I will lay odds 10:1, we have all done crazier things. Waaay back, I didnt listen to Ken and used landscape fabric for a huge bed trying to control run off/erosion/frost heave issues. I cannot tell you how many hours of intensive labor I lost. I prefer to work smarter, not harder... but we live and learn :) So when we CAN learn from other people's experiences, it is truly a great thing!

Yep - wish we'd had the big old silver maples taken down when we built. (Ken - I know, I know.... LOL.) They look kind-of gnarly and 'romantic' -- then they drop billions of seeds allover and start degrading and dropping limbs.

We've lived here 5 years and I created a big new bed last fall, with the notion of putting mostly hosta back there..... Now we've decided to have them taken down in the fall (think $$$$). So I'm planting other areas of the yard, but nothing more in the back-40 until next year. The really big one is back there, a smaller one is not too far from it. They provide some pretty good shade, so as replacements I'm thinking maybe an oak (but it will be years before there's much shade), linden (I already have one and love it), river birch (there's already one in the way-back corner). It's a very moist area. I have some shrubs along the fenceline, which I don't think will be endangered when they come to take them down, but I won't plant anything else that might be in the way.

I also have the fear about HVX and I'm afraid I may glance accusingly from time-to-time at the hostas that came from "regular" nurseries and big-box stores -- I only bought a few like that before I knew better - but I do worry....

I wish I had marked the names of my early hostas.

I have some really strange leaves this year too. And I have learned to wait and see. I think most of mine is cold damage, especially with the fragrants. They seem to get hit the hardest.

I didn't know that fragrant hostas are damaged more easily by the cold. The plant I'm most concerned about is my Guacamole. Now that I'm panic stricken, I see diseased plants everywhere. So thanks for the good advice to wait and see. I will also breathe deeply, count to 10, and think happy thoughts.