Hey, Faye, I see you are gainfully occupied. I can smell those apples from south Alabama, honey. And I bet those donkeys are a happy bunch, probably hee-hawing like crazy, staggering around with a bit of fermented apple in the gut. Great image. And wow to think about those BEARS coming out to get their share. Are your bears the big ones? Not grizzleys I should hope. My figs are coming in nicely, the second crop. It was delayed by all the rain, which with wind caused the tree to topple over. That delayed the little figs from developing. Then my cumquats are weighing down the limbs of the bushes which are about 9 feet tall now. The thumb-size fruits are getting some golden glow to them, but it will be around mid to late November before they are ripe enough to pick. There are also some clementines and tangerines (mandarin oranges) about to begin turning colors, which is the pride of my DH. I see no passion vine fruits at all this year. But, I plan to get the ladder out tomorrow and lop off the bunches of bananas our trees produced this year. If the winter doesn't kill the stalks, they will produce even more next year. Bananas produce on 2nd year stalks, not first year. We missed our crop of blueberries this year, because I had to trim the bushes back severely. But the new growth points to a good year in 2014. As for my hosta, I have 12" x 12' x 2" treated lumber standing by to upgrade to stadium seating for the winter sanctuary. Plus I'm getting the 1/2" hardware cloth ready to protect them from squirrel predation. And, I am also beginning to harvest the dried seedpods on the good producers. That includes a lot of fragrant hosta, open pollinated of course. I hold my breath that they will sprout. We are not affected by the Tropical Storm Karen which is mucking about offshore Louisiana presently. Maybe the descending cold front will shoot it toward us tomorrow, but nothing we haven't seen many times before. No sweat. Can you imagine hiding 400+ pots from high winds? Sheesh. So glad it is not a monster storm. But, we are ready. Once my storm is done with, I can focus on the upcoming house remodel, after which I will again have access to my gardening books, as well as finally have a REAL STOVE IN THE HOUSE. Cooking on a 2 burner WaringPro caterer's hotplate for 4 years is a bit much. So it will be a big winter for us.

Hi, are there any members of the south western Ontario Hosta society going on the first ever bus tour to hosta gardens in Michigan? Or is there anyone sharing their gardens on the tour?

I hope so arcy_gw! I am wondering if the leaves that are to follow will be healthy looking. Here's a short article I found with additional photos and information regarding cold damage. https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/diagnose/plant/annualperennial/hosta/leavesmalformed.html A couple of people on the forum recently mentioned that a particular shrub they had did not bloom this year. The article also mentions loss of flowers due to late frosts.

When plant is not getting optimum conditions they are much more susceptible to various problems. My guess hottunia bed was really rough place to live. ... As a result plant got all kinds of bacterial and fungal funk. Might take a bit to recover next year but with TLC should be back. No different than humans with compromised immune system get sick and sicker more than ones with strong immune response.