Sounds like a lot of fun! I also always buy more hosta than I intend too! Good luck planting and please share all when you’re ready to show off!

Wow, what a haul! I've been wanting to stop by a couple local hosta nurseries but don't trust myself.

I love the details of the itinerary, the pic of the hosta filled car and the convincing arguments about the purchases lol..they're beautiful and will look great in your garden..

Steve, there is my house! New gardens waiting to be made, Hubby has to give up lawn area. but first we need to clean up some major down branches from weekend storms. :(

Sounds like a perfect weekend to me!

Sounds like fun was had by all! Love that photo ; )

Sherry

Ok. You win! I was going to show my picture of my two hostas I bought at a Lowe's yesterday on clearance when I really have room for no more hostas. But hands down, you win. I fold!

What a haul!

Looks like hosta act like dogs and hang their head out the window.

tj

21 hostas for $300.? You made a killing! Hope you find room for all your new friends.

Steve- this is too funny!!!

Let us know where you squeeze them in. And - what did your wife say when you got home with all of those?

She was out shopping all day for fabric in Amish country when I got home. I did get her Quilting Bee. Before I left she said, "Why do you think you need to keep buying when you don't have any more room?"

She was actually pretty understanding about the whole thing. Or she just surrendered.

Just realize that you have killed any chance of getting that SUV you want.

Oh, I get it... I understand about fabric and quilting!

Its just the same as with hostas.

Lol!

Now just imagine if a person is into both....

I don't get into too much trouble from husband either. Hosta in the spring / summer and yarns to make afghans in the winter. Garden full and spare bedroom full of yarns enough for 20 afghans . I don't dare look to hard for either now

Steve, your wife has a ton of fabric that she is not telling you about. 100%

Hahahahaha.... what Shadow said! I know whereof I speak... and maybe she does too....

isn't fabric easier to hide than a hosta?

"Alexa", Tips and Tricks on how to hide fabric from husband.

Shadow..Lol!!..I guess you try Alexa for hiding plants too!

Loved reading your "story" and how everything unfolded. Very exciting to purchase all those hostas!

Jon - SHE has the SUV, lol.

She doesn't really want to buy anything other than the projects she has going on now. She's in to the whole Con Marie thing, so she tries not to hoard anything.

She does really well trying to be interested in my hobby, so I try to pay attention to her new fabrics, but when she starts talking about the blue fabric with gold wheat on it like I remember it during dinner, my eyes start to glaze over. I suppose that's how she feels when I start talking about that upright, blue, vase-shaped, thick, rugose leaf shaped Hosta and that one with the white center with blue green streaking between the green leaf margin and the . . .

Steve, I say, whatever makes you happy. Do it!. Love your story about all the purchases. Let see them now planted!!!

Great story and what a fun trip! Those plants look huge! Please share pics of them all planted!

WOW, Steve. I thought I had a great time until I read this. It was very nice to visit with you and your wife again. It was fun to meet Miles. I did not know W&G opened back up to clear inventory. Oh well, missed out. I'm glad you got excellent buys everywhere and instant mature gardens. Future Tailgate garden.

At the auction, I won Blue Ivory and received a gift of Half and Half. My highlight was a wooden butterfly in the silent auction.

So my TOTAL was 2 hostas. :)

We saw 11 gardens. Gobsmacking!

Everyone had a good time. Steve had a good time x 1,000.

Here's my butterfly overlooking some of my hostas.

Like the butterfly! Eye catching!

It is nice feeling being able to enjoy your hobby. I love my Checkered Cab hosta, really cute. Gotta look into some other you mention.

We visited the garden of the guy who made the butterfly. I almost rode home on this:

steve..the praying mantis? is fun..so cleverly made..that guy is talented..

Haha, love his praying mantis. We've been to his beautiful gardens before. He built a gorgeous waterfall and ponds. They spend a lot of time in their gardens.

Did the cops stop you on the way home? All those hostas in the back seat look vaguely ominous.

Great story and a great haul. Now here is a guy that knows how to have fun!

So that’s where you put the butterfly that I didn’t get back to bid on! It looks lovely. Went down to Wade and Gatton yesterday and got 18 plants for $340; there are still lots of deals there. Also picked up 3 more at Wade Landscaping (owned by one of the Wade Sons). Gorgeous gift shop at the latter place. There will be an auction in late August for Van Wade’s special plants in Gambier.

Isn’t the preying mantis fantastic? Gene does meticulous work and Judy is a very gifted painter all of their items are simply beautiful. Did you see the 2 frogs carrying the hosta pot on their patio? They are both delightful and talented people.

Yes, I thought I got a picture of the frogs, but I can't find it.

So, what did you get? I've never been to Wade Landscaping, very curious what you found there.

I had some friends go to W&G and picked up 43 for a nearby public garden. I need to go visit that garden soon.

I've got about half of my haul in the ground. It takes some time to figure out where to put them, but then I go and move them anyway.

Went to our local Hosta chapter meeting and BBQ. Picked up 7 more Hosta - Hey, they were free - including 3 streakers and I Dream of Jeannie. A seedling from Sagae that our president registered (can you guess his wife's name?).

We roamed around all of the houses and had a full cart and then some. We picked up: Phantom, Blueberry Muffins, Fruit Cup, Skyrocket, Dancing Mouse, Emerald Necklace, Sturdevant,,Greentown, Pretty Poily, Fingerprint, Blue-Haired Lady, Deluxe Edition, Miniskirt, Dorset Blue, Allgreen Little Jim, Zebra Stripes, Roy Klehm, and Tokudama Aureonbulosa. Some of these are old ones but I wasn't looking for anything in particular except Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (which required me to go back and find--I got the last one which was on its side and hidden by a much larger hosta. We just picked up what looked good and my husband wanted a couple of large green ones so we just started piling them on a cart. By the time we got to the minis, we were wiped out by the heat and the sheer amount of plants that were there. We noticed that lots of plants he used to have are gone. I wanted another Van Wade Blue but couldn't find one but there were so many to consider. In the past, not all of the huts were open, we never were able to look in all of them. At Wade Landscaping, my husband picked up another June since it was enormous and of course you can never have enough June hostas, right? also got Fruit Loop, Ice Palace and a couple of huge astilbes $10 each which had deep red spikes--they grow well in our yard. Wade Landscaping is closer to I-71 has tons of perennials, shrubs, etc. and a great gift shop, even an A. M. Leonard area with clippers, shears, knives, etc. Everything we bought there has thrived with the exception of some heucherellas which don't like the semi shade in our yard. We are moving some into more sun to see how that works out. They also have great garden art but we had our smaller car and couldn't stuff anything else in it. We really need to plan what beds we are going to extend before we plant anything. This time we are going to actually plan out what we are doing not just plunk the plants in the ground--usually that works but this time I have too many to do that. We got a couple at the tailgate hosta auction but I really could have gotten much better plants at Wade and Gatton. On the tour, we picked up a couple of David Bowe's hostas at his place since we always like to support our local hybridizers--we got the large Rainbow (don't remember the whole name) and the one with purple petioles. They have to be planted too. Also ordered some Cuyahogas last week, an Embroidery and a streaked one. They should be arriving any time now. Then there's the half dozen epimediums that we got at the tailgate. So we are going to be very busy in the near future. And did I mention that my daylilies have started blooming and our club's big scape show is in a couple of weeks!!

Thanks for the report. Sounds like you will be busy. Deer have been eating my daylilies, but leaving the Hosta alone. I remember seeing 2 Yellow Polka Dot Bikinis there. I remember picking one up (not knocking it over, but if I did - you're welcome).

Pretty (Peggy?) was very tempting and another tall yellow, but I just picked up Treasure instead. There was no price listed and by the time I asked, I didn't feel like going back. I had Fingerprint on my cart, but decided to just stick with the cheaper ones. Seems like there were only a couple of those left too.

I wanted to get more species. Would have picked up the Tokudama A., but I might have been suffering from heat stroke. I did get a nice size Tokudama F., were the T A's a good size too? Also wish I would have picked up the yellow Montana (I forget the name).

I think I posted this elsewhere, but here's what I ended up with:
Azure Frills

Bachelor Party
Blue Regal
Emerald Necklace
Happy Camper
Jane Ward
L. Spellbinder
Lily Pad
Mack the Knife
Montana Aureomarginata
Nigrescens
Patriot's Fire
Prestige and Promise
Punky
Quilting Bee
Saketini
tokudama Flavocircinalis
Treasure
Tropical Dancer
Waiting in Vein
Wonderland

Holy smokes! That’s quite a haul! Pleeeease post with names when you get them planted.

Almost got Jane Ward but the cart was overflowing. We both got Emerald Necklace so it might be interesting to see how they do. My sister went down the a week earlier and got a Yellow Polka Dot Bikini that had about 15 crowns in a split container--so many crowns that the pot split! Mine I found under some large green ones with the large sign in it but the sign was barely legible--there was a very nice couple there who asked me what I was looking for and they directed me to the right hut. Otherwise I would have never found it. I would always go down with tons of plant names and then end up with totally different plants--this time I just got whatever looked healthy and different than what I already have in my yard. A couple plants have great red petioles and I really like anything with streaks and blues but as I said earlier--I think that lots of his big blues are gone. Wish I lived closer so that I could go back and just look through everything again. It was just so hot and tiring!! I will try and post some pics when I get a chance. for my daylilies we spray the buds at least once a week. Sometimes twice. The deer bother our daylilies and our hostas so we alternate sprays and have a whole routine to prevent deer problems.

I finished this bed before the July 4th weekend, but haven't had time to post. Good thing I had already prepped this bed and cleared out the ornamental (not) grass and burning bush. I ended up splitting over half of what I bought from W&G so they'd fit better for a little while. And now I have more in pots - Yea! I wedged 20 into this bed, 4 into another and a few in random places leaving only 22 new ones to plant

That looks great Steve. Nice bed design and layout of colors/patterns.

I love how you planted this bed. It has a very pleasing to the eye design. Should fill out really nicely!

Just beautiful. Love how you have edged the curves around the beds. I am constantly fighting the invading lawn into my flowerbeds . Looks like perfect placement to me and very pleasing to the eye

Thanks, it helps having a large number of Hosta to choose from. Can't get the lawn to grow over here anyway, but I had the extra edging so I used it.

What a great beginning! Keep us updated, would like to see how everything does for you.

Sherry

What a great bed of Hostas! Everything looks perfectly placed. Yes it does help to have lots of Hostas to choose from when planning a new bed. We actually enlarged a couple of our beds but we are still planning what to do. Of course I had to move some other plants including a Lucy Vitols which was dwarfed by a large clump of Brother Stefan. Then there’s all the spiderworts which have run wild in my yard. Who knew they could multiply so fast? What’s the blue in the middle right of the photo?

Great project!

That's Blue Regal after splitting out a few eyes (like the one growing out the side of the pot). It's supposed to get a bit taller than the one in front and to the right.

Tropical Dancer, Daybreak, Blue Regal, t. Flavocircinalis;

(Ariadne Maple and Midnight Oil) - in the middle

Saketini, Bachelor Party, L. Spellbinder, Checkered Cab, Happy Camper, Punky

I also found a picture of what it used to look like:

Very, very, very excellent improvement!!

Thanks for posting names! Love that yellow Treasure