it will be someone else's problem at that point ...

ken

Most certainly, I will bequeath them to my dear friend Tracy (yep, same name as me) as she is the one who started this obsession with me. She gave me a few divisions of hostas from her garden and kept going on and on and on about some of her wants until I started looking them up to see what she was going on about. Then I got bit by the "gotta have it bug". So here I am on the obsessive compulsive hosta addicts forum! So, who better to leave them to than my dear friend Tracy?

The home that we have now was previously owned by a seasoned gardener. She passed away and her husband did not keep up with the gardens. They were overgrown with grass and wild sedums. It has taken me 4 years to discover what beauty used to live here. I have been salvaging what I could but much has been lost. She was not a hosta lover but had many special daylilies. I hope she is happy with what I am trying to revive in her old gardens and likes the additions that I have made.

Tracy

Ha ha ha ha ha aha ah ah ha ha ha ....

Ken - That wasn't exactly the living legacy answer I was looking for but you are very funny.

Tracy....what a wonderful tribute to the previous gardener. I almost cried reading that.

its been a bad year in the garden .... nothing seems right ...

i just dont really care ...

and the trees better be afraid... because i am itching to kill some things with a chainsaw... the only thing stopping me is the 90 degrees heat with 90% humidity ... and the swarms of squeeters ... maybe the lack of blood in my system is part of the problems...

then the hail.. the weeds.. the drought in april.. the cold in may ...

oh for gods sake i just cant handle it all ...

pshaw ... it will be someone else's problem...

ken

Tracyvine,you are a beautiful writter,i agree with raggatagirl,i was deeply moved with your sentements and could feel the love you have of gardening.

I will leave all of mine to my daughter,she is also a hosta lover on a small scale,what she had is wonderful.And i know she will love tham as much as i do.

Carol

While working on my will, my attorney explained that I will have little control but we have worked that out. Not 5 minutes ago I spent time with my grandson talking about various varieties then he watered H.'Fragrant Bouquet' that he selected to divide and plant for his mother because she liked that color of green.

When he finally deals with the Master of all Master Gardeners that will be between him and the Master Gardener.

Thank you ladies, you are very kind. It took me a long time to stop cursing the mess that I was dealing with and discover the long lost love that used to be here. When we excavated the shade garden we found many lilies, daylilies, daffodils of countless varieties, all of which had ceased blooming due to their lack of attention and division. I sorted through piles of brush and dirt to find some samplings of what had been to replant and see what could still be. Here are a few of her loves:

EO, Give that grandson a hug, he's a sweet boy to think of his Mom like that.

Carol, It is wonderful when you can pass your love to your children and know they will appreciate it. It let's you know that your cares are their cares. That is priceless.

Regattagirl, who are you going to bequeath your collection to?

Tracyvine,
You are someone i want as my neighbor and friend.
You are a kind soul.

Carol

You mean we can't take them with us?
Well, I guess it doesn't matter because the first night I'm not around to close the gate, the deer will be in the yard eating them all! So I guess I'd better stay. lol
Pam

Carol, now their you go making me blush and feel misty, I would love to have you as my neighbor and friend. That was the sweetest thing anyone has said to me in a long time. You are good for the heart. Careful though, if you have me for a neighbor I might take up all the fences with my clematis collection.

Hello Pam, you make me laugh. Someone's got to do all the buttoning up at the end of the day, if not us then who? Yep, you better stick around.

Well...I haven't really started my collection yet, only my list.

So at this point, I suppose I should rather hope to be a beneficiary!

Tracy, I usually don't like daffodils that much )-: but that first picture is terribly sweet looking. You wouldn't know the name of it, would you....

~Jen

Looks kind of Ice Follies. Check the link below. I LOVE this company for my bulbs. Very high quality.

Jen

Here is a link that might be useful: Ice Follies from Van Engelen

"it will be someone else's problem at that point ..."

I figure what my kids don't want will end up on craigslist, you know the ads --
'I got 4 types of hostas for sale- green, green and yellow, green and white, and some yellow ones' lol.

Paul

What a great thread--it's such a pleasure to see all the complimentary postings. Tracyvine, you are wonderful to resurrect a neglected garden, and along with it the memory of a gardener who is now gone. It's a lot of work, but the rewards are worth all the effort, as your pictures show.

When the time comes that I am parted my hosta gardens, all my good friends know that they are to meet at my place and take turns digging up whatever they want. When everybody is done digging, the Dubuque Arboretum will have their choice of what's left, including all my own hybrids. The rest will go to the local Habitat for Humanity and Project Green, a local gardening group that raises money through sales of donated plants and uses the money for community garden projects. I like the thought that my hostas will bring pleasure and beauty to this area for a long, long time.

Excellent daffodil pictures--daffs are another of my garden obsessions. The first daffodil is definitely Ice Follies, a fabulous variety and probably my favorite. If you like this one, look up Ice King, which is the double version of Ice Follies, and is so full it almost looks like a peony.

The second picture is Golden Ducat, a good variety only if you keep it well nourished and in full sun. Otherwise it's prone to weak stems.

I second the vote for Van Engelen--I get all my bulbs there, and have done so for over 20 years, and they are the largest bulbs you will find anywhere, at very nice prices. This family is originally from Holland, and they have relatives over there who are still in the bulb business, so they apparently get the cream of the crop. I've gotten bags of 100 daff bulbs from them that were the size of a 10 pound bag of potatos! Most of their daffs are huge double or triple nose bulbs, and they are always true to variety, healthy, and bloom extremely well. The only drawback for some people is that for most things you have to buy 100 of each variety. That's not a problem for me on most things, since I have quite a bit of garden space, but I also find it very easy to split an order with a couple of friends who only want 10 or 20 of one kind.

"EO, Give that grandson a hug, he's a sweet boy to think of his Mom like that."
tracyvine

Here is coach PawPaw Butchie giving him a hug. We divided a hosta, Zumberized one division and planted both division tonight.

BTW, he scored the last 2 points of the season.

HOW CUTE! He's like a little EO seedling!

Bring them up in the ways of hosta and.......................

We've won every little league season because we teach shooting which leads to scoring with the same attention to detail as hosta culture. He may not grow up to enjoy gardening as we do but he will know why and how to do it.

Hopefully one day he will enjoy this place as we do, he is asleep on the floor behind me in our computer/sewing room even as we speak. No doubt with visions of crowns and petioles dancing in his head.

My wifes idea of a green thumb is sticking her thumb in green jello.
Kids water the plants!!!! I can't get them to do the dishes....HAHAHA

there dead!!!!!

Regattagirl, I am penning you into the will as we speak. It is a burgeoning collection but hopefully I will have plenty of time left on this earth to keep adding to it.

Jen, I honestly hadn't a clue which daff it was until avoirgold/Jen posted and then dhaven. There are many more varieties here that have bloomed for me finally this past spring. I had no idea how many kinds there could be. My old gardener has been opening my eyes as I have been dividing and replanting her bulbs and plants with the new flush of blooms.

Avoirgold, thank you for Id'ing that for me! Ice Follies is an appropriate name for it. I have that same picture in black and white waiting for me to find a frame for it.

Dhaven, thank you for the verification on Ice Follies, and also for id'ing Golden Ducat. There are masses of daffs here that hadn't bloomed in a very long time. I have been digging, splitting and replanting. Since I began I have been rewarded many times over by the beautiful blooms. It is enriching me as well as the gardens. I am constantly learning something new.

I am overwhelmed at your generosity to friends and community with your collection. I love that you will be paying it forward to so many after you are gone. That is a wonderful thing.

EO, your grandson is one handsome boy. Congratulations to him for scoring the last 2 points of the season. Coach Pawpaw must know a thing or two about shootin' hoops, eh? Those are cherished memories you are making with him. The gift of time with our little ones is so precious.

I had some big help and little help out in the garden today. My oldest son (18) and my younger son (7) were out helping dear old mom add on to the rock garden. I, of course, am making room for hosta to be incorporated on the shadier side of it close to the patio. The better to see my new little babies as they stretch and grow. I love spending time with the kids out in the gardens. They learn some things, we get to chat, I learn some things. Life is good. I'm glad to be here on this earth with them.

"Coach Pawpaw must know a thing or two about shootin' hoops, eh?"
tracyvine

Both my boys played High School B-ball, number 2 son was 100% from the freethrow line his senior year, his older brother won the freethrow shooting contest at a UK camp when he was 12 hitting 87 freethrows in a row. BIG BUTT the main thing for me is we have fun, never hyper serious for these little fellows.

Now that is awesome. I always love your BIG BUTT's EO. lol!

I have spent many hours weeding contemplating this very question. Will anyone care about my plants, will there be anyone taking up my trowel, how long would it take for the woods to reclaim my beds? I see shows on gardeners passing their love to children, grandchildren. So far mine have no interest. They will occasionally harvest from the vegetable garden if there are raspberries to eat. I left a garden in the city. The new owner,an apt. dweller thought it would be such fun. Two years later he invited the neighbors to come scavenge and turned it all back into grass. No, I do this for me, for now and tomorrow will have to take care itself. No one will love your garden as you do.

tracyvine - You are such a dear! I'm jealous of your hosta and now your dear children too.

dhaven - What an incredible gift to all those lucky people. I love that so many people will benefit.

arcy - You know what? You deserve to share your love with someone dear to you but you can't make someone like gardening, can you now? I mean, someone didn't MAKE me interested in it. It just sort of happened and I'm quite sure that's the case with many people here. It has to be so frustrating when you want someone your love to get the same joy you do from your digging. My mother brought her 5 children up the same way and 4 of us MUST garden (we are still working on the 5th and maybe she'll be more interested when her children are grown - she has a van full of them). My teenage nephews know every vegetable and berry and flower and hosta grandma has, and help with the heavy lifting, picking and planting. It's such a sad story that the new owner did not care for your garden but it's difficult to make someone interested just because it's presented to them. If I ever do get to buy a house where I can grown things, my luck will be that someone will have left me a mess.

In my head I can see a picture of each dear person on this forum moving through life with random flowers and gardens you don't even know about growing and blooming and flourishing whereever you've been, appearing from nowhere as you walk down the street. Maybe this all goes to show that your garden isn't the soil and plants but rather your garden is really something within you.

I LOVE this forum.

Raggatigirl, I love this forum also,i had to look again as to who first asked this question,and it was you. :0)

Reading every ones comments are so heart warming.

EO,your grandson is sure to grow up with some of your love for the earth,you are teaching him more that gardening with all you do for people, and your attitude is totally awesome.I used to tell my children when we worked in the garden,"If you plant good seed,you get a good harvest" same with our little ones.Start when they are seedlings.

Three out of four of my children love to garden,but the 4th is an Hazardousdwaste Enviromentalist,so i sort of count that,ha ha

My 13 year old grandaughter was here a couple of weeks ago, she helped me pot up fifty hosta, we had a grand time talking and laughing about every thing and nothing.

And you dear Raggata,I also will gift you some hosta as soon as you claim your own little part of this great earth.

I loved your last little parargraph,you are gifted with words.

Carol

Awww...Carol, you are such a dear that I can hardly stand it!

....my cup runneth over....

"If you plant good seed, you get a good harvest"

Carol, please take this as only discussion of how, not good or bad just dangerous in how we send messages to our little ones.

A serious truck gardener gave some children in our church some seed, potting media and pots to plant. He went on to say if they prayed over these seeds they would grow, sounds pretty simple right?

What do the kids think if they pray and the seed doesn't sprout or the seedlings die?

My point is we need to teach them the real world as God set it up where some seed doesn't sprout and others do then wither and die. But God is still or always was there with both those that lived and those that died.

I guess I make a big point because I feel I received terrible messages in Sunday School as a child that led to more doubt than faith.

My sister-in-law was in Sunday School studying the B-Attitudes as a child, they were to recite them. She had a bit of a stutter as a child and still does when she is upset, well she had a problem saying them out loud in Sunday School so the teacher berated her and told her to sit down. She did not get a star beside her name so she left after Sunday School, went to the drug store on the corner and bought the little silver stars then went back to the empty Sunday School class and placed a star beside her name and left. She has never darkened the door of a church since and doesnÂt have any faith.

I donÂt have an answer to such questions but I do offer we need to be careful about the messages we send.

And, this is not directed at you or anyone just a couple of stories from my life experiences.

EO,

Yes,I agree with all that you have said,I also, could wright a book about bad lessons i have learned through religious institutions.

Along with every thing,you have to teach that the rain falls on good people as well as the bad,the sun shines on good people as well as the bad., good things happen to bad people,bad things happen to good people.

Rather than keeping quiet while working with our little ones, it is our responsiablity to always be teaching,my children understood what i was talking about at the time.

My parents were not good parents,but,they did what they knew how to do,if they would have know better,they would have done better.

They did love to garden,so i guess i learned something from them,you can find good every where if you just look.

I do enjoy your comments,we all have a story don't we.

Carol

Oh my word--I felt like crying through every post on this thread!! This is the heart of gardening on display!

E.O.--you have the cutest grandson I've ever seen, almost! We happen to have three that are pretty darling themselves,
but yours is really up there on the list of 'cute'!!! And what a legacy you are leaving him. What you are showing him,
WILL stick--and it may not show up, till he's older but it will be there!

I appreciate the saying, "Things are caught more than they're taught"! All the preaching in the world will not make
much difference if we fail to live it out before our children and others! Kids can spot hypocrisy, a mile away, I think!

So, hey j,,

Who will you be willing your hosta to?
This is something i had thought about in times past,it is nice to re-visit it.I have so many hosta,there is no way my daughter could place them all,so, i have to think more on this one.

I do love 'dhavens' idea on donating them to Habiat for Humanity and Project Green.I will need to discuss this with my hubby and my children.

Carol

I won't wait till I die! When I no longer can care for my hosta ( and I found out this spring it may be sooner than I think) I will have the biggest hosta sale in Stephenson Co!!!

My sons don't care a lick about my garden and the last time I moved the people who bought our house said they loved the garden and then did not take care of it. So, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it!!!

If we do move I'll put it in the presale contract for the house that the hostas will be sold unless the new owners want to pay more for them. We had it in writing that we would take all the rocks from our other house.

Then again if we do plan on living here till we are 'wheeled out' I'm sure we will down size big time long before that. I always told my boys I'd be digging in the dirt till I was 75 and I have a few years left, hopefully.

Connie

Since this thread has taken this turn, off hosta, sorta I'll tell another child story.

I was putting my eldest son to bed one night when he was 5, I tucked him and told him I loved him. He started to cry so I asked, "whatÂs the trouble". He said; "I don't think you love me". WOW what a blow for "me" so I inquired as carefully as I could keeping my feelings in check.

He said; "I try to be the best little boy I can be and you beat me". WOW again for "me". A beating was a swat on the backside never hard enough to leave a mark when I felt he needed discipline. That was the message "I thought" I was sending but the message received was that I didnÂt love him.

I looked up the word discipline, which means to teach, what I taught was that I didnÂt love him. I "felt" that I knew the message and he would receive the message I "felt" I was sending, the one received was that I didnÂt love him.

Never touched him again or his younger brother again, they both were High School athletes, honor roll, both presidentÂs of their Middle School and High School classes, graduated 4 square undergraduate, 3 square Law School, passed the bar the 1st time, eldest is in one of the largest firms in this area, the youngest an attorney who is an author and publisher of specialized publications for the legal field, both now grown with children, successful lives by most standards.

If they needed corporal punishment then they overcame the lack of "discipline".

BTW, they both hate gardening. As soon as I can get my hands on them I'm going to jerk their drawers down and spank the daylights out of them for not being gardeners.

"BTW, they both hate gardening. As soon as I can get my hands on them I'm going to jerk their drawers down and spank the daylights out of them for not being gardeners."
EO

One thing I love about this forum is that I can nearly always count on getting a good chuckle, especially from either EO or Ken!

re: "BTW, they both hate gardening. As soon as I can get my hands on them I'm going to jerk their drawers down
and spank the daylights out of them for not being gardeners."

And they darn well deserve it E.O.--the very idea of not loving the garden as you do!!!! Hmmph--I'm angry for you!!! ;o)

Well--who would I will my hosta to? I am trying to get my daughters interested, but they really aren't--really! I think
they feel that they should be--but they aren't---not really!!

This thread has made me sad! I know--it was not intended to, but I really love my plants
and my garden and my home and I wonder if anyone else ever really will, after I'm gone,
one way or another. I hope so!!!

I know the daughters want the home--and they think the garden is very pretty--but would
they take care of it and LOVE it like I do---really? I doubt it!

Finally a thread I can't contribute much to--not even much nonesense either!!!!! :o(

Oh, wait--I did 'say' something, anyway, didn't I! Okay--I feel better now!! I hate feeling left out of
such neat 'conversation'!!! :o)

Ah hey_j, don't look at it that way. My kids all have different ideas about my gardens. I have 5 of the little people. Only one of them approaches me about my plants. He is very interested in the characteristics of them. I don't try to get them interested but when they show interest I respond on what they want to know and then show them a couple of neat things to go along with what they were asking about. Seed collecting has been a favorite around here. All of them want in on that.

I really like dhaven's approach. We have a garden club in our small community. If the other Tracy goes before me and the kids don't care then they will go the local garden club. They are a great bunch of folks who have a sale every year and that money goes into the schools, community center, library and much, much more. Great bunch these gardeners.

Tracy--my 'little people' are all grown up now!!! But--now--I can begin to work on the grandsons, though! :o)

Well crud, just five minutes ago they were little people! How'd they grow up so fast? ROFL! Quick, grab the grandsons and hide them in the hosta.

I can only hope I have someone to give them to, right now there is no one that would appreciate and care for my plants the way I do. My kids are still young so I have plenty of time (I hope) to figure it all out.

I'm still kicking myself for not taking my plants with me when we moved 3+ years ago. The people who moved in did NOT care at all for my plants. I had 2 big perennial gardens. (couldn't have hostas because of the deer up there).

When my daughter was approximately 6 years old we were out in the yard making a map of my gardens and putting the names of each plant on the map, she looked at me mid way and asked "Mom when you die will I get your hostas!" I asked her if she wanted them, and she answered "yes". I assured her she would as long as she wanted them! She is now almost 11 and she knows alot of the names, hopefully when the time comes she will still want my hostas and I hope she gets as much pleasure from them as I have.

I too moved into a house that had a much neglected yard after the wife passed away, and sat as an empty house for a couple of years. The yard was overgrown with black raspberries, violets, elderberry and crazy ground cover that I would never wish on anyone.

I started in one area very slowly removing unwanted overgrowth and found one small hosta, not very big, basic smaller round leaves with white edges.

I split it up in several different clumps and it was the beginning of my hosta interest. Now I have over a 100 and can't stop!

I grew up with a Mother who had a love of flowers and a Dad that grows an awesome garden. I can only hope it carries on!

She is now almost 11 and she knows alot of the names, hopefully when the time comes she will still want my hostas and I hope she gets as much pleasure from them as I have.

My mother did something simliar with each of us and once we showed a little interest, she clinched the deal by giving us each our "own" little garden and plants. Maybe even "give" her the hosta area that is most successful to guarantee a good result????

I say GO FO IT. Get ones with names that are meaningful to her. And then compliment her about her progress and results (even if you have to weed a little when she isn't looking). Ask her opinion of yours. Take photos and keep a scrapbook of how they change. Oh, I am so excited for you!

Great idea regattagirl! Her name is Abigail and she already has an Abby and Abba Dabba Do. She also has picked out new plants (1) every year! I put them amongst my other hostas, but she will definately let you know that she picked them out!

Good for you and lucky her!

REGATTAGIRL,
yOU WOULD MAKE A gREAT MOTHER.

cAROL

Awwww...Carol, that's a huge compliment. You are too sweet to me.