I bought my house in late 2000.

I remember ...in the spring of 2001 my bro-in-law brought his tiller over to remove some of the grass on the side of the house for a garden. He was chopping next to the chimney and exclaimed "oh no - I just chopped up a hosta."

My sister - his wife has many varieties. I said - just chop it up. I don't want any hostas.

This past Easter or maybe Mother's Day he said - and how many hostas did Suzanne tell me you have??????????

This is going to sound really dumbÂsigh.

I remember in 1999 seeing a plant offered on ebay named 'Christmas Tree'. There was no picture, just the name. Well, I had no clue about hostas, but I thought it "cool" to have a plant named for a holiday. So I won the auction and planted this little pip in a corner in the back of my property (an unchartered area). It was my way of celebrating Christmas during the summer months, I love Christmas. I stuck the tag in the ground and forgot about it...until 2003. I was back in the corner of the property and this really neat looking plant caught my eye. I had totally forgotten about the pip (good thing there was a tag), Christmas Tree had grown upÂwell (donÂt laugh) I forgot about it again until last season when I bought Candy Dish at a hosta show. I ended up ripping out and revamping the entire back of the yard, which is shady and there it was a beautiful Christmas tree. Every time I see it its like ChristmasÂI should rename it my Christmas Surprise! LOL!

I have a Christmas Tree,( the hosta) also and I got it when I didn't know much about hostas,from Lowes. It has turned out to be one of my best growers,but I always knew where I planted it! lol! Phil

Phil, You should have seen this thing when I planted it, it was pitiful. I probably thought it was going to die and subconsciously thought it was a gonner so didn't invest any emotion into it. Sigh, now I love this plant, how could I have not known??

Donna

Oh my goodness, I remember back in THE BEGINNING, I would drag my 30 or so hosta pots into the garage for the winter because I was afraid they would freeze. Now I know all I can do is leave them out and hope they can achieve some semblance of dormancy.

I remember when my friend gave me some green plants b/c she was moving and I was living in a rental and was allowed to plant stuff.

I was brand new to gardening so I planted them under a grape arbor and watered them *every* night w/ miracle gro in the watering can thingie. Everyone who came over freaked out over these beautiful plants.

Looking back, I realize they were THE biggest lancifolia I have ever seen, to date! LOL I had no idea about what they were or what to do w/ them but I loved the way they looked when they were wet and shiny and all hopped up on foliar feeder!

I still have them. :)

I remember when I first discovered plants (hostas) that would actually thrive in shade!! I was so excited, I was hyperventilating!

I have shade, shade and more shade! I was thrilled beyond belief. Four years later, I am even MORE thrilled as my hostas mature and flourish!

I remember building this house in 1981. My sister had these large green, virtually indestrutible plants that she dug up and brought to my house. I was later to find out that my very first plants were lancifolia, which have now morphed into more than 100 plants. In 1986, I visited a local nursery and saw and large blue hosta that had a tag reading "Elegans". I bought two, along with another called "Sharmon". The following year they looked so great that I returned to the nursery and bought two August Moons. And so it began......
I remember the first time I got on the World Wide Web. I had internet access for a few years before discovering the web. The first site I visited (I found the address in a Web magazine, remember those?) and learned there were several hundred hosta. Thus an addiction was born.

Fun thread!!!

I REMEMBER.... going to Buchart Gardens in 1980-something and walking right past the Hosta Gardens without even looking.

I REMEMBER.... taking my Mom to a local Hosta Nursery to show her these "new plants" that I was falling in love with. As we walked into the first big greenhouse ... my Mother remarked in disbelief "they're just leaves".

I REMEMBER.... one of my first Hostas was 'Birchwood Parkys Gold'. A year or two later I posted a photo of it here on the forum thinking it had the most unusual coloring. Well someone told me it had a virus, and I swear I didnt come back for over a year. I felt like my plant was a leper. LOL

needless to say... it was destroyed pronto!...
{{gwi:897058}}

My DH was the one who got me started. She told my about this plant that would grow in the shade. It was called a hosta. My first one was a small green hosta labeled Plantain Lily. I tried to divide it the first summer, and I found out the hard way that dividing can set back a hosta. I added the green and white one the next summer along with a blue vase shaped one. It was Krossa, and it just kept getting prettier. I finally went online to find out more about the hostas of the year. WOW I had no idea. It was exactly what I wanted for a shade garden. I have close to 200 hostas, and I am going into this winter with high hopes for next spring. I have gotten my DH several hostas but the bug hasn't bitten her yet. She likes them. It is just a matter of time!!

I remember my first hosta,28 years ago, came from a former nursery that was then the back yard of a neighbor who said I could take what I wanted as she didn't like plants. I got 3 kinds and planted them. I shared then with my sister and sister in law when they got bigger.

We moved here 14 years ago from that house and I wasn't able to take any of my plants because of the time of year. My sister meanwhile had started collecting more hosta and she said she would share with me in my new garden.

She did and away I went as I am now the proud mother of 654 hosta plants! I counted them in June! I have over 130 varities and quite a few unknown kinds. I have shared hundreds of hosta with friends and family.

A few years ago I took out the lancefolia that is the border plant around a huge hosta bed my neighbor and I share. I divided each plant into 4 then put 1/4 back in the hole. You would never know anything had been taken out they have filled in so nicely. The 71 new plants were given away or used elsewhere in the yard.

Mine, as a whole, is a mature hosta garden. The oldest beds having been made 13 years ago and the newest planted 2 years ago.

I was part of the local garden walk this summer because of my hosta.

I'm computer illerate so if you would like to see pictures I only know how to e-mail one at a time to addresses but not to the HF. Let me know and I will send them to one of you and you have my permission to post them where ever you like!

This spring I went ot help my brother do transplanting at his house and he has a wonderful large hosta bed which we were working in. I asked him where he got so many hosta and he said YOU! LOL
Hope to hear if you want the pictures.

Connie

Connie - email me and I will post them.

T

Yes, please, mail them to Teresa! I'd love to see your pictures!

Diann

I Remember: many years ago (I started gardening in 1999) when my Brother would be talking about gardening my eyes would get glassy and I would tune out.... sooo boring. Now when the two of us get together it's Hosta this and Hosta that, other people get glassy eyed listening to us!!

I also Remember my very first Hosta - Patriot - given to me by my neighbour in 1998.....poor thing survived a few days sitting in the driveway before I noticed it (we weren't actually living here at the time) and then survived being plopped into a hastily dug hole behind the garage, in the shade of large Manitoba Maple and ignored. What did I know? It not only grew, it thrived. It was divided into four plants the following year, one division was put back in the original spot and the other 3 were the base of my first newly dug bed. That was also the start of my "addiction"

June

What a great thread Teresa, I really enjoy hearing everyone's hosta memories! Thanks.

I remember HOSTA LUST. It was 2002 and I was already addicted. My sister and I went to the NW Flower and Garden show in Seattle. I was able to buy several hostas roots in bags of peat moss from Naylor Creek Nursery. At that time they didn't ship to Canada because the border certificate was too complicated and expensive. At the show it was all set up so I was going to be "legal". Before I left my sisters I helped her transplant some of her larger hostas into bigger pots. When she came home from work I told her that HOSTA LUST had struck. I had to have a division of 4 of them. I snuck a small piece into the bag of peat beside the Naylor Creek ones and made myself a little code of which was which. One didn't survive because the root was too tiny but I got Komodo Dragon, Blue Betty Lou, and Green Gables. Green Gables was the start of it because Gable was our maiden name and I didn't think I'd ever see it offered in Canada. Now you know my criminal past. I hope immigration isn't reading this!

Immigration probably isn't, but I bet Homeland Security is. :) LOL

Diann

Yikes! Immagine a poor little hosta in some kind of jail.