Hi, What a nice list you have for trade. I am interested in trading for your Midas Touch hosta, Golden Sceptor hosta, Birchwood Parky's Gold Hosta, Japanese painted fern, Lime Zinger Elephant Ear and Black Magic Elephant Ear. I'm sending you an e-mail. Deb

Comparing images and information from the web for Honeybells vs. Lancifolia, my inexpert eyes seem to see that: Lancifolia has narrower ("lance-like") leaves; Honeybells flowers are a little more white than lavender, while Lancifolia flowers a little more lavender than white; and Honeybells is larger (24"H x 50"W) than Lancifolia (more medium-sized 19"H x 44"W). Assuming I've accurately described the relative characteristics of these two varieties, then my forest of hosta would appear to be closer to Honeybells than Lancifolia on these three traits. But I am, of course, still open to correction from the experts. @ hosta-haven: if you want to PM me, I would be happy to expand your collection to 276 hostas. While I'm a newbie, I haven't seen any signs of HVX or crown rot on any hostas in my yard over the past six years. Just include a link on the best way to prepare bare root for shipping, since I've never done it before... Here is a link that might be useful: Hostaguy's collection of info and images

Hi, Plantingman. You are wise to take the drier climate seriously, althoough the fragrant ones will need the usual amount of water. I hope they can deal with your climate to make you proud to grow hosta good looking as you wish. If the Stained Glass and Guacamole are doing fine, you are on the right track, IMHO anyway. Royal Standard as someone else said earlier grows quickly, and there is a second flush of growth later in the season to make the plant look perky again. One nice thing is it is now among the less expensive to buy from reputable mail order nurseries. Since I keep the majority of my plants in containers, I like to get multiples of the major players in the plantaginea family. Besides Mama plant herself, I have 7 other plantaginea. Then 3 or 4 of Royal Standard, Aphrodite, 2 Grape Fizz, 2 Stained Glass, 2 Guacamole (nothing crazy like TWENTY THREE......), 2 Frozen Margarita, and more than I wish to name of random other fragrants. They are my passion you might say. Anyway, by keeping multiples I can experiment with different locations for the same variety. It doesn't take long to observe fried leaves with too much sun. Unless it is late PM sun, just before the sun drops below the pine trees across the street, they should not be in AFTERNOON sun. Some early morning through mid morning sun seems the very best exposure. And, good air circulation, important to keep disease at bay. Not sure if southern blight stops at the Mason Dixon Line,but if you continue getting hot still days it could happen to you as well. So shade and fresh air are important to the sweating leaves.

Hostamedic, the last pics you posted look like my Erromena. The leaf color is just a darker green than Royal Standard, and the flowers are lavender. Mine have bloomed as early as June, and sometimes twice in a year. I have them growing alongside Royal Standard and can tell the two apart by the green, bloom time, and bloom color. Here is a pic taken July 7 that shows RS on the far left corner, with some Erromena behind (you can see their flower stalks above RS) and to their right (the metal cages in front of them are for the lilies). Anyway, the color difference is easy to see here: