Hello all- I am new here so I'm not really sure how this works, but I thought it was worth trying... I have a dear friend who lost his son a few years ago. His family has spent numerous hours creating a memory garden for their son on a piece of land that was donated to them. The land is gorgeous and it is wonderful as it is used by youth camps so many people are able to see and use this wonderful garden. My friend was very kind and had a stone made for my brother who has also passed and placed it in the garden as well. We are planning on making a trip to visit my friend this summer and I would love to have a few plants for him and his family to make part of their garden. This space is wooded so receives very limited light, so hostas would work great. I have a few plants that I could trade, unfortunately none of them are too special, but hopefully someone out there would be interested... Iris - Unknown color Chives Sedum ground cover with yellow flowers Striptease hosta Golden Tiara hosta Unknown varigated hostas Francee hosta Ditch lilies... everyone's favorite! :) If anyone is interested please just send me a note. Again, I'm brand new to this, but would love to do one or two larger swaps. Thanks in advance!

Silver/Water maples are the worst... just finished digging out roots from a bed thats nearly 20 feet away from 40 foot tall water maple..but really anything with a feathering, surface dwelling root system sucks... no experience with fruit or nut trees... but I don't like the idea of something else to clean up off the ground and the fruit or whatever falling and beating the crap out of my plants.... plus the birds... oh bird eats cherry... bird poops cherry on my hosta... great I'm planting eastern white pines here in Kentucky now to shade an acre of our property that used to be pasture.... I like the idea of pine needles as mulch and since all of our current trees are deciduous... I wanted some evergreen action. Pines tend to keep the ground dry though... so irrigation is necessary...Some populations of slugs hate pine as well.. Lots of people like oak... acorns attract squirrels too, which are fun. The oak tree is epic as well... Black Walnut hulls and some other varieties of walnuts contain juglone which is a natural selective herbicide... note that les says it does lots of the weeding for him... though other ornamental/flowering plants you have and want to plant may not like it lol.... Just some thoughts.. John

Guardian Angel seems to be a variety that comes out of tissue culture with a wide range of coloration among the plants. Some have very light centers even as juvenile plants, some show only very subtle coloration as young plants, and most are somewhere between these two extremes. The ones that are solid colored should be culled by the lab, but this does not always happen, and occasionally I see a solid colored plant. After working with a number of these small plants over the last 5 years, it has become obvious that juvenile coloration is the best indicator of mature coloration. In other words, if you want a GA that will hold it's coloration and look great all season, buy a plant that looks very good at a small size. The less showy baby plants will show some coloration in the spring as more mature specimens, but they will never be as showy as a plant that shows excellent coloration at a very early age. The plainer baby plants also seem prone to green up fairly early. Location will play some part in retention of coloration, with more sun generally producing better and longer lasting coloration, but this is not always consistent. My original GA is in 3/4 shade, with no direct sun, only heavily dappled light. I picked it out as the best colored plant out of a large group of juvenile GA, and it retains it's flashy colors all season, with very little darkening, even in August. The lower leaves darken a bit, but not much, and the rest of the plant shows excellent coloration right through the fall. The second GA I purchased was more intermediate in it's juvenile coloration, and was planted in about 1/2 sun, but it still loses much of it's coloration by mid July. I have 2 more this year that have quite good coloration as juveniles, and they are retaining it quite well so far, in spite of being in only 1/2 sun. If your GA isn't showing good coloration now, it is likely one of those that will look good in the spring, then fade to a darker coloration by the middle of the summer. The picture of the GA at Hornbakers, which is only about an hour from my garden, looks like Blue Angel to me. GA has a slightly more wedge shaped leave, but more importantly, GA has a distinctively ruffled, wavy edge, shown very nicely in Shade Tolerant's picture. Even those GA that lose coloration retain the ruffled edge throughout the season. The plant at Hornbakers may have been mislabeled, or it may, over several years, have reverted back to Blue Angel, or sported to a solid green plant. Golden Meadows is another variety that is quite variable in the retention of it's coloration. Most GMs go solid dark green fairly early in the summer, but I have one that keeps some coloration, although it's muted, most of the summer. I've seen a GM that had quite distinctive coloration all season, although again, more muted than in the spring. Grow your new GA out for a year or two, and if you are not pleased with it, consider buying a new one with better coloration. This is a variety that will be around for quite some time, as it's quite popular and sells well. The price has gotten to a reasonable point, and it's easy to locate. I've seen several on the Hosta Library auction site that had excellent coloration, so if a local nursery doesn't have it, that might be a good source. It is also possible that your new plant is stressed from being potted, and next spring it might surprise you with beautiful coloration.

Those are both nice looking plants guys! It is amazing the difference the sun makes. I would not have thought the one I had seen before to be the same. I am starting to think I like the ones that get more sun. I really like the irregular leave markings.