I managed to cough up a 114. _________________________________________________ The geniuses at a local radio station and Six Flags over Georgia decided it would be good idea to have a promotion one day last week where everyone would get in for free between 6am-9am. This happened to be Spring Break for most schools around here. Reportedly there were THOUSANDS of parents too cheap to pay for the price of admission who started getting there as early as 2:00am. Soon, traffic was completely grid-locked for all the surrounding interstates and surface streets. Some "Parents" were dropping off their kids on the interstate before dawn hours (ie. in near complete darkness) and let them walk the rest of the way. Nice, no?! If this hadn't happen right here, I would've thought it was all made up. Reminds me of the WKRP in Cincinnati episode where they do a promotion for the station for Thanksgiving!!! Seemed like a GREAT idea at the time. Here is a link that might be useful: Thanksgiving Turkey Drop

Ctopher-- the packaging pouch containing the test components was very clearly labeled HVX. The sample extract bags and instructions were for HVX but the test strips they gave me were for cucumber mosaic virus. As I'm sure you know, the labeling letters on the strips are pretty tiny. I had never used this test before, nor is my eyesight that great. Only if the outer packaging pouch had been labeled CMV would I have noticed. On the plus side, Agdia overnighted a new HVX test kit at no charge (which arrived less than 24 hours after I called them!) and only one of the six hostas I re-tested was positive. Not much false hope given by those first six mismatched tests. Also, the buffering solution in the HVX sample extract bags is the same as the solution used for a CMV test, so I essentially got a free set of CMV tests out of it. Not that I was particularly concerned about CMV. If there are any hosta peeps in central VA who are, stop by the house and I'll hook you up.

Hi George - Many thanks for the tips on H+H (lacecap)+A combo. The more I look at the photos you have posted I'm getting tempted to completely eliminate mowing grass in the entire lower tier of the backyard and compose it with just pebble or flagstone walks. I can start with the shaded back half (2-3 hrs of early AM sun & perhaps 45min-1hr of setting sun) the home of most of my 4-5 varieties of Hostas - 3 layers under the corner Crab apple tree (turns beautifully red with fruits for the birds in Winter). The rest of that border measures 32ft Lx7ft (dpth) also houses 3 layers of hostas and groundcovered by White Nancy, Shell Pink & Arch Angel Lamium. I've already sank in Alice at the end where my sunny butterfly border starts, I may want to keep the taller Hostas that are now just shooting up with their buds (have lovely jasminey scent in Aug - DK name) ... the lower growing (F wms. , Francee, & snow white?) are just done. 'will perhaps dig up a few to make room for H and would like one more Querci there too. Well I'll have time to plan this Winter ... so glad to have found this place last year - so grateful for all the help, advice and inspiration I have received, truly!!!!!!! BTW how far from the trunk of the tree are you able to safely put your lacecaps,- considering the frequent watering they require (re: above pics) - also how do you keep slugs away (I have to use 'Sluggo') some years ago I was told to serve them a can of beer daily in a bowl ... all got are the drunken bunnies that could not run fast enough for some preditors to get them - obviously, no more Heineken served in the Hosta plantation!!!!

I did not read all the responses to the original post, so I am sorry if I repeat some already posted thoughts. OK, Hosta (or Hostas, see thread on Hosta pluraldom earlier posted, teehee). Here, mixed experiences. For many years now we took all the potted Hostas to a 'wintering' area, packed them in close (note: Zone 4 here), surrounded them with straw bails. The idea was to create a stable, temperature 'mass' to protect them over the winter. As we have about 200 varieties in pots, and at an average of about 5 pots per variety, this was a very time and energy intensive project, both in Fall putting them 'down' and then again in Spring bringing them back out. Last Fall I broke my foot and ankle, so all the usual Fall projects went undone. My wife and I discussed this problem. I said, 'Hey, we have, for several years now, left potted Hostas in a few 'back' areas for evaluation, quarantine, and other reasons, and they've, by and large, lived, so let's relax and leave all the several hundred ones out exposed this winter, take a chance. Worked! So many hours and stress relieved, woohoo! Then again, this past winter was very mild, even here in Z4. Shifting gears: Every so often m'lady plants Hostas in an un-drain holed pot. WHOOPS, not good. You are now aware. Prepare various drill bits to give drainage. Shift to 3rd gear: Every so often we've, in a hurry or lazy, dropped 'potted' hostas into holes in the garden. Most of the time we've gotten away with that. However, . . . just last week I had red-flagged (I bought some Home Depot 'Red Flags') a Hosta that was exhibiting all of the classic 'root bound' symptoms. I assumed it was our usual problem of Red Pine (almost as bad as Maple) tree root strangulation. WRONG! Turned out this time it was a Hosta that had been 'dropped' into the garden in a pot, and it root-bound itself. No wonder, it was a big monster type Hosta (one of the several dozen S&S children) and was only in a nursery gallon pot, yikes! We've gotten away with this before because the pot planted Hosta just grew out the bottom and went on to thrive, but this time we were burnt. I could go on with another gear, but by now I'm sure you get the picture: potted Hosta is a whole 'nother discussion, and many folk will tell varied stories, or so I hope! Thanks for re-starting an always interesting story! Potted plants are what some folk have to do, others choose to do, and so many other points in between. As alway, we wish you all the best with your green thumbs, hh