Composted mulch of chopped up leaves is great, I do that too. This mulch needs to be fine to not provide shelter for slugs.
I have no neighbor with pine needles. My neighbor buys a dumping pass for the town, brings his garbage with his truck to the transfer station and when available gets loads of free mulch from the town.

Starbucks has a program of giving away used coffee grounds for gardeners, just go in and ask. Sometimes the bags are sitting inside the door waiting just waiting to be picked up.

We go to the local recycle center for free leaf compost, also wood chips. I think some cities do charge for this tho. We do have a big compost pile that gets cleaned out every couple of years and spread where it's needed, as well as shredding leaves in the fall.

Our garden club members share divisions from our gardens, a great way to get new plants. Master Gardener plant sales give you lots of plants at low cost.

Buying bare root plants or plugs from your local nursery when they come in, in February/March before they get potted up, saves by buying them at about 1/2 price.

This year, I'm going to build a fence with 1" x 6" x 6' slabs from a local lumber mill--free for the hauling! It will make a great fence to screen my compost pile and fit right in with our woodsy landscape.

its real easy ...

figure out which one you already have.. that simply looks like every single one on your wish list ...

frankly.. i can only think of a handful that are really DIFFERENT than something i all ready have ... [yeah i know.. i have a lot .. but whats the point .. lol] ..

how about you remove every new striptease sport.. and improved june.. and gold standard look alike ...

and STOP ADDING TO THE LIST...

heresy i suppose ... lol ..

ken

In case you want to have new and different hostas, join the local Hosta Society. They have plant sales every year at about half price and bigger size you can get on the web, plus there is good company and advice. Have patience. When you still have not enough, there are the 50% off sales at local nurseries in early September. All have no shipping and handling costs, and you see what you get.

Make a list of all your hostas with their characteristics and carry it in your car, take it with you when you decide to visit a nursery to avoid buying duplicates (happened to me).
Bernd

I buy as many hostas as I want, whenever I want. Neither season nor pocketbook affect me.
However, I do not submit the orders.
It gives me most of the fun, without the horrible reality - I have neither the time nor space for more right now.
I also keep a wish list- that way, if an unusual variety turns up at a good price, I can nab it.
When I'm shopping with real money, I use a list like bernd suggests. It saves a fortune in duplicates.
If you can find one, go shopping with a hosta buddy. That way, each of you can buy hosta, with promises to split once they are big enough.

Bernd, I've been a member of the MN society for 2 years and I have to say that the 1 sale I've attended did NOT have large plants. They looked like 2nd year TC's in 4" pots. Prices were competitive, but plants were hot bigger than what I could have ordered from a reputable online source.

I will play on what you said about the list. Last year, I was able to keep my buying more in check by carrying a list of my haves and wants. Last year, I did it on paper... it was 11" wide, folded into quarters. Yellow cardstock so I could easily see it amongst other papers or in my purse. This year, I'm going to keep the lists on my phone... I didn't have a smart phone last year.

Bring the Timberpress Pocket guide to hostas with you so you have an idea what the mature hosta will look like, too.

We're so lucky around here, the local little towns actually bag their leaves and leave them on the curb for us to steal ane pile up for compost, woohoo! This year the deer found it, but that's ok because they fast compost it to cool fertilizer, so we'll be able to safely spread it and add it to potted plants, yeehaw!

Adjust to what you have around your area, and have patience, things work out, huh?

hh

Simple! Don't buy any more hostas! Lol! Phil

Or compare those on your wish list against what you already have on the Hosta Library, and Bingo, there will be matches. Then split up a hosta you already have and name half of it with the name of the hosta you wanted to buy, and nobody will notice. Hint, many of the hostas in the Hosta library have photos which do not seem to agree with each other.
Am I kidding?

I've noticed too....but taking into account the variences in individual plants, difference in cameras, light conditions, the expertise of the photographer, and maturity of plants, I guess you just have to judge for yourself what you see and whether they agree with each other at all. Sometimes I'll look up a hosta on two or three different sources to compare pictures to get a better idea of what a plant actually looks like......but there are a LOT of look-alikes out there!

Maybe nobody would notice--but if I did that in my garden, I would know, and I'm the one I plant my garden for. It would seem kinda silly to me to put erroneous labels on plants just to say that I have more varieties than I really do....who would I be fooling? Besides, half the fun is actually collecting the different varieties.

I always try to limit my wish list to plants that actually look different--the 10' rule! I try to save money elsewhere in the gardens so I have more to spend on the plants I want.

Nobody else is getting free hostas from Craigslist? I pass up Lanciolia and/or Purple Lady Fingers as they are unbiquitous in S.E. Massachusetts, but I have found some nice plants, and made some friends in the process.

I wouldn't take any free plants from Craigslist. For 1, they're usually varieties I already have. For 2, I'm too wary of disease and pest infestation. I did buy plants last year from Craigslist, but the seller was a well-educated well-aware long-time hosta collector who used to be very involved in the local hosta society.

What I know about hostas can be writen on a match book cover with a crayon. I am only throwing out the idea here because the title of the post was "Ways to save $$$$$". As to varieties one already has;I heartily agree. I don't get your point as to disease because from what little I know about hostas virus, one can see indications on the foliage of mature plants, so if you go to pick up a plant, you can always pass. Even if you should get a plant with the virus, isn't the virus only transmitted by contact of plant to plant fluids? Regarding pest infestation; isn't that within the realm of the garden? If you bring in one hosta with a small slug, are you going to destroy a garden?

Yes, but you can get nematodes.

bkay

quicksilver- Keep asking the questions. This forum is great place to seek information.

Regarding HVX-
IMO, Best we can hope for is to research what the current thinking is on HVX and make good decisions based upon our understanding. Finding hosta sources that understand HVX and work to prevent HVX in their stock is a very important decision in my hosta buying.

Check out the link below, a nice HVX primer and worth the read.

Here is a couple of passages

Not all infected plants show visible symptoms, though, so if one plant in a group shows symptoms do not buy healthy-looking plants in the same group.

Retail nurseries are in an especially vulnerable situation. They often cut off bad leaves and scapes which puts them at high risk for infecting the rest of their stock.

Thanks to Josh Spece of In the Country Gardens and Gifts for summarizing all this valuable information.

Paul

Here is a link that might be useful: HVX @ ITCGG

Thank you for the info, and the link to the website.

Q,

For example, Sum and Substance, a very popular hosta in big box stores can have the virus for up to 3 years without showing any visible signs of it. Rather than buying at HD, order from someone who takes proper precautions. You'll save money and time in the long run.

Steve

I love to grow things and am into gardening for that reason. I don't do it for instant gratification so I don't need to buy the biggest plants available. When I shop for new plants I look for pots with the most plants in it regardless of the condition of the leaves. I divide most things when I get home to start even more clumps. I love turning one plant into hundreds. Most times that I move something I divide it. I generally keep a couple hundred plants in pots sitting on the driveway at any given time with my propagating.

Hitting nurseries at the peak of summer is when they mark everything down since it takes more care to keep them. Hitting them up late fall is another time to get bargains. Plants bought at these times will need a little extra attention but I think it is worth it to be able to buy twice as many plants with the same money.

Last year was my first time buying tissue cultures which allowed me to go overboard in getting new varieties. They need a little extra attention and time to mature but that is what gardening is about to me.

Here are about 100 new to me varieties that only cost me about $400.00. If I were to buy that many mature plants it would have cost me thousands.
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