This lavender side of the Hosta Forum has a lot going on. What a valuable resource to educate those of us who are new to hostas and had no idea what we needed to know. But this makes it as easy as the Arthur Murray dance steps, we at least can make a start at smartening up. A gentle way of showing the way. Thanks so much.

Explored the forum further and found ......a wealth of gorgeous plants, took enough names to blunt my pencil, and learned a LOT. But now I see that it will be impossible to entertain thoughts of having a big yard full of hosta. I am in awe of the work put into creating the beautiful places you toured. Thank you so much for your efforts. Great job.

Ted and Harvey are a gas! They bought a house with incredible architectural design - the first home designed by Jacob J. Liebenberg for his own family. He went on to be a quite influential architect of theatres (over 200 including local favorites such as The Uptown and The Suburban)and homes in Minnesota. Though the house wasn't open for the tour, I have seen a couple of rooms. When you enter the front foyer, they say that you can see 17 gothic arches, either windows or doorways or passage tops... As Paul said, this is really a small city lot... irregular in shape... and Ted's vision has changed year after year. He realized early on that if he wanted a large gathering area - a big garden room - then everything else had to revolve around it. He decided to instead plan around a series of little intimate areas, each offering its own views and room for perhaps two-four people. It's always changing. We asked Harvey about his orchid collection - the last time we visited there were many orchids hanging in the trees, much as one might see in the tropics. He said he got rid of all of his - 30,000! - in 2006, and all they have left are a couple that were gifts. They have frequently been featured in magazines and on tours. For a professional magazine photo slide show, you can go to http://www.mspmag.com/homes/landscapinggardening/146668.asp If you watch the slide show, keep in mind it is all taken with wide angle lenses. This place is not as large as the photos suggest. The impact comes with incredible attention to detail, not with size. I can see them being concerned about having poorly-behaved kids there. You frequently cross the water features, and they are something like six feet deep. Many of the koi are larger than any fish I've ever caught - I had some of the attendees convinced that the guys liked to ice fish and that they took one a week for fresh fish during the winter. Kids love the koi - but there is amazing opportunity to fall in here. For example, you cross one section by stepping from on "floating" island of stone to another to a third... really huge slabs in the range of 10 square feet surfaces, mounted on invisible cement peers. though flat, one still has the sense of jumping stone to stone across a stream. This garden is about as yin to the yang of my garden as can be. I have half an acre, spread out... huge deck and screen porch area, designed to accomodate parties of 50 or more outdoors, with vistas of the gardens. It is informal to a point verging on sloppy. I describe this only to make the contrast - at Ted and Harvey's garden, every square inch is manicured, every feature has been thought about and frequently altered. The plant materials are often exotic... evergreens that vine, twisting along the stines of the iron fencing, for example, and zone-breaking plants in microclimates that deny their placement in frigid Minnesota zone 4. They have some pretty special hostas - they are close friends with Hideko Gowen who is, in turn, the inheritor of much of Herb Benedicts collection which she has combined with many plants she has brought back from her trips to her homeland, Japan. To me, going to their garden is a little like going to Disneyland. It's a magical kingdom... not a place that I could live in every day - I'm more of a "where did I leave my shoes" kind of guy - but an amazing place to visit! I've got maybe 40 pictures and no time to go through them... I'll just pick one small area - the biggest seating area in the garden, a room built on top of a mound of dirt that came from excavating one of the ponds. I think I could sit here and read a book for a year or two...

What a beautiful slide show! Thank you for that link. None of my friends here on the Left Coast have ever seen a hosta growing in the ground, just my small collection in pots. You are causing a lot of jaws to drop in awe. GREAT! -Babka