Hey.....I was sitting here falling off my chair, DH asks what 'tis, and I read this thread to him. Just so he'll know I'm not the ONLY ONE with "this small problem." His comment: "You're all crazy......" with a smile on his face. Ahhh, this is the best laugh I've had all week. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my first order of the year will ship March 23d from Naylor. I think I have enough pots. My DH will be up in MA closing the sale of his house (yes, market is picking up and from first day offered to closing will be about 5-6 weeks). So, what I'm saying is, he won't know I got any more new ones. What total does that make: about 324.....but WHO'S COUNTING NOW..... we'll see how many if any I lost over the winter to rot or squirrels.

I grow mine in pots as a temporary means until I am both satisfied with where I want them to live in the garden and also the soil where they will be planted is decent enough to not stall any progress they might be making. It sort of gives me a flexible buffer so I donâÂÂt feel pressured or rushed to get them in the ground. I also pot them up to allow me the opportunity to âÂÂbabyâ them, if need be. There is a down side to that though. Sometimes I fuss too much and I know if I just left them alone they would be fine. But, I am still so new to hostas that I feel like I would be a bad parent, throwing them straight out into the wild unknown that I call my front yard. I want to tame the jungle before I let the kids out to play. That sounds corny, but you get the point. :p I think the biggest perk though is when they are in pots I can take the whole plant and plunk it in the garden where I think I might like to place it permanently. Once I have a plant anchored I will then plan around it, and slowly the garden grows. I have tried to sit down and map out an entire bed, but I always end up more frustrated than satisfied. I need to SEE them and the other plants around it to know if itâÂÂs a good fit. Plus, I can leave them in the spot in the garden while still in the pot to test out sunlight and wind. If they end up blanching or breaking I know it might not be the best place for permanency. Ludi

My Ah-Ha moment came when I realized that I really don't have to shred my leaves to get useable leaf mold/mulch by the next season. After 3 years of doing the never-ending, back-breaking task of feeding that shredder handfuls of leaves at a time (it gets clogged if you put in too many at once), I just didn't have time to do it last fall. So, we raked them into a (albeit, HUGE) pile, and decided to deal with it later. Surprisingly, they composted down very well, and I was able to use every last bit of them, leaving a nice empty space for this year's pile! I can think of SO many things I'd rather be doing than shredding leaves, so it worked out great for me!! Karen

That is great Sherry! Hopefully the other ME and the pot show life soon too. You are way ahead of me.