Wow! Thanks for the beautiful pictures. Looks like I need to take a drive down to Salt Lake. The sale I went to last night had quite a few that were around $20 or more. I bought a Paul's Glory and Earth Angel this year at Valley Nursery in Uintah for $15 each and they are both pretty big plants. I also bought Dancing Queen there for $12 but it only has 1 eye. It was so cute that I just couldn't pass it up. J & J Nursery in Layton sells a lot of different ones for $8 and I picked up a Kiwi Full Monty (7 eyes) and a Ripple Effect (4 eyes) and somehow I still think I need more. Ha Ha, I must be addicted! BTW, your little boy is darling! Linda :)

Yeah, the 2 yr old Dick Ward I have (from PDN) is about as hot a yellow gold in the middle, heavy substance, and the dark green border. Very little has bothered it from being moved out of the ground last fall into a pot, where it presently is, no slug problems, and don't think I have any sawfly larva issues either. You'll love having that to look at. It just glows! I also got my order from LOTG, and they could not ship the hypoleuca due to frost damage, will give me a $25 credit, wish they'd have called, I'd have asked for extra Masquerades or a bigger venusta. My Irish Luck was a single eye, big around as a leek though, and it is fine. The Honeybells has about 4 big shoots and about 8 or more eyes that are trying to poke up. It looks like a division of a mature plant to me, a humongous fat round bunch that has a satisfactory set of roots to hold it up. I got a So Sweet which was a mature division too, sort of sideways growing, and I replanted it sideways as well, because the big mass of roots and crown had a lot of eyes ready to pop up it seemed. And yes, Ken, I taped the leafed out guys up by their petioles. The problem plant was the small venusta, which I am giving some intensive care in a terrarium. It had a nice top okay, but there was only one big thick 1/8" thick root going straight down with only a few fuzzy little feeder roots on the side. Today I dosed it with RootTone, put it in a small pot with new media, and closed the lid until it started condensing, then I gave some ventilation. I've rooted a lot of things this way, much easier. I figure the nursery is familiar with the return/repeat customers and has no idea what my preferences are, or my gardening style. So I'll probably order from them again, just do it at the end of the season instead of the beginning. Wonder if I can get a hypoleuca at the end of the season? Oh yeah, I always comment on the way the order was packed, and LOTG packed perfectly, very close together to keep the wrapped plants from drying out any more than could be helped. They were not wilted on arrival, nor damaged. Still one order yet to arrive, from Savory. Also in the far north. They were my last order placed, so I just lumped everything else with them. Next time, I will have a better plan. Getting 12 plants so late in my growing season is a problem I wish to avoid. Oh yeah. And I have a First Choice winning, Afterglow, that is supposed to ship soon from Walters. So far no notice though.

Esther, like you, I was leery of mail order hosta. My first experience 5 years ago, ended in disappointment. Here's what changed my mind: Last year, at the AHS national convention, I met Gary from Naylor Creek. There, I purchased several of his lovely plants and they all did wonderfully. So, I dipped my toe into the water and bought 3 from Naylor on the Hosta Library auction. They all did great, so over the winter, I decided to JUMP IN! I ordered from Hallsons (the best size plants for the money, and excellent quality), Naylor Creek (excellent quality, but smaller plants since they were newer cultivars), Jim's (decent size plants, but they were limp on arrival... all but one perked up to almost normal with an overnight soaking of the roots), Glenbrook (good quality plants), In the Country Garden & Gifts (plants were healthy, but small since they were newer cultivars). All in all, I am quite pleased with my purchases, though I do miss the thrill of shopping locally now. The one bit of advice I can offer you is this: Unwrap the bare root plants as soon as they arrive. Do not allow them to cook on your front porch. When you unwrap them, consider taking a rubber band and banding the tag to the crown. Have a bucket of water ready to soak them in overnight. This will remind the roots to start actively taking in water again. At this point, I chose to pot mine in potting mix with HYDRATED Soil Moist crystals. My beds were too wet to plant in at that point and spots weren't prepared yet anyway. I put the pots in a slightly shady location and made sure they stayed moist. I started planting them this weekend. They'd been potted for about 2 weeks. So far, they look great. I do think the key is the overnight water soak! But do NOT allow them to stay in their wrapper at this time of year!

ken sent me some plants marked on the leaf bottom and i thought that is a great way to tag the plants but when i looked for the the tag the next year i couldn't find it LOL seriously it is a great idea when you send plants or get a whole buch of new ones even if they have tags