Christine this year while strolling through the cemetary on Memorial Day I was amazed to see how many graves have hosta planted on them. I'd never noticed that before. Most looked like Undulata Albomarginatas, but some were quite different looking.

I do also look at other peoples yards as I'm passing by. Some have gorgeous hostas, while others have some really abused looking plants in their yards.

Our hospital has expaned in the last few years and in their new landscaping is quite a few Hosta and Heucheras.

Janet

Do it I like a little evil. Send half to me then you're just half evil, 4 people equals 1/5 evil because you divide by 5 (you and the other 4). Need any more encouragement.

OK, 'His Butchness' ordered you to do it.

I have spoken, the scribes will begin to chisel, it will be in stone before first light.

I am serious now, do not put hosta in the wild. They will shade out wildflowers and take over. Don't be the person who started the Kudzu of the north.

[LOL]

NO, no more is needed!
I've been eyeing these heuchera 'Obsidian' at the 7th Day Adventist hospital here. There are 13 of them. They could stand to loose every other one, since they're too close to each other. To top it off? 'Obsidian' of that size around here would be about $27.00. Surely they shouldn't crowd them! And a sun-loving heuchera? mmmMMMMmmmmm

I guess you better send me all your addresses. [sigh] A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do and there are some gorgeous blues a'waitin' dividing.

Christine
Who tries to honor kharma. But if I'm ordered to....

Call the City Maintenance Dept. and talk to who ever is in charge. Tell them where the plants are located and why you are inquiring and your concerns. You never know till you try.

I do stuff like that every once in a while and people are usually very kind. Sometimes I get what I want and then again I am told No.

Connie

Why would one put them in the wild?
Christine

Call the hospital and again talk to the head maintenance person. Tell them your reason for calling and maybe you can work something out to replant the heuchra the correct distence apart and maybe they will let you have the ones that are left over. There are always volunteers helping out at many public places. Go for it!!!

Connie

I had a neighbor who planted some Suim and Substance....about 2 feet apart....years ago...I kept threatening in my mind to go separate them in the dark of night.
Well, "They" moved and a sweet young thing of my daughter's age moved in...in fact she knew my daughter in high school....and one day she was out working in that front bed and I stopped and told her how happy I was to see her in the neighbor hood and how over grown that bed was and pointed out to her the heuchera and where the lilies were and the OVERGROWN HOSTA! And told her I would help her divide them when she was ready....and that was a little over a year ago and they are still there and still over grown!! But I haven't sunk a spade in there yet!
Linda C

Why would one put them in the wild?
Christine

3-4 years ago someone mentioned how great it would be to plant H.'ventricosa' in a national forest to see them naturalize. H.'ventricosa' will seed like any invasive weed and take over some spots.

Nothing is more dangerous to the wild than an over zealous amateur collector. Honeysuckle, wild rose, kudzu, what is the plant that has taken over Michigan wet lands, johnson grass, do I need to go on.

You are correct on that point, EO. Lesser celandine is one of the most glaring examples of something that escaped (it used to be planted as an ornamental) to the wild and is now an ecological threat.

of course.. in their native lands ... they grow in the grasses in the wild ....

ken

Personally, I would 'divide' them. I've done it before to an area which was pretty much abandoned!! :)

I had to go to the mall yesterday (man, do I hate that place) and I saw the most beautiful, mature Krossa Regals in their flower beds. I was actually surprised to see them in their landscaping.

Janet, abandoned is one thing, on a main street's corner? That's another.

But Connie has a point. I can sure ask if I'm that ... ummmm ... "bothered" by their precarious situation of overcrowding and overgrowing. Good thinking, girlie.

I can't imagine letting something go in the wild. I live in an area zoned "Open Space" which means it's protected land. I'm on the Patuxent River watershed area. This also means that for a very brief circle around me, no development. YEAH!

Anyway, I abide by the Maryland Do Not Plant list and then by the items I read here on GardenWeb that have gone nutty. I mean, Purple Loosestrife is on the list for clogging watershed. Isn't white, which is also aggressive, just a seed away from doing the same thing?

Anyway, EO, I get your point, too.

Christine
Who grew up in the Lansing area (Mason)

Cities often hire college students over the summer to take care of simple maintenance tasks. You might be able to find out if that area is slated for renovation this year. Find out the date, then go over on that day, bring a cooler of cold beverages for the workers, and you will probably get all the divisions you want :-)

Janet, you sly kitten, you!

My husband is a contractor. If I really want something done, I show up with freezing cold water and fried chicken for lunch. Somehow, his men always have a moment to dig me a tree hole, or move something I can't.

If it's Friday and near closing? You can imagine what I get done with a 12 pack of ice cold Corona.

I'm going to keep my eyes open. And I might make a few calls.... Those 'Obsidian' look fabulous at the front edge of a bed with a few gold hosta either in front or just behind them.

Christine

Cfmuehling - I know what you mean by the persuasive use of food or beer. When my house was being built years ago, I got an asphalt driveway instead of a gravel one that way.
----------

All - I used to work in Washington DC. There were many landscaped areas along some of the streets. It drove me crazy to see entire beds of seasonal flowers traded out for new blooming ones literally overnight. I never did catch any one at the site to ask what they did with the removed plants (many of which were perennials).

And I also used to see a lot of places where plants were crowded and wished I could get some of those "extras".

I can also offer a complaint about the number of times I saw automated sprinkler systems going full blast in the pouring rain... :(

One of the best displays of hostas I used to see was on Virginia Ave at the Federal Reserve Building. They had a specimen garden with a lot of hostas (it was shaded) and every plant was labelled. From the enclosed entrance to the parking garage, you could look out the glass walls and see many of the plants from eye level. I used to meet my carpool there.

That's where I first fell in love with hostas. I had never seen any before.

Cfmuehling - I know what you mean by the persuasive use of food or beer. When my house was being built years ago, I got an asphalt driveway instead of a gravel one that way.
----------

All - I used to work in Washington DC. There were many landscaped areas along some of the streets. It drove me crazy to see entire beds of seasonal flowers traded out for new blooming ones literally overnight. I never did catch any one at the site to ask what they did with the removed plants (many of which were perennials).

And I also used to see a lot of places where plants were crowded and wished I could get some of those "extras".

I can also offer a complaint about the number of times I saw automated sprinkler systems going full blast in the pouring rain... :(

One of the best displays of hostas I used to see was on Virginia Ave at the Federal Reserve Building. They had a specimen garden with a lot of hostas (it was shaded) and every plant was labelled. From the enclosed entrance to the parking garage, you could look out the glass walls and see many of the plants from eye level. I used to meet my carpool there.

That's where I first fell in love with hostas. I had never seen any before.

With very few exceptions, those "traded out" annuals (and sometimes perennials!!) are thrown away. I have been lucky enough to be around when the deed is being done. I've driven home with mums, ornamental grasses and various other goodies in the back of my SUV..........rootballs in absolutely nothing and dirt all over the back end. LOL!!

Cfmuehling-
Is the 7th Day Adventist Hosp you speak of in Takoma Park by chance? If so I'll be out there next week and could help you pilfer a few beauties. Can they be easily spirited away in a suitcase?

Christine -

We had a remarkable experience one summer with the guys who were redoing our road. The city was going to put in drainage piping into our back yard at the same time they were putting in new drain sewers. The city engineer came up with a bizarre plan which would have created a situation that wouldn't have allowed me to put in any new trees. I had a better plan. I wanted the guys to do it my way, and needed them on my side, so we kept a cooler of cold beverages in the shade and put out lawn chairs for the guys so they had a place in the shade to have their lunch.

In the end they did it our way, which saved us from doing weeks of back-breaking work in very hot, humid weather, and allowed me to be able to landscape the area properly. The guys said the reason they went over and above what was required of them was that we were kind to them and treated them with respect. They said most people they encounter on their jobs treat them badly, as if it were their fault for causing all the inconvienence that results from having the road torn up.

All the guys were so grateful for what we did for them, which was nothing compared to what they did for us.

Good luck getting your plants and let us know what happens :-)

Well, Janet---you know what the old saying, tried and true:

"You catch more flies with honey than vinegar"! I guess you've proved it's validity!

And, it's just more fun to be kind, helpful and grateful than otherwise--IMHO! It just feels SOOO good!

janice

Well, Janet---you know the old saying, tried and true:

"You catch more flies with honey than vinegar"! I guess you've proved it's validity!

And, it's just more fun to be kind, helpful and grateful than otherwise--IMHO--it just feels SOOO good!

janice

Uh oh, i-Village is having it's problems this a.m.! It first told me there was an "internal error"
so I went back and changed a couple of things, then it told me I had already posted with the same topic,
so I went back and changed that and now look--twice said!! Sorry folks!

janice

Janet, it's amazing, isn't it? A little human kindness in hot weather? All ulterior motives aside, just a nice thing to do. Kindness -- and cold beverages -- gets one far in this world with Kharma we are allowed to see.

Verizon was putting in their fiber optics through our area a year or so ago. I have huge beds on the easement and knew they'd probably be torn up. I was vigilent about watching for the crews, because I knew they'd let me move things if I just asked. Well, they went through with some underground machine and you would never knew they had even been ON my property if it weren't for this huge concrete covered manhole thing behind a flower bed and between 2 lilacs.

The next time they were around, I went tearing out to thank the foreman, whom I'd seen up and down the road. I couldn't figure out why he stood up straight, crossed his arms and pursed his lips. I thought maybe the sight of a short lady in dirty jeans, wearing a shocking orange visor with wild hair running across a yard waving her arms at him was off-putting, to the very least. Imagine.

When I breathlessly told him I had been trying to catch him to thank him for such an amazing, thoughtful job, and that my husband (a general contractor) had never seen such clean work before? I realized when he literally had to remember to close his jaw to talk, that he'd been prepared to deal with an angry crazy woman.

The next time I saw him, he was overseeing a tree removal crew. Verizon was in on it because if the FIOS, but a subcontractor, tree removal service was removing a 70' dead oak along the very same bed. On my way to teach, I stopped, said hello, and told them there was clean water up on the house; just be sure to turn it off when they were done.

When I returned, the oak was gone, except for a huge stump I love, much of the wood was sawed into fireplace-sized pieces, and stacked in an unobtrusive place. Best of all? The iris planted around the base of the tree were back in place. I could tell they'd been lifted and returned. They rebloomed that same year.

Beat that story!?

Bob -- yes, they're at the 7th Day Adventist. Now don't you go grabbing all the "extras". Of course, I'm up for a conspiracy if you are.... I'm down here (right now) 5 days a week and leave 4 of them after 8:00 at night.

Yardenman? Where are you now in MD? Do I see you at the MidAtlantic swaps? Bob?

I got a boatload of tulip bulbs, those huge gorgeous ones they put in LaFayette Park, once. Of course, I lived in a condominium then and had to find them a good home, but I just couldn't watch them be destroyed.

I wonder if some of the workers couldn't take them home and resell them. After all, they're [sigh] garbage, yet could make someone's family a little extra change.

But not the 'Obsidians'. Those are tagged for ME!

Anyway. :) I'm still considering whom to call or how to make those heuchera mine. Then there are those hellebores at Tenley Circle, the gorgeous blue hostas at Franklin and Rte 29... Stop me.

Just stop me.

C.