Just got 2 Blue Shadows today from New Hampshire hostas today does anyone grow them?

thanks utog, I think I might have to get some of those :)

Miles, I will need to see some pictures of Blue Shadows! That is a Tokudama aureonebulosa sport, right?

My reward at the end of a hard week.

Dogwood with some autumn sparkles.

That Sugar Plum hosta again.

Heat Wave, Banana Muffins and friends.

Tokudama flavicircinalis today. Slow, but possibly the best yellow-margined blue medium for full season awesomeness.

The first camellia sasanqua bloom this season!

Chelone in flower.

Paradise Glory. I hope this one survives, because it's a beauty.

Hibiscus aculeatus

Last month I mercilessly pruned the boxwood hedges in front of my house. I think they liked it!

Infatuation with first bloom.

Blooming liriope.

Earlier this year, I said that Diana Remembered and Royal Wedding seemed to be the same plant. Since mid-season, Royal Wedding has proved itself to be more garden worthy.
Diana Remembered

Royal Wedding

Utog, I love hearing about how you study. I can’t imagine where you find the time......you have such a large garden compared to mine......and I’m retired (older too tho). I take a lot of pictures and document that way, but I have never had a notebook or diary. Do you use something like this?

I love the liriope throughout your garden......does it have a tendency to be aggressive and get out of control, or is it a plant that stays where you plant it?

I love my Royal Wedding. It’s three years old and has increased nicely in size, color and flower blooms. It is starting to show some nice puckering this year.

debra

I study by walking around a lot and taking pictures. I compare photos from previous months and years when I think I notice something.
The liriope would spread, but the voles eat it at about the same rate. About once every couple of years, I transplant rogue patches from one area of the garden to fill emerging holes/breaches in the main liriope border. The liriope makes my garden possible because it supports the swale to direct the flash flood water flow.

World Cup,

grasshopper in white hibiscus syriacus,

blue mist flower,

and Spilt Milk.

First Frost hostas are looking great. Anything in the Halcyon lineage does great in my zone 7b garden, in pots or in the ground. pot.

Paul’s Glory (ground) and Dark Star (pot) like their s

Earth Angel is looking a bit worn at the edges, yet still impressive.

Teatime next to Waterslide.

Brother Stefan with signs that he wants to do dormant.

Great Expectations looking proud and strong despite a hard year, my plant mascot for 2020.

Touch of Class.

Sugar Plum flowers in closeup.

Comparison photo for late season color with Dancing Queen in foreground and Lime Ripple in background.

Morning Star among ferns.

The gate with Diana Remembered on the left and Royal Wedding on right.

Squirrel coming down the maple tree in the background!

Utog, your Tea Time and Waterslide look so different from mine.

Waterslide before bloom

during bloom, it has greened up

Debra, your plants are so fortunate to have your TLC and the cold winters. Most of mine survive on tough love, and are young plants. I started collecting hostas in 2016, and the garden is full.

Teatime is a 2019 addition to my garden (from Hallson's!). I do not think mine will ever look like yours, because all of my Halcyon lineage become smooth, shiny with nice veins, flat leaves, and without corrugation. I do not have a lot of bright sun in my yard, so my First Frosts, Junes, Catherines, and Touch of Class all get apple-green instead of cream/white in the light areas.

Volcano Island,

Dinner Mint,

May (in September),

and Afterglow.

The light is pretty today.

Lime Ripple,

Krugerrand,

Roy Klehm,

and Brother Stefan (again).

Utog, I didn’t realize you had just begun your hosta collection four years ago. You have amassed such a large collection so quickly. Wow!!

debra

Utog, I can certainly understand how much your yard has meant to you this year. We have all enjoyed it as well. I love seeing the full wild looking nature with all your ferns, liriope and other companion plants. I don’t have much sunlight either except very late afternoon sun. Made a bed for sun hostas this year, but between the late frost that even vendors had, and the plants going in total sun (new environment) they started to burn. I had to put up umbrellas to shade for most of the summer. Hosta people here said next year they should be better. I bought Liberty ,Sagae, Queen Josephine, Plantaginea, Holy Mouse Ears and Giantland Sunny Mouse Ears. I assumed Sunny Mouse Ears should go in sun, but no. As soon as I moved it to shade, it grew from a 2nd eye. :-)

debra

Home early!
Remember Me

Monkey Business. I think this one may need to be HOTY in the future.

Monkey Business from the other side. Well, it is a HOTY to me.

Sugar Plum keeps getting better. :)

The weather is perfect and I am home from work before dark!
I just love this spot.

Cyclamen hederfolium are starting to leaf out.

Restless Sea in a castaway part of the yard known as "the dog poop yard". I guess it loves the fertilizer.

Chelone is putting on a nice show this year.

HOTY?????? Don’t know that one...... :-)

debra

The remnants of Hurricane Sally are making my hostas happy.
Diva. My son admires the color on this one, says it looks surreal.

Mango Salsa is a great plant. Well done, Bob Solberg!

Blue Ivory likes this spot. That's good for me, because it is too flash for anywhere else in the garden. How this plant thrives in a meager half-pot of topsoil in a grower pot perched on a cinderblock is beyond me.

Diamond Lake in the rain. This is young plant, only arrived 1 month ago. The second flush of leaves looks like THIS in September. HOTY 2022.

utog I imagine with your warmer weather you will be regaling us with your plants in Oct. as well. I have been enjoying your garden!

Debra HOTY stands for Hosta of the Year. HOTY list from Don Rawson does not include 2021 yet which will be Rainbow's End.

It feels like autumn today, Southern style.
Hovercraft and Jetstream

Hovercraft

Lakeside Paisley Print

Mystic Star may be my favorite blue.

Halcyon, the pair of Ben Vernooij (one damaged by Amazon package), and Cup of Grace.

Halcyon is usually blue for me all season. I pruned the privet that was shading it last month, and Halcyon turned green from the hot, all afternoon sun. Ripple Effect is peeking out from Halcyon's shade.

Ben Vernooij is my favorite light-margined, and this one is my favorite of the pair. The Amazon Guy beat this one up badly during a heat wave, which sent the plant into mild shock. Still, not bad for September 19 for a hosta grown in part sun in a blue pot that gets very hot in the afternoon.

This is the smaller Ben Vernooij, which arrived as a weird fasciated scape and looked like an agave for its first year 2 years ago. This one has narrower margins and narrower leaves because it is functionally one year younger. The Amazon guy didn't drop a package on this one. It also does not get quite as hot as its sibling on the other side of the front step.

Cup of Grace, a young plant.

This is the last Saturday of summer.

It has been a good season. Most of my fragrant hostas and Solberg's red-petioled hostas will look good for a few more weeks. The Elegans/sieboldiana lineage is beginning to fade.

Mourning Dove, 2nd year.

Krugerrand

Deep Blue Sea

Yes I agree, Mystic Star is a great blue! I love the way it turns metallic after the wax has been worn away, attractive flowers too. All around terrific.

The weather was perfect today for some vigorous garderning. I finished this part of the garden. We will see how it comes in next year.

Weekend harmony.
Hydrangea macrophylla, lace-cap, unknown varietal

Passion flower 'Lavendar Lady'

Butterfly on whirling butterfly flowers (Gaura)

Sugar Plum

It was chilly this morning. I had to a wear a light jacket. I will miss the hostas.

Krugerrand is so tall that morning light comes in from below the leaves.

Camellia in front of Florida Sunshine illicium

Frosted Dimples awaiting garden assignment. Undulata albomargina in the background.

Virginia Reel and Reptillian

Comparison of Sugar Snap and Honey Bear, first year.

June Fever, Guacamole and Stained Glass, Waterslide and Teatime, and Happy Dayz

Utog, I have enjoyed your yard all spring summer and now fall.....keep posting as long as you can. I noticed today that you have so many tree stumps..... were they trees that needed cutting, or have you actually brought some stumps to the yard to use for display? I love your lady face planter...... she looks like a wild woman!! :-D

debra

Debra,
2016 was a hard year. We had a large oak tree from neighbor’s yard fall on our home during a summer storm. Then, hurricane Matthew came through and knocked down one of our big oaks. Hence, the stumps everywhere.

I know about trees and limbs falling.......a large branch from our Box Elder (I think it is original to the house 1939) fell into our yard several years ago. It fell on the grass and deck and completely shattered our glass top patio table and made the metal parts and chairs look like twisted horrible creatures.Thank God it missed the house and the yard cats were not injured. But it was a terrible clean up as you know. There were little tiny pieces of glass every where! Yesterday I was digging about in the yard and found a small piece of the glass in a pot that I emptied. Unreal......

debra

Extensive damage from tree/limb fall is so disheartening. Gardening is healing.

It has rained all week. TGIF.

Brother Stefan, Mystic Star (wet look), Krossa Regal, and Mousetrap.

June Spirit grown in part sun, Afterglow with Worldly Treasure and Silk Kimono, new acquisitions Apple Pie and Sun Mouse (from Plant Delights Nursery run today) and hydrangea.

September is ending with temps in the 60-70’s in the daytime, 40’s to 50’s at night with lots of rain.
Afterglow

Abiqua Drinking Gourd

Frosty Morn

Catherine

Some more end of season photos.
Paradise Glory

Tick Tock

Sagae

Prairie Sky

For hostas, it has been a good year.
Mourning Dove

Touch of Class

Hush Puppie, a mini-small as evidenced by the size of the Mystic Star leaves on the left.

Spartacus is starting to go dormant after a spectacular year. The center of the plant still looks great.

See you in October!
Waukon Water

Camelot, an old Smith tardiana variety that looks a lot like Prairie Sky with slightly smaller leaves.

Rainbow's End

Heat Wave

Looking good as usual UTOG. Many of mine were looking great, but today was the day chosen for cutting all back. As the weather cools off, I start getting the yard ready for winter even tho it’s a long way off. I have yard decor to clean and bring in and store and the drenching has to be done..... I am not a cold weather person, even though I’ve lived in WI all my life. It’s been a tough summer for me, between my hip replacement and chronic bursitis in the other hip.......I AM DONE!! Lol........lol

debra

undertheoaksgardener..I was way behind on this post..I'm staying out all day and coming in tired..add me to the group of those that said they've enjoyed your garden photos!..you have so many varieties..I have a large total number of hostas but a lot of duplicates..I have favorites and don't mind repetition Lol..

While many of our hostas are looking way the worse for wear this time of year our singleton Brother Stefan continues to look just fine:

Rouge, your Brother Stefan is a beauty. It is such an easy plant to love.