjoying the view, we began to think of where we could add more hostas to our yard and thought of a water diversion berm in our yard where we’ve planted trees. We lined the berm with a few layers of stacked stone earlier this year…but if the Murray’s had 300 varieties of hostas, our berm had a similar variety of weeds. The trees left the spot mostly shady…and it was certainly too large to plant flowers…so the hostas seemed like a great solution for us.
So, once again we nuked the weeds, and this time we put down layers of newspaper before adding new soil to the top.We’ve revisited the nice folks at Murray’s a few times and selected some lovely plants, and augmented those with bulk and sale hostas from other vendors.
In all, I think we planted more than fifty in the front and back of the berm. The ends are pretty sunny, so we’ll use annuals or sun perennials when we replenish the plant budget.
We’ll be back to see the Murray’s next year to add different hosta selections in other areas of our yard, but it’s on to other projects for now…starting with soap shredding to keep our new garden from turning into a wildlife salad bar (see Oh, Deer!).
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For more information, visit Murray’s on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/murrayshostafarm
Did I miss it the spot? I wanted to comment on the deer/bunnies and that INCREDIBLY APPETIZING IRISH SPRING IN THE FOOD PROCESSOR BECAUSE…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, I didn’t know I wanted to eat Irish Spring until I saw it shredded!???
No, no, I wouldn’t eat it but be serious – is there any part of you that’s even slightly tempted {even slightly?} when its amazing green loveliness is sitting there all shredd-y??
Not that you would. Eat it. And apparently neither would wildlife. This I did not know. We, on the other hand, keep our overflowing bunny population in check by means of foxes. Sometimes at 3am, I see the mother fox and her three red offspring trotting by outside. Thankfully, I have never had to **witness** the “keeping in check” as I’m sure I would not enjoy it. My husband tells me we would have MANY more bunnies if it weren’t for the foxes. True…
So here is your soap comment, which you may not want, given that there was no comment box on the previous post! Sorry!
AND hostas!!!!!!!!!!!! Which for the first time, I’m enticed to consider for the yard, based on this post…
So thank you again. 🙂
P.S. I wonder if you still have hostas? And what your five-year review of them is, given that this post is now half a decade old?
The moment I genuinely consider how much it looks like apple flavored Ball Park Chew I will be toast. Love me some Ball Park Chew, as does my dentist.
I don’t know WHAT is going on, but we are suddenly overrun with charming wildlife…and it is rapidly losing it’s charm. A fluffy squirrel here or chipmunk here or there is cute, but it’s starting to resemble to be more Eww than Aww.
The hosta berm…definitely a topic that needs revisiting…you are inspiring me to update the post, Cathy.
Short answer: they are still limping along, (but just revisiting this post has me stunned). Wow. Longer answer: I am partly responsible for their lack of progress. More to come, thanks to you.