Blue Ivy - Thank you so much for your help! I will wait and see what happens. Trader #1 is reluctant to tell me if she received my end of the trade or not. That has me confused???? Why wouldn't she just say "yes", or "no"? I have been very polite in all of my e-mails. Even joking about the mailman being on vacation between her and I. Hopefully, she is just behind (because I REALLY! wanted those seeds, LoL) I really wanted the seeds form trader #3 as well. Trader #2, I really only just wanted one of the seeds she was sending, because I didn't know how to turn down a trade I wasn't interested in at the time, LoL. Oh well, there are plenty more seeds in the garden, (...fish in the sea....):-) I will just try and trade for them again. I have met some wonderful people here, who definitely out-weigh the non-senders. :-) On the search for more seeds...... Carrie

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

El bumpo

lovehadley - she did have a great time... it was just amazing how the illness disappeared when the police report was filed..... DH had to decide to keep things going on here in VA in VA for the sake of SD. BM attacks everything we tell SD and then at times makes her feel bad for wanting to attend. We attempted to keep her in the loop or ask her for her help or input and it is always met with opposition or lies. For instance -this past summer - SD was with us for 4.5 weeks. DH asked BM to send along her hair care products so that we would be able to keep her hair clean and combed. She (BM) replied with telling DH - it was not necessary for us to comb or wash SD hair - and that if her hair was changed - there would be a major problem. HUH? 4.5 and for us not to comb or wash SD's hair. Just nuts! Then she took her to the counselor when DH took her back home and her hair had been combed and washed. AND stated I abused her in order to get her to sit still to wash her hair. Which was a complete lie.... SD enjoyed it - plus it was necessary... i could not believe she wanted us to ignore a 6 years old hygeine that way. So not knowing what else to do to help protect Sd from some of her mother's actions we will just keep it too ourselves. We have no choice.