I only made one mail order purchase. It's to be delivered 4/14. I've got it written down somewhere, but do you think I could find it when I'm looking for it? Dang. I'm not sure what story Bob Solberg tells about Gunther's prize but I do want to offer a warning of buyer beware. It's a sport of Sum & Substance and like all sports, it can revert. It doe not come true in tissue culture. It's highly unstable. Lucky for me, my gunthers prize was a gift. It is once again, sum & substance. Don't cha just love it when you get to hang with hosta celebrities? The Solberg's visited Putnamgardens last summer. We ran out of sunlight but that didn't stop'm from taking a moonlite tour. I even gave'm a ride in our Mini Cooper with the top down. Later, Love, Lisa

My priorities are entirely financial, that is to say I try to get the most bang for my buck. That said the plants on your list that I have/like are; Great Expectations Paul's Glory Halcyon Krossa Regal S. Elegans I would imagine that you can't go wrong selecting plants from the "hosta of the year" category. You can find the list by Googling- Hostalibrary. I am a fan of Royal Standard, which I bought from Walmart. Royal Standard is plain green, but grows fast, gets large and has frangrant blooms. I really like one of your other picks- Frances Williams, but I am under the impression that there is another hybrid available that is superior. The name begins with a B, if you Google Frances Williams I am sure you will find a reference to the other plant. Good luck. You have picked the perfect time to buy hostas, as they should be going on sale from now to the Fall.

Well, Ken said we can't talk about GE, and I have to say that I've had a couple that just won't grow. On the other hand, I have three that are great growers, probably 3 to 4 feet across and just gorgeous! LOL. By the way, I love Liberty and don't have any problem growing it. I think it's one of my top ten favorites! Anyway, I'll mention three plants that have been a nightmare. The first is petasites. Though despised by some gardeners, in my opinion this is an awesome plant when it's given plenty of room and planted in the right location. It looks best in filtered shade with afternoon shade and plenty of moisture. (Otherwise, it will wilt every afternoon when the sun hits it.) Throw some slug pellets under it a couple times throughout the summer. The leaves will get humungous- I've grown some close to 4 feet in diameter. But BEWARE!!! It send out shoots which travel in every direction and grows fast, even in clay and poor soil! You'll have these things popping up all over before you can say "boo" unless you install a fool-proof root barrier to contain it. The second plant that will run you out of house and home is phragmites australis. You won't normally find this in a garden center and there's a reason why!!! This tall grass is commonly seen growing in ditches along the freeway. There is a native specie which is supposedly okay, but I have an introduced specie which has naturalized throughout the midwest that is...well, I'll say INVASIVE!!! I thought that a clump of this would look interesting in my flower garden, so I dug a hole 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. I lined the sides of the hole with a root barrier (3 feet deep) but neglected to put a barrier on the bottom of the hole. Then I put a clump of this in the center. Later in the summer, I began seeing sprigs of this stuff popping up 6 feet away from the original clump! Hummm...what's going on here? To make a long story short, with a shovel I hand dug 8 yards of dirt out of the center of my flower bed in the process of tracing all the roots that were growing outward in every direction at a depth of 3 to 4 feet!!! I've NEVER, NEVER, NEVER seen a plant grow like that- a nightmare! (While I was trying to dig this thing up, I swore that it was growing faster than I could dig!)Wow, like playing with fire! The last plant, which I'm still fighting a losing battle with, is crown vetch. The Transportation Dept. uses this ground cover on steep banks along the freeway to hold the dirt in place. It loves poor soil and drought conditions! (The only thing that it doesn't like is full shade.) I have it growing all over because the previous homeowner spread a bag of seed to combat soil erosion on the hillsides along my driveway. The stuff is aggressive, hard to kill, and self-seeds in the fall. It makes a continuous mat 3 to 4 feet tall that's just about impossible to walk through it, and strangles out everything in its path including small trees. I don't recommend planting it! Don

Thanks, Jo, for pulling out this older thread. Sitting here, drinking coffee, looking at very nice hosta pictures...A perfect start for the day :-) And an opportunity to say thank you for a hosta summer full of learning, good advice and enabling :-) My list for next year is miles long, lol