@botann. Hi Mike, you are right. the better word is " hard fun". But when you are older and plant the whole day ,you have a lot of little aches and pains ( hope this is the right word) the next day. This I meant whith " hard work". But "hard fun" is much better, I like it. Wolfgang

I always think ma nature does it best - naturally combines purple, yellow and white. I just went out today and took some more photos, we've got tons of queen anne's lace, joe-pye weed, and the goldenrod is just starting. I'm fortunate, I don't have to do anything to have this beautiful show every summer and fall. Thanks Annie,You should see Teddy now - after years of being loved so much he has a bad "neck condition", no stuffing left there and his head lolls around like it snapped. Ah well, still loved, still cuddles up with him for sleep every night and he accompanies us on all vacations, can't sleep without him. Maybe later I'll put some new meadow photos in.

Hey Moccasinlanding and Don B.---I love your Golden Meadows photos! Aren't those Golden Meadows so nice looking. "Is that photo a good color and leaf shot? Where is the pattern?" I have posted here another photo taken this morning and after the rain last night. The color is pretty much true to life. (I have added to the photo my gold euonymus to compare to.) I am thinking that since it was a bare root and started indoors, then that is why it has flowered early. I also thought that Golden Meadows loses its variegation as the season progresses, so I just figured that this is what happened to mine, but at an accelerated pace. The leaf in the 7 o'clock position looks to have a bit of a pattern developing, don't you think?

I have had mine for about 2-3 years, not mature, but a beautiful hosta none the less. Stein's, a local garden chain store in Wisconsin, carried them under their Melinda Meyer's choice perennials. They had them today on clearance for $5.99, but they were mismarked as Abiqua Drinking Gourd. For being a bigger chain nursery, I have never seen HVX in their plants. Here is mine: