Jan,
Welcome to the hosta hobby!

That experience of yours is the same I had in 2009. Starting 1987 I had bought and planted those hostas available via catalog and local nurseries, around 32 varieties. Since 2009 I replaced many of those older ones and their duplicates with around 138 new varieties.
I have about 170 different varieties now, around 250 hostas total. I have also 60 different dwarf conifers, all on less than half acre residential lot.
I also have one seed tray with hosta seeds on heat mat and under lights, next week I will add another one. What else can you do, you need to see hostas all year!
See www.http://hostaseedlings.com/index.php

There is also the American Hosta Society, check on their website about your local hosta societuy.
Bernd

Bernd -- I am quite intrigued with several hosta growers on this site who also grow conifers -- I had no idea there were so many different miniatures. If you can fit so many into your space perhaps I will start checking out possibilities in my yard. Plants that are above ground in winter are a definite plus.

Jan

Welcome Jan. I am a small collector also. Not a large yard since I have all my flowering shrubs and perennials I'm not willing to give up. I have 45 but will be adding very few now since I am out of room and don't want to add anything more that I need to cut back in the fall. I'm looking to the future and adding more shrubs and cutting back on perennials now, other than my Hosta and a few choice perennials.

hi jan ... sounds like an AA greeting .. lol ..

where in CA??? i have a friend that runs a hosta club out of the windsor area .... i can get you info ...

also.. have you found ... oh.. i just blanked out.. margo and hugo's .. God rest their souls.. hosta biz.. out toward london ONT somewhere.. anyone, help me with the name.. if its still viable???

come back often.. and learn how to use a camera and post pix...

be careful though.. we are enablers.. lol

ken

link below.. appin.. london.. whatever.. lol ...

i should add a caveat.. that i knew the prior owners.. and have no idea about the current owners ....

BTW.. my bio can be seen by clicking my name.. i have a few.. to say the least ...

the hosta society.. offers a couple nice magazines every year .. and is considered worth the fee to join ... their website also list two other dealers which i am not familiar with ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thanks Ken! Hosta Choice is the very place I discovered. I live in London, so it's just a nice drive to Appin and lots of inspiration when one gets there! The current owner landed there from Vancouver Island I believe, poor man. A few winters in Ontario may make him question that move. Meanwhile he seems to be working really hard and making great progress with garden revamping etc.

Jan

Welcome, Jan. My story is similar to yours as well. In the early 90s I started a small Hosta collection ordering from the old Klehm catalog. Remember that one? Then I moved to take a more high powered job and had less time to garden. In July of 2010 I retired from that job and took up where I left off.

I discovered this site in my search for new sources of Hosta. As of right now I have about 200 different cultivars of Hosta on a little more than an acre of land. Last year I made 6 different new beds that use Hosta as the primary plant, so most of my plants are only a year old. This year I'm trying to diversify. I'm putting in a large new mixed border that will be full sun. But I still have a lot of room for more Hosta in a woodland setting in the back of my property.

As you may have seen, some of the gardens of the members of this site are stunningly beautiful. If you haven't yet, I would suggest checking out the pictures in the Gallery section. That will ensure your addiction.

Steve

Thanks Steve -- I haven't checked out the gallery yet (it has taken me 2 months of reading time to get through this forum!!!) I'm really impressed with the photography talents displayed here though, and believe me I understand how people get hooked.You have lots of space to play with a whole acre. And isn't retirement just the best?
Jan

I'm disadvantaged. I only have about 30. I live in Texas and they have to be in full shade here. They also do better in pots here, so that limits how many I can have as well.

I bought 3 bare root hosta in boxes at Sam's about 15 years ago. They didn't do well, so I stuck them in pots until I could find a better place for them. They improved. About 5 years ago, I found some at Lowe's and potted them up. I've been buying a few along and enjoying them ever since. I still have two of the three original plants, but tossed one that was diseased.

Welcome to the hosta forum.

bkay

Welcome to the obsession!
We moved into our house in May 2006.
I started my garden in 2007, right before my daughter turned 1 year old. The previous owners had made a series of terrible landscape decisions and May of 2007 started the journey of correcting nearly every planting decision they made.

Our lot is 100' wide x 150' deep. So, 1/3 acre. Very typical rectangle lot on a very typical 10-year old suburban Twin Cities neighborhood. If you'd like to see the whole journey, including pics, check out my blog: KoskasHostas.wordpress.com.

The previous owners left behind about a dozen hostas. Some I've identified, but most I have given away.

By the end of my first year, I had around 70 hostas and most of the groundwork for my beds had been laid... though a lot of tweaking had to be done.

By the end of 2008, I had 183 varieties
By the end of 2009, I had 240
By the end of 2010 (my obsession year), I had about 400
And at the end of 2011, around 500, but I've yet to reconcile my inventory, so that figure is give or take 20.

I do not like to acquire duplicates, so I'm pretty much done with shopping at local garden centers. In the Twin Cities, however, we have a few hosta specialty gardens. But at this stage, I think most of my purchases will be mail order.

My main garden runs the entire width of the backyard. And it varies from as little as 8 feet deep, to as much as 20 or so. It also runs up the left side of my lot about 40 feet and about 30 feet on the right.

My 2nd hosta garden is about 25-30' wide x about 15' deep. The 3rd is out front and is about 20' wide x 5-8' deep.

Ok, that's enough for now. There's a slideshow in the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Melissa's 2011 Garden Slideshow

Hi,and welcome,Jan! I started in 2003,in what is now my garden in the woods. I now have 339 hostas(not including seedlings) and 225 varieties. My garden is on the side of a small mountain,and I have 1/2 acre of land,but most of it is too steep to garden on. See one of my pics on this forum,'Pics from early spring' Phil

Welcome!!

I've been hanging around here for far too long. To answer your questions:

How many: Somewhere around 80 varieties.

How much: No land, just a couple of backyard decks with hostas in pots.

How long: Since the late 1990's

I'm growing them where they don't normally grow, but I don't care.

-Babka

I've been a gardener all my life, and worked in a garden/center nursery for 16 years before I retired, now I just work there part time in the spring (and full time in the garden).

I only started actively collecting hostas about 12 years ago, tho I was already growing a few of them here and there in the garden. Right now, we have about 700 hostas on our acre, maybe 500 different varieties. I haven't counted lately. A lot of them are mature, but for the past three years we've been developing our small woodland and building beds where there previously was nothing but honeysuckle, so many of our plantings are only a year or two old. One bed was new last fall, one will be new this spring so we have a lot to look forward to. And still a lot more room; believe me, 700 hostas can easily get lost in an acre! It doesn't look like we have nearly that many as most of them are closer to and all around the house, mixed with other shade perennials. Some are species types that blend with my other passion, native wildflowers, in the woods; and I also have a bed of miniatures.

I'm not what you might call a "serious" collector with whole beds of nothing but hostas as far as the eye can see. While I do love some of the new "designer" hostas, and can't resist a few new ones every year, I tend to plant groups of the same varieties in drifts, as ground cover, edging, etc, mixing them with ferns and under shrubs. I have a lot of albo marginatas and plantaganeas!

Beyond that, I like to collect varieties that are different from each other (the 10' rule--identifiable from 10' away) and my latest interest is older cultivars (before l980) and species, or as I like to think of them, wildflower hostas. This year I'm playing around with seedlings too, just for the fun of it.

One of my favorite parts of hosta growing is that they are very low maintainence for me. I can plant them, watch them grow, and hardly have to lift a finger as they get bigger and more beautiful each year.

But I am increasing the herd by some 40 plants this year. Welcome to the obsession.

Sandy

Wow Melissa -- that's quite a 5 year run of amazing shopping opportunities! Strolling about your gardens must be quite an experience. At the first opportunity I will be checking out your blog and slideshow.

bkay and babka -- I have enjoyed your many posts about growing hostas "out of the area". I'm very intrigued with pots and think your plants look really great that way, but my husband and I are retired and spend about three months at a cottage every summer. My son keeps lawns and gardens watered as needed, but plants in pots are probably just too needy to succeed here.

Phil -- I am so impressed that you know that you have 339 hostas exactly! You must be a great keeper of records.

chohio -- I'm glad to hear from someone with a more modest collection --- I'm a bit out of my element here!!!

and Sandy -- working in a garden centre would be a bit of a dream for me, but dangerous. Like Christmas morning every time a new shipment of plants showed up! I'm glad to hear that you consider your hostas to be rather low maintenance. That's why I planted my first "group" this past summer, and then I started reading about HVX, foliar nematodes, root rot, crown rot, southern blight, voles, deer, groundhogs, hail -- do the problems never end???

Jan

Working in a garden center IS dangerous. As I said, I only work part time there now--and I take my wages in plants, lol!

I do have deer, but I deal with that and I think I have those "woods rats" pretty much under control. So far no insects or diseases that I worry about, and I don't use any form of chemicals on my property, so natural predators abound. Can't control the weather, but that's the way it goes. I haven't lost any hostas to it except a few young ones during the drought this summer. Voles? Cats, snakes, hawks.

Groundhogs eat other things. They love violets and I have lots of them.

I keep a sharp eye out for HVX and have only had one or two plants with it, those were dealt with, and no plant in the bed where it occured gets transplanted into any new area.

Slugs are not too much of a problem, with toads and turtles underfoot everywhere.

Good luck, enjoy your hostas, and don't over-stress about them!

Sandy

Melissa -- I just watched your slide show three times, and briefly checked out your blog (I'll be back soon to read it all). I'm rather speechless. Your gardens are spectacular. How can one person (or two) possible do all that work? And there was mention somewhere of a job (ie. one with pay!) And be a Mom, and write a blog??? Please tell us you have a gardener!
In awe, Jan

Hi, Jan, welcome to HA (as opposed to AA-ha).

I started when we moved into this house 15 or 16 years ago, but did not become a serious addict until I discovered the enablers on this forum. I am not sure how many I have, but I would guess around 150 at this point. The mongrel horde, aka the galloping gardeners, have dug up one entire garden area, though or I would have more. It used to be so pretty. Darn chipmunks love burrowing behind the wall and the wrecking crew feel obligated to attempt to remove them *sigh*

My newest obsession is finding some of the Academy hosta named for people, places, creatures from The Lord of the Rings. So far only Celeborn is available for sale from Jim's. Attempts to contact Steve directly have failed. Guess I will need to be patient.

So far, the deer around here are few and don't seem to bother my yard which is really a deer smorgasbord. Score one for the pups.

Anyway, glad you are here and I will look forward to more. Enjoy all the wonderful pics the others have posted in the past. It is an inspirational activity now that winter is here.

Cynthia

Hi Cynthia
How sad to have your wrecking crew trash your hard work. I would never have been able to imagine being emotionally attached to a plant before, but some of those potted beauties were SO gorgeous when I planted them last fall that I will be out there watching in early spring, and I will be really sad if they don't show up. My cats help with pest eradication, but so far don't dig and disrupt the plants.
Jan

Hi, I started Alta Birdsong (my garden) in 1998. Bought my first hosta, Patriot, in 2001. I have about 140 varieties in my full shade garden. It is 90X140. (I could not imagine owning one of those big acre+ gardens). I also collect Japanese maples and Clematis.
PS I love posting pictures.

Jan, the only gardener at our house is ME! Hubby hasn't dug a hole since I was preggers in 2006 and brought a few plants with us from the old house. He has helped remove trees and shrubs, but hasn't done anything with perennials or with edging or anything else garden related.

Job.... sorta. I did go back to work for 8 months in 2009. That year was tough cuz I had a lot of gardening I wanted to do, but resented the garden since I had no time to spend in it. We determined that at that time, me working outside the home wasn't right for our family (for a whole host of reasons). And I started doing in-home daycare for a friend of mine who is a teacher. So, I had summers off. I did that until October of 2011. But on January 3, I go back to work (outside the home) again.... at least until we are able to adopt our 2nd child (we're in the waiting period, hoping for a match soon). I hope I don't resent my garden like I did before. But I do not intend on adding nearly as many in the future.

I am fortunate that my daughter is EXTREMELY well mannered and rather easy to parent. When she was little, I'd bring her out with me and plop a walker out in the grass for her to watch me. And now, she just hangs out by the playset.

The blog kinda took a back seat this year. I guess I didn't feel like I had as much to say this year.

We now have 2 puppies. Hopefully, since they'll be a year old next year and pretty potty trained, they'll be a bit easier to deal with.

Thank you for your wonderfully kind words!

Melissa -- You are at such a great time in your life with your energy and enthusiasm and great little daughter and puppies, but I remember how busy those years can be. But you have already turned your yard into a little piece of paradise and hopefully it will continue to thrive and delight you even with fewer hours of hard labour.
Best of luck with your return to the paid labour force this week, and I hope all goes well with your adoption plans.

SWMO -- I discovered your web site a couple of weeks ago, so I know about your fabulous gardens and your considerable skill and vision from behind the lens of a camera. I am very surprised though to hear that your space isn't that much bigger than mine. Your photos make it look like a huge spread! I think the photo currently gracing my wallpaper is one of yours -- an inviting brick path that takes me between an oak leaf hydrangea and a breathtaking Liberty in front of a birdbath every time I turn on my computer. Thanks for inviting us into your masterpiece!
Jan

Jan, thanks for the sympathy. It is irritating, but those pups (mother and son rescues) bring us so much joy. It really did look pretty and would have filled in wonderfully over the last couple of years had everything not been destroyed. The only thing that survived, and barely, is the hydrangea. All the azaleas, the hosta, the sweet woodruff, goat's beard, etc. couldn't hold up to the running across and digging antics. Ah well. I will try again this spring. With luck the galloping gardeners have calmed down a little and the chipmunks will have moved on to a less enervating home. Of course, I picture them like the cartoon ones-taunting the dogs and winning in the end. :)

I don't know how many I have but quite a few. I've gotten to the point where I don't want to buy any more, only grow my own seedlings.

I grow them to beautify the yard, not as a collection. And I have a lot of duplicates because some are just so great you need more of them.

I'd say if you get more than 100 varieties, you are growing them for the sake of having different names and sacrificing quality for quantity.

Hello Jan et al.

I have 55 or so different cultivars in a small suburban garden. I began with a nice blue hosta that caught my eye in a nursery (Bressingham Blue). I liked it so well I purchased a new hosta or two every year. I thought I was a real hosta collector. Then, in 2010, the American Hosta Society had its annual meeting here in Minneapolis. I went and toured all the gardens. Unbelievable. I realize now, that I mearly dabble in hosta collecting.

I mostly read the forum as I have yet to figure out this picture thing. My DH bought me a camera for Christmas though, "the exact same one Mctavish uses" he said, so I plan to post pictures this next summer. I will practice a little this winter, but with non-hosta pictures.

Its good to meet you as it has been great to meet the others here this past year.

Beverly

Look what happens when I have been gone for a couple of weeks. It seems like a year.

Hi Jan and welcome. My experience is similar to yours times two. My first was when I lived in Arkansas. When I moved to IL I had no beds suitable for hosta and had to leave almost 100 plants behind.

Now I have four relatively small beds with 56 different hosta in them. With my latest, my new "Noopiming Garden", being opened this spring I will be able to add more. Sweet! When I expand it around an ancient lilac (featuring a dwarf micro-garden)to my cold house plan to be adding maybe 20-30 more.

Les

I should amend my initial statement. I meant I have about 150 total on my half-acre, not 150 different varieties. I have five or six June, for instance.

Still, when I see new ones like the LOTR Academy Hosta, I always think it would be fun to have them together as long as they are ones I think are pretty. I have lots that have to do with themes like Sky Dancer, Braveheart, etc. for DH who was an Air Force pilot in Vietnam, named ones like Barbara Ann for my sister (I think that one may have succombed to the mongrel horde) the first June was for an aunt, etc.

Melissa, thanks for the slide show. It is always nice to wander through everyone's gardens. I can never get enough, especially this time of year...hint, hint all you others. ;)

esox -- I admire people with the discipine to "design" their gardens; mine just sort of evolves, and I don't have enough space to plan for duplicates. My "deal" with myself is that as long as I can remember the names of each of my hostas I can get more! So space won't be the only limiting factor!

Beverly -- "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" eh? I envy you visiting all those tour gardens. I've been enjoying them on the gallery posts, and can only imagine how spectacular they must be in person. We will all be looking forward to the results of your new camera!

Les -- How sad to leave all those hostas behind. But how exciting to choose them all again. We recently helped friends move to Rogers Arkansas and their entire lawn was spongy to walk on because of all the tunnels. Are those the dreaded voles?

Cynthia -- Isn't it great that hostas have names that we can remember, and can choose "themes" from? I recently checked out the conifer forum -- sounds like Greek to me! I'm not familiar with "Academy Hostas". Fill me in.
Jan

Jan, the Academy hostas are from Steve Chamberlain (I think I have that right). I came across them when I was perusing Jim's Hostas which I think was a source mentioned by Ken (thank you). Some wonderful person here (was it Steve? Memorylike a seive, I'm afraid) gave me his address, but my emails won't go through (expect he has a filter and I went directly to spam folder, alas). I asked Jim, but Celeborn is the only LOTR hosta he has. I am hoping more become available over time. I have read the books over 40 times since The Fellowship of the Rings was on my summer reading list when I was 13. DH has done the same. I think it is very cool that Steve must be a fan of Professor Tolkien as well. :)

As to remembering names, boy, am I weak in that category. I know the names of many I have bought, but since the tags are not feasible in the back yard with the dogs, I couldn't possibly tell you which is which without looking them up. Well, except for a few like June. I just love them even if I don't know which is which.

Cynthia

Cynthia, fences might be a solution.
Once a neighbor's large German Shepherd grabbed my wrist with his teeth and ripped a T shirt of a young boy, so I have my backyard surrounded with a 4 ft fence, and the neighbors surrounded their yard with a 5ft fence. Then dog and humans had peace. In the front people walk dogs, let them go into my plantings off their leashes, there I place some repellant. I like it to have plants and dogs in clearly defined separate locations, when dogs can not handle it. We all have peace this way...
Bernd

Thanks Bernd! I did buy some fencing like chicken wire last year, but never got it up. Our pups are sweeties and mostly just playing and rolling around on top of each other causing all the collateral damage, but when they sense an intruder (chipmunk, squirrel, raccoon, possum, etc), the mother becomes a stone cold killer. Guess it comes from being on her own with pups for no one knows how long. She may also have been trained to tree things-she will sit at the base of a tree forever once she chases something up one. We used to have to go out and drag her away to give the possum or raccoon a chance to escape. Can't let her out at night either on the chance something might be in the yard.

So, long story short, yes, I think you are right and fences will help the situation! Thanks!

Hi Jan, and welcome!

I was new to this forum in 2011. This is a great place to learn about hostas and the people are wonderful! Sometimes I feel like the whole forum is out there with me when I'm wandering through my gardens.

Here's my story:

In 2006, I bought 6 hostas in the fall for 75 cents each, planted them at the back of the fence and forgot about them.

In 2008, I divided an Undulata Albomarginata into 10 hostas to form a border around my pachysandra bed.

In the spring of 2010, I noticed that the 75 cent hostas had grown into lovely plants despite the fact that they had been ignored for the past four years. I also noticed that all the other perennials I had planted over the past four years had died! So, I made a trip to the local nursery to get some more hostas to fill in the spots where my perennials had died. It was on that day that I made the startling discovery that those names on the tags like Elegans and Frances Williams meant something. I ended the season with about 70 new varieties.

During the fall of 2010, I found this forum and for the next 6 months, I read each and every post. I started making lists and finding nurseries to buy the hostas on my list.

On March 28, 2011, my husband drove 60 miles (one way) to pick up some of the hostas on my list. He came back with 11. When the first nursery in our area opened on April 1, 2011, I bought 9 more. On April 2, I drove the 60 miles with my husband and got another 23. Well, before I knew it, I ended up with 96 hostas in our house waiting for the last frost! By the end of May, I had aquired about 180 hostas and swore that I was done buying for the season. I managed to buy 134 more, for a total of 314 new ones in 2011.

My kids call me the crazy hosta lady. My son still talks about driving with 40 hostas in the back of the car, accompanied by a chirping cricket for 300 miles! My daughter, a Creative Writing major in college, wrote her final paper about my hosta obsession. She got an "A", her professor was intrigued that people actually collect hostas and will go to great lengths to find a certain cultivar.

I don't know how large our gardens are, but the grass in the back is slowly disappearing. We have plans to start planting them in the park in back of us when we run out of room. I love to grow my hostas in full sun, I won an irrigation system in a contest that keeps them cool with misting water during the hottest part of the day.

Gesila

Hi Gesila

I'm happy to hear from you -- I have really enjoyed your posts about great shopping trips, lists etc. Wow, that $.75 hosta sale you found turned out to be the best investment ever! So -- does your daughter's professor collect hostas now? Like him/her I was surprised to learn just how dedicated people are to the thrill of the chase.
This hobby certainly keeps a lot of people "off the streets and out of the bars" eh!!!
Happy hunting!
Jan

Jan, this hobby helps a lot of people getting out of the couch watching TV, and into the fresh outside air developing sweats and getting a suntan most of the year, very healthy!
Bernd

Jan - I lived outside of Mtn. Home. Rogers is like much of Rockansas unless you cross the Oklahoma border. I miss being able to get turkey litter for my compost piles. I could tell stories about that, that will make your eyes water (lol). If you've ever hauled a load of FRESH turkey litter home you will understand that.

The spongy yard is probably moles or armadillos, not voles. I was curious how armadillos can cross rivers as they are working their way north with global warming. They don't swim, I learned. They tunnel under the rivers instead, through almost solid rock. As a warning to all people in the great north hostalands, be forwarned about armidillos. A single mom with kids in tow can turn a yard upside down overnignt.

Unlike moles, armadillos like to spend time above ground, so a good dog helps. The dudes have digging claws on their front feet that are 3-4" long and as thick as a whitetail deers antler tines. I guess any deer hunters here could call them underground 10-pointers.

Les