When I started my recent love affair with hostas, I began with HOSTA PLANTAGENEA, which is the granddaddy of the fragrant hosta family. It is doing fine, and so is my desire to grow different hostas with the different colors, the curly or corrugated or striped variegations. And big ones. So I understand the issues with zone 8B gardening. I looked at the white rocks, and thought it a neat looking addition, but wondered what it would do for the hostas. Maybe you can look for something like the aspedistras, or maybe daylilies. Aspedistra like shade too, but they are not as finicky as hostas. I've been trying the variegated ones too. They deal very well with tree roots. And so does asparagus fern. Now that asparagus fern stores water in its roots, and can deal with all sorts of sunshine, potted up or in the ground. Nice thing about asparagus fern, it stays green all year round, unless it gets down to maybe 15 degrees when it might have some fronds burned. It blooms and it makes red berries too. Lots of good qualities.

I think he has his mind already made up. if you asks for advice, he's probably looking for a confirmation of his thoughts. But then, if he asks, give him your best advice. Whatever you do, direct him toward a positive endevor; Caution against "blowing" the wad of money. I sould point out that he now has the chance to build himself an income fund that could work for him the rest of his life. I would look for sound investments. At least half of the fund should be blue-chip, dividend paying, stocks. Go light on mutual funds. When you have enough money to buy enough different stocks, you can create your own "mutual" fund and skip paying the fund fees. In the long run, you'll make more money. Be careful about munincible bonds. Because of the economy meltdown, many cities, counties, and states are nearing bankruptcy; some are already there. Munis are a good investment, when they are sound, since in many cases, tax codes allow reduced taxes compared to regular dividends. However, if you invest in a school system and it goes banktupt, you loose. In better times, a chunk shold be in CDs or similar. In the past, those have averaged 5% dividend, but not now. The rates are so low, they do not keep up with inflation. I'm not savvy enough to know the entire picture, but I don;t like the idea of some financial instutition using my money for nothing while their executivies roll in cash. My take is they don't get to use my money until I see some return! I can make about the same by holding the cash in a saving or checking account, and it very liquid to boot. Mortgage rates have slipped to 4% and that sets the tone for how much one might get on an interest bearing account. Your take will less than the mortage rate. Drug comapnies may appear attractive and some are, but before you leap, look at the number of patented drugs in their pipeline, and the date when patent protection runs out. For example, Abbott Labs looked like a good steady dividend payer 2 years ago, but today, they have only one patent protected drug and none in the pipeline. The patent protection on this drug runs out in a couple of years or more and it provides a large amount of the company's income. Abbott has announced they plan to split the company into two businesses spinning off the drug development division into a separate company. Abbott Labs may be an ok investment, and then maybe not. Caution is advised.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I finally have it done - maybe not what will stay there "forever", but it's a start for this year at least! Kind of a long story how I ended up with what I did: - I traded someone locally for 5 divisions of Avocado - they were rough, hail stormed, and two of the divisions were tiny with only 1 root so I doubt they will make it. - Then I decided not to use those 5 Avocado after all since I thought it would be a while (if ever) before I liked the look of them, so I went to the nursery and they had 3 amazingly full and vibrant Stained Glass hostas, so I bought those. - In the end I used the 2 best Avocados on the end of the group, and the 3 Stained Glass in the middle. I may divide the Stained Glass in a couple years if I decide I want all 5 to match. Thank you all for the feedback - I am going to take it to heart in other ways. I couldn't find Squash Casserole anywhere locally (or Sea Sunrise), but if I see it I will try it (in the area to the right) after such good recommendations I want to see what it does! Or maybe some day I'll do a mail order - there are so many types that I'm sure I'll never get locally. :-) I also want to try Great Expectations, but will only try one since they sound like they can be touchy, and I'll wait until I find one at the nursery that looks like a nice starter - what they had yesterday was tiny and I just didn't see spending the money on it yesterday. Thank you all and happy hosta-ing!

Wow lots of heated opinions! But thanks for sharing them! It's interesting to hear all the different thought processes. Olychic: Ouch! We are very good friends, I just tend to overthink things! And I'm also just ridiculously curious about how people think so it's sort of fun for me to hear all the different opinions. :) But I am super glad I just went with my gut. Anyway I just wanted to update you all. It all worked out much easier than anticipated. I asked her how the project was going and that got her talking about how the ID is now delaying the project by quite a bit and blaming her for bad communication....(smh) Anyway turns out she's already having second thoughts, so I didn't really need to say much. I just mostly agreed with her and threw in a couple of ideas too. She's going to try to somehow renegotiate. Hopefully it goes well! I'm grateful to everyone who posted. Thank you!