Thinking About Hosta

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Just back to the house after a couple hours putting things back together at the flower farm. It's a little slower this year because the ground is still covered with snow and in some places it's so wet that it's difficult to walk. Gail is convinced everything will be different in two weeks and I am convinced there is so much frost in the ground this year that the ground will still be cold come May.

Our hosta display garden and all the potted hostas that we carry over remain under an insulating blanket: either a blanket of snow or an actual insulating blanket covering the potted hostas and then snow. Like any hosta enthusiast I wish I could see them in their glory right now but it's just too early to expect anything.  Not only was there lots of snow this winter but there was lots of cold. The winter, January through March, set a record as the coldest in 121 years. That's cold! Many people think that deep cold means that all the bad insects have been killed off and it should be easier on our garden plants as a result. Nice wish but it doesn't happen that way. If anything the beneficials die off and the bad guys continue on.

If we are thinking about hostas and thinking about having great looking plants come mid June, it's important to think about making them as healthy as possible. One thing I learned twenty years ago is to save coffee grounds during winter months and then spread them around each hosta plant come spring. Slugs and snails are often a problem with hostas but the caffeine in coffee kills these troublesome animals and makes for much better looking plants. The research leading to this find came from Hawaii and is well documented. I have to admit that I had my reservations when first hearing about it but the research and the experience has convinced me. I have spread the word and some converts have gone to greater lengths than me to secure spent coffee grounds from restaurants and  gourmet coffee processors.

As I continue to look at weather forecasts for this summer, dry conditions bother me. Sometimes weather folks miss their mark and dry becomes wet. I mention moisture because the absolutely best fertilizer for growing great hostas is water. Do some weather research for yourself and come up with a plan for providing adequate water to your hostas. By the end of June you will be able to see the value of your work if things do turn dry.

Despite whatever we do as gardeners, there are times, conditions and plants that just don't do what we want. I just read a few comments from hosta gardeners on their trouble growing Empress Wu, that giant hosta with Big John heritage. People have had trouble and in some areas they have even lost their plants after a couple years. Those with success have said that proper placement is critical. This hosta requires a couple hours of good sunlight each day and also need consistent moisture. This description reminds me when Great Expectations was released publicly via tissue culture. It was very problematic until gardeners determined that it needed more than average sunlight and like Empress Wu, consistent moisture. Both Empress Wu and modern Great Expectations ask for one thing you will never find on a plant marker: Be patient!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where we are at 33.2° with a three mph wind. Rain is on the way and warmer temperatures will be here into next week. Two deer went through the flower farm fence Tuesday night so maybe I'll get the holes patched up tomorrow. 

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as  Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens. Like us!
On Facebook as George Africa with gardening commentary
On Twitter, Linkedin, and other social media spreading the word of gardening.

Always here to help you grow your green thumb!

On My Way Back

Saturday, April 4, 2015

It's 9 PM and I am about ready to close down for the night. The bright moon is high in the sky. The air is windless and 19°.  I just looked outside for my barred owl friend but so far he is absent from his fence post perch by the bird feeder. Alex continues to work on his computer studying Russian, Karl the Wonder Dog is stretched in front of the wood stove kicking his hind feet in apparent dreams and I have said enough of Dream Weaver and vermontflowerfarm.com for the night. 

I have been away from The Vermont Gardener since January 11th and that's an embarrassment. Winter is a time I enjoy writing and I know that in the depths of snow, gardeners really enjoy conversing about gardens and gardening. Winter 2014-2015 has been difficult for most for us.  The snow not only was deep but it is still deep here on the mountain above Peacham Pond. The snow dropped yesterday during an absolutely beautiful day but not enough to give us any sight of bare ground here at the house. At the flower farm I plowed the parking area a few days back and that is half bare now.

In January I caught some weird virus and although I am not a doctor person, I finally resorted to mine for assistance. He could not help or at least could only offer an assurance that I would get better in a couple more weeks. A bronchial virus lasted for almost six weeks and during that time I got as far as thinking about writing but not writing. I just couldn't. I coughed a lot but did not write.

Thursday morning I got up early and showing no regard at all for people here in bed, I headed to the flower farm. Last year I would have been there by 6:30 at the latest but this year the snow, cold and virus brought a halt to good thoughts and warm actions.

Just unlocking the gates and driving off Route 2 and into the parking lot at the farm is wonderful change this year. It's like leaving a physical space to me and entering something psychic that is both magical and emotional. I just sat there in the truck looking at the language of the fields and the Winooski River, the trees and the bazillion plant markers poking through the deep snow with names like Spacecoast Starburst or Decatur Pie Crust or Nosferatu. Red squirrels ran in great abundance parallel to the river, birds followed the open river and crows did what crows do as the first turkey vultures circled high above, apparently suggesting that I made it through another winter and would not need them. Life is good.

So now I am getting closer to feeling myself and spring really will be here soon. And I will be writing again, I promise. Come back soon and join me. 



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I just took Karl the Wonder Dog out for the last time tonight. A very large sounding barred owl calls from down near the reservoir and coyotes call from outback. Their calls are deceiving and establishing how many I hear is difficult. It's ok. They live here too. Be well.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

On Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens

Also on Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and places of social media made for gardeners.

And always here to help you grow your green thumb!

Sizing A New Hosta Garden

 Sunday, January 11, 2015

The past three weeks have presented us with an interesting mix of weather. We would not have thought that almost two weeks of weather in the 40's and once even to 50° would have been our Christmas and post Christmas greeting. Rain and snow arrived and the wet snow clung to trees here on Peacham Pond Road for over two weeks. This morning as I write, the temperature has climbed from zero degrees to +9° but the gray sky convinces us that another storm will arrive soon.

I rely on the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St Johnsbury, Vermont for my weather forecast and they confirm 2"-5" of snow possible by tomorrow afternoon. Although the temperature will rise as it usually does with impending storms, we will not return to 40° for some time to come.

I used to be very good about getting out into the woods in the winter when gardening ended. The past three years, however,  have offered up lots of cold and wind after Thanksgiving and I have just not felt safe working where there is the possibility that trees will fall on me instead of the ground. My knees are not as strong as I wish and walking through snow of various depths has presented more of a challenge than I care for. We have a logger doing some work for us this winter and I make it a point to stay on the skid trails and wander off with care as we discuss different work. 

With safety in mind, I spend time planning new flower gardens and enhancing some that are already under way. This seems like good winter work and presents a different type of satisfaction.  This fall a customer asked if I would write something about planning a hosta garden after I suggested to her that "sizing" was the word I would probably choose.  Let me give it a try and you make the decision if it is helpful or not.

Hostas seem to be one of those "you love 'em or you don't" plants. When customers arrive at the flower farm and ask for suggestions, they are almost split 50-50 on their love affair. My opinion is that in Vermont there are few large hosta gardens to see and retail opportunities are slim so folks don't get an accurate idea on the gardening opportunities hosta offer. At Vermont Flower Farm we have always maintained a hosta display garden and we are finally finding the time to bring it to the level that it can be a place that generates ideas and confidence that hostas really are a plant to add to your gardens.

Hosta are no different than most plants. They come in sizes from miniature plants that are 2" tall to giants that have leaves 28" across and form 5 foot tall plants with 7 foot scapes. Each year the number of hostas available to gardeners increases and although probably over 6500 are now registered with the American Hosta Society there are hundreds and hundreds of new hosta someplace along the supply chain either waiting to be registered and propagated and distributed.  If you have not studied hosta, your appreciation for what is available may be limited to what you see at your local garden center. That may lead you to believe there aren't many hostas available beyond the basic green, blue or variegated you have seen. That's just not accurate.

If you have decided to give hosta a try you might find them to be more exciting and architecturally useful within your garden space than you first thought.  That's where the problem comes because that hosta you just bought in the gallon (or smaller) pot might  grow to 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall....or bigger....or smaller.  Then comes the question of how long does it take a hosta to mature and how will it/they look in your garden growing along for 4-5-6 years to maturity.

Designing a new garden requires some knowledge of the mature size of the hosta you want to use. I recommend referring to the Hosta Library to gather that information. It's easy to use and the pictures make your job easier.

Look up top and you'll see a picture of how our shade garden started at the flower farm. In it's previous life it was a staging area for sand and gravel for the local town. After that assignment ended it became a patch of alders, Japanese knotweed, wild eupatorium, goldenrod and various swamp grasses. When we started the eventual conversion it required removing all the unwanted plants, trees and shrubs and accepting the box elder trees as the shade producers to get us started. We trenched the lower area to drain off excess water and we planted a long border of Japanese fantail willows and curly golden willows to take up as much water as possible. Then we rototilled with the tractor and we rototilled and we rototilled. We pulled out roots and stones and debris and then we rototilled some more. A year later the area was ready to amend and plant. 

Soon after I began planting, a gardener stopped by late one afternoon and wandered down to see what I was doing. She was quiet at first and then told me she had been watching my progress when she drove by the flower farm. She shared her gardening credentials and then told me I was spacing everything too far apart. Some hostas were 4 feet apart, some were six feet apart, some even 8 feet apart.  There was a method to my spacing and the method included knowledge of the mature diameter of what I was planting. Gardening requires patience.

Take a look at the second picture and you can discern a pathway stretching diagonally across the picture from lower right to the upper left corner. In the background is a fence and some box elder trees and interplanted in the front is a blue cedar and above and to the left a linden tree or two. Some of the hosta were transplanted from gallon pots and others came from one of my gardens at our house. 

Does this planting look odd with so much space in between each plant? Perhaps the day it was started. My next step was to lay down landscape fabric and 6" of  maple leaves and bark mulch. The following year I interplanted with various annuals. I let the wild forget-me-knot flowers naturalize and I took small and miniature hostas such as Lemon Lime, Lemon Delight, Golden Scepter Chartreuse Wiggles, Little Sunspot, and Ice Cream and planted them here and there in between the larger plants. 

By 2010 I had the entire garden planted . Probably the last one third was planted with new-to-us 2 year old hostas. In May of 2011 spring brought us rain, lots and lots of rain and most of the recent plantings were washed down the river. What remained prospered and the next two pictures show the garden in July of 2014.  

The spacing that was in question in the beginning has worked out quite well although 6 foot spacing for a plant that will mature to 5 or 6 feet in diameter is not appropriate, especially if you want the opportunity to walk between the specimens during the growing season, hybridize, trim, fertilize or rearrange the signs. Blue hostas tend to be slower growing and they will take a little longer to reach full size so even now this garden doesn't completely represent maturity. Because room is now at a premium the annual flower plantings are no longer needed to fill in and the annual flowering of the forget me nots is a nuisance to keep cleaned up. 

Over the past couple years I have added four varieties of trollius because they add color in June and into July and then again just after Labor Day. There are Brunneras, European Gingers, a few pulmonarias, Nugget and Diabolo Ninebarks,  3 varieties of hybrid maple, some actaeas, hellebores, darmeras, winterberry, clethra and forsythia. The sizing is working. Patience was the key. Come visit! Come see!!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where occasional puffs of snowflakes drift from the southeast sky. Two runners just passed the house causing Karl the Wonder Dog to issue a strict warning. As for me, I have to go feed the birds. Be well. Enjoy today!

George Africa

Vermont Flower Farm

On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens

On Facebook as George Africa

On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

And always here to help you grow your green thumb!

Gift certificates available daily 802-426-3505