Good to have you back!! Great looking hosta.

Denis, so good to have you back in the land of the living :-) Last thing I've seen of you was filming 'The beast from the East' snowstorm...

Your hosta are amazing! Don't know where to start...the giants all look good, especially Snowden... and that Great Expectations...how about Raspberry Sundae?

The horticulture course is an interesting thing, I hope we will hear more about it some day...

Enjoy your holiday! Maybe we see more beds at the end of the week :-)

Glad to see you posting. I always wonder when someone stops if they lost interest in gardening, but with you it's the opposite. A year long horticulture course sounds intense.

Impressive how big your hostas in pots have gotten and what a nice new hosta bed. ....Are you still collecting Viburnums as well?

your hostas are doing so well!..I wish I had Snowden and Nigrescens..I like your stone edged bed..we're working with stone too..(confession - my husband is doing almost all of the work)..I say "yes I like that one next to that one" or "no I don't" lol..

Glad you are back. Great looking hostas, they are getting really big, wau. Great Expectations looks magnificent, it really enjoys your care. Summer Breeze sport looks beautiful.

Good to see you survived the winter intact. It was the worst one I've seen in the last seven years. On the positive side very little frost.

The plants have really leapt this year. That's one great looking GE. I've had one for donkeys years and it never gets much bigger. Still think tc plants are a bit of a lottery and some end up with less vigour than others.

Keep posting Denis, good to see you back.

Dave

Glad you are back. We also use rocks but ours are much smaller and easier to move around.

So glad you're back and posting pics of your beautiful plants. I really like the look of your new garden area and began scheming immediately... how will I talk my husband into building something similar? Did you fill the bed with triple mix or is that your native soil?

Glad to have you back, Denis! You have many gorgeous monsters! It’s great to know you are having a great season.

Sherry

Denis, I was wondering where you were. Glad to hear you are fine and that your hosta are thriving. The new garden looks great!!!

Thanks for the nice comments everyone,

Karin, Raspberry Sundae is doing ok she is not quite as big as last year as yet but the season is young, she had a bit if an accident the other day as the plank she and others sit on as staging snapped due to rot and the pots ended up in a heap, no real harm done though lost a couple of leaves. if you look closely at the top of the photo you can see the remains of the plank they went slip slidin away down to the left.

As regards the course it leans fairly strongly towards vegetable growing but I'm pushing for more "ornamental" gardening content, I grow some veg but it doesn't excite me lol. And as for other new beds it could happen I have plans and plants waiting!

Sandyslopes, Its not too intense but challenging to get back into school mode after twenty odd years, havn't written much more than a shopping list since 1994! I'm not really actively collecting the Viburnums but if I see a nice one I'll squeeze it in somewhere, collections just seem to happen, a small collection of Rhodies just happened too.

Nicholsworth, you are the clever one getting your hubby to do your bidding, do you give your orders from your lawn chair lol.

Dave, I have another GE that I don't show anyone, sits there looks pathetic and won't die lol, I think you are correct about the TC's, I have others that refuse to do anything too. In the above photo to the left of RS is Climax and it has looked like that since 2015.

Mae, My native soil is peat and this was more peat but bought in bags, I amended the planting holes with good compost and a little slow release fertiliser.

It was a hot humid day, well hot for here 25C, probably not hot for some of ye, spent most of the day cutting grass, I broke a mandrel on the deck and replaced it, finished mowing then watering whilst being eaten by midges and painted the hen house windows and didn't get around to putting the mulch down yet, as they say tomorrow is another day. must sleep its 3am here.

Denis

Always late Denis, as I'm always early...sounds like you had a good day :-) Accidents happen, I put a pot on Amalia (planted in the ground) for example or the cats were fighting and threw pots from the stairs... But no real hurt done, only some leaves that don't look perfect :-)

Vegetable growing would also not be my biggest interest, but a nice rhubarb is not so bad and looks quite 'ornamental'...would love to know more about herbs, started to grow a few new ones this season because I love the scents and am interested in their healing powers...

And your Raspberry Sundae has many leaves!

Great pleasure looking at your pics! Thank you for posting those beauties!

Your hostas are beautiful Dennis! I hope you continue to post lots of pics over the course of the season!

Very happy hostas, love Snowden.

Whoa, those are some big, beautiful hostas! I've been thinking about getting Brother Stefan, and yours looks so nice. I like the color of that Montana hosta as well. Your new bed is beautiful. Love the boulders. Nice mix of a manicured bed in an natural looking area. Very pretty!

Denis..our stonework..

pics 1 & 2..the south side edging that we finished last week..a pic of the center..pics 4 & 5 the north side that we finished yesterday..time to plant the bare spots..going to use some small hostas here and there so that I can step over if I need to..the bed in the center was here when I moved in..I've been cutting back the periwinkle to keep the paths clear..the hostas and lily of the valley are practically buried..will work on it someday sigh..

Denis - glad to see your post Gorgeous leaping hostas! And I, too, noticed the soil - I was a little taken-aback when I read the part about mulching, because I just assumed you had already mulched... the soil is so dark and rich-looking (and not a weed in sight)! Those plants are going to be sooo happy in that great stuff!

It is great to see you posting Denis. Your hostas are really looking fantastic!

I do love a freshly planted bed and will echo what rich soil you have. Those are some very happy plants and it always helps when you have nice specimens to start with!

Good for you on taking the course. I appreciate how strange it must be but learning is always a good thing.

Nicholsworth, wow nice place, am envious of all your mature trees and your edging looks great, that was a lot of stone hauling, nice flat stones, you could build nice walls with the likes of them ( or your hubby could lol) Was this a planted/planned woodland garden or have you tamed a natural woodland? I love the shade in hot weather and am willing my trees to grow faster.

Thanks Denis..we tamed a natural woodland..we have stone in several places..there's 2 walls (2 stones high) in the front..the smartest thing that we did was planting shrubs and trees as soon as we moved in 13 years ago..they've grown so much (just like your hostas)..that's a natural woodland behind your raised bed isn't it?..

Well, buddy...looks like the investment in montana-type plants is paying off. You wanted some big-and-beautifuls, and now they're starting to reward you. Everything looks great, man!

Your Great Expectations is extremely impressive.

Well this houzz "upgrade has bugs, I was replying and went and opened a new tab to look at something and came back and all I'd written was gone, poo!

anyway...

Nicholsworth, no that is a commercial plantation of sitka spruce and lodgepole pine both from your side of the pond, we have very little natural woodland left due to the british stealing our Oaks to build their navy, fuel shortages during both world wars and government policy being carp after independence, promoting foreign species producing poor quality timber as it grows too quickly here.

Thanks Don, I am very fond of those montanas even though they are trying to block the exits now lol. all I can say about the GE is that I got a good one to start with and I have not managed to kill it yet!

Denis..makes me sad to hear how humans have so carelessly destroyed the natural health and beauty of the earth..I'm glad that at least you don't have to look at a barren lot..

No I didn't...yet, yours is beautiful and pristine so tempting. Its parents have everything going for it, good genes. I have not bought a single hosta this year...yet. I keep saying it but I must get some of these big guys in the ground or I won't be able to move them if I up pot any more lol.

That Inspire Greatness of Mbug's is so tempting too, well I think thats a list started, still didn't get On Stage yet also.

Did you get any new ones this year?

See Denis, that's why I missed your comments...you always have that background knowledge...I also know about a lot of problems between UK and Ireland, but that they used your oaks to build their ships was something I didn't know. An interesting thing because that changes the land so much...we can only try to make it better with adding a little green in our own gardens...

You are lucky that you have room for your big hosta, I also love the Montana types and Silk Kimono is on my list, but I have to find places in other gardens for some older hosta before I can think to buy more...not that this is a problem, but it is hard to part from every plant :-(

I was gifted 5 seedlings from Sunnywood this year, but still haven't purchased any.

I got the big beast, montana f macrophylla in the ground today along with Ivory Coast and my poor Empress Wu who should be doing much better than she is, am sure they all will be happier out of their pots.

This is an area I started ages and ages ago but I'd like to get it finished this year. The new bed I completed a few days ago is over to the right of this area. I got it mulched today too.

Trying to sort out somewhere to sit. I need more mulch, again and some nice gravel for the path and a G&T!

I am going to have fun planting up this bed. Its nice not to be planting tiny things, good to get em big in pots first lol.

I also planted a Sequoia sempervirens- Coast redwood over to the left in that first photo.

This spot can get fairly wet in winter so am copying a forestry technique called mound planting( they don't use stones) to give it a good start.

Last day of my holiday tomorrow and I have to go out food shopping :-(

I want to play in my garden lol.

Don, nice, are they from specific crosses or OP?

That looks great! I love terraces and your big beasts have room enough to grow now...Will be fun to watch them :-)

Can you find those stones around your place or do you have to buy them?

A Sequoia??? Nice! Now THAT'S impressive. The seedlings given to me by Sunnywood are OP.

Jade Cascade x OP

Sagae x OP

Chinese Dragon Streaked Gold x OP

Empress Wu x OP and

Galaxy x OP

I was going to buy a few solid green hostas to balance out a couple of beds that have so many brightly variegated hostas. Sunnywood gave me these at the perfect time : )

Karin those stones were part of the bedrock from where the extension on the back of my is, it had to be leveled out, I kept them for this special purpose, some are huge and very heavy I am glad I didn't have to move them too far.

Don, those seedlings sound exciting, all of them could be fantastic plants, keep us (me lol) up to speed with them.