Wow, this board is really buzzing! So many comments in such a short time period from such helpful gardeners! Thanks, all, for responding and for the warm welcome. I'm in NJ. I actually have that in my profile, and I'm unsure as to why it's not showing up on my posts. (I don't see preferences to show/hide it.) jadie88, I was searching for variegated Solomon's Seal last summer but had no luck finding it. And this year I decided I want to try red astilbe with some lighter-colored hostas to brighten up some areas between bushes. I don't have a lot of money to spend because I'm starting my raised-bed vegetable garden this year. But I do still need to add to my gardens out front. I planted them last spring after buying my house in the fall. The front does get sun, but it's rather uneven; the right side gets more than the left due to the sizes of the trees in front. I didn't realize how much of a difference there was until I saw how the plants/flowers were growing. The impatients on the right side seemed to triple in size, while the left side did not get much larger at all! So now I must forget about having a symmetrical look out front and get to replanting. ken_adrian, I'm not sure what I was thinking! Of course, more hostas! I can't wait to read through this forum to get more ideas and become more educated on hostas! (My mom had hostas when I was growing up, but she was amazed as well when I showed her photos of some of the varieties!)

If you don't want to drink, don't go to the bar. I was beggin for an intervention last year. Now, I am just "real" with the fact that I'm an addict and from the months of May thru October, Hosta-ing and hosta-crawls are just my life. I can handle only one obsession in my life at a time. In the non-gardening months (November thru early May in MN), I'm a scrapbooker (a scrap-a-holic).... even had to start selling Creative Memories to feed that habit. In the next few years, I may have to start selling hosta to feed this habit. I will happily lament WITH you or TO you when you run out of space... and you've just brought home a hosta that will ultimately need 6 feet or more of space. I will tell you of sales I've gone to, or seen on the internet. I will even show you my "haul". Thank Goodness I have an outlet here and have found other simlarly minded lovers of this amazing plant. Were it not for here, I would not have learned about the wonderful features of Earth Angel of Liberty. They looked pretty ordinary in the pots when I saw them. But now, I can see why they were MUST HAVES!

They seem to like the Albomarginata and the Wheee! They didn't really like Fire Island's blooms, though. I thought they would because they were so bright purple. Maybe it was too close to the door and the cats for their comfort? They also liked Midwest Magic's blooms. But I am not surprised.... MM's coloring is very bright and attractive to them, not just the blooms. The only other one that's bloomed so far is Paul's Glory but they were not on him either. However, his just bloomed this morning so maybe they didn't see it yet?

As to the garbage can idea---if you have it exposed to the sun at all, it's going to heat up. (Think how a car sitting the sun will heat up in the winter.) You don't want that. I'm familiar with zone 6 weather, having lived & gardened there for many years, so I have some idea of what you're dealing with...that is, you need to keep the soil cold when you get those weather warm-ups in mid-winter. i.e., the idea behind the insulation is to keep the heat out and the cold in the pots, to moderate the inevitable wide swings in temperature. (Think 'ice chest'.) If the pots are not in the sun, then the insulation board on top of the pots is prolly going to be sufficient. If the pots get any am't of sun OR are close to a bldg., then you need to think about keep the whole shebang cold. Naturally, you would place the insulation barrier around the pots after it's turned cold, really cold. About the wood tops idea...an inch of wood has an R-value of less than 1.5...compared to R-5 for an inch of XPS (the pink stuff) and R-8 for ISO (the foil faced yellow stuff). So, although wood is an insulator, there are better choices. Of course, you could glue XPS to the wood if you want to. Oh yeh, the pink stuff, XPS, will hold up to the elements much better than the foil faced ISO--it's yellow underneath the foil and is much more brittle than XPS. Also, the R-value of ISO degrades to where it's only marginally better than XPS.