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Unplanned order.

I was on facebook this evening going through the usual carp that ends up on there. I came across a post from Fransens (Netherlands) announcing that and I quote

"This year we are offering a clearance list of Hostas at reduced prices. These are varieties we are discontinuing to make room in our greenhouses and will allow us to offer you the newest Hostas from an ever increasing assortment. You will also find a list of limited Hostas that are available like the other years."

Well it would be terribly rude not to have a little look wouldn't it? Any way I ended up ordering the following:

Apple Pie
Brigadier
Carder Blue
Curls
Goober
Janet's Green Sox
Jade Scepter
Landscape One
Pineapple Poll

These were very very cheap, some were only 1.50 euro ($2 ish) so I feel no guilt lol.

Whilst there I added a couple more, sure the others would be lonely in the box on the journey!

Antioch
Snowden
Dress Blues
Devon Gold
Abby

These weren't on the clearance list' but I wanted the first three and the other two......well you know how it is right!

Isn't the library a fantastic aid for hosta retail therapy!

Feeling very happy with myself, does anybody have any of my bargains or know any thing about them? or even better some pics.

Comments (28)

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    10 years ago

    and the beat goes on.......

    -Babka

  • TheHostaCottage
    10 years ago

    Great deals and nice haul :)
    Vanessa

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    10 years ago

    yeah.. all orders are unplanned....

    perhaps not in the initiation..

    but most always.. in the amounts forked over.. lol

    there always seems to be an excuse to throw in a few more.. like.. the sun came up.. i am breathing .... i still have one hair left in my head.. aw heck.. i will count by eyebrows .... lol

    ken

  • in ny zone5
    10 years ago

    You always should buy them all NOW! This way plants will have time to grow and will be mature FAST! You do not want to wait to buy any in several years, because then you would have to wait another 5 years!

  • mctavish6
    10 years ago

    That looks like a great sale. For those of you in Canada Hosta Choice is having a stock reduction sale too. Faye discovered it and we both are ordering. Their site is:

    http://www.hostachoicegardens.com/

  • jan_on zone 5b
    10 years ago

    You can feel good about doing your part in helping clear some greenhouse space - and in supporting your grower of choice by also ordering a few that they will make some profit from!! Give yourself a pat on the back!

    Antioch is the only one on your list that I actually have, but it is a favourite, and one of my best performers.

    Jan

  • almosthooked zone5
    10 years ago

    If in doubt , buy them all. Then you don't have to choose... go for it Myrle, that's what I do

  • mountainy man z8 Ireland
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Cheers folks, so true Bernd especially the very slow ones, Ken we really don't need to make up excuses to get some more do we? Jan, yes I am helping them, good point lol and yes Antioch an oldie but a goodie supposed to be a good grower too.

    This lot pushes me into the mid fifties number wise and the other order into the sixties, spring really can't come soon enough, had couple of inches of snow today and more forcast for tomorrow and wednesday, my snowdrops are burried :(

  • stoc zone 6 sweden
    10 years ago

    Thanks for enabling me.. spent best part of this evening going through the list.Great prices.Had a bit of a problem going back and forth on my browser and my cart emptied 2 times.But I persevered and ordered:

    Banyai's Dancing Girl
    Glockenspiel
    Goober
    Mary Jo
    Pastures Green
    Pineapple Poll 1
    Sweet Bouquet

    I also have a full cart at Van Den Top's

    Thanks for the tip!

  • mountainy man z8 Ireland
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I had a feeling you might be interested Stoc lol, ya i had that problem with the cart too but was scribbling down the names as I was going along so wasn't too disasterous.

    Goober is really cute, such a wrinkly little thing.

    Glad I was able to enable lol

  • don_in_colorado
    10 years ago

    D*mmit! Now I need a 'Carder Blue'!!

    Unplanned enabling!

    Don B.

  • mountainy man z8 Ireland
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Bwahahahahaha! lol Don!

    "Need" : "A need is something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death"

    We understand Don we really do, lol

    (it is a lovely hosta btw.)

  • don_in_colorado
    10 years ago

    LOL Yes Denis, as I said, 'need' : )

    Don B.

    P.S. I can hold off getting 'Carder Blue' for quite a while, but eventually, I'll 'need' it.

    This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Mon, Feb 10, 14 at 17:31

  • bkay2000
    10 years ago

    Yeah, I had an order in with Chris. I added a Cathedral Windows, as I "needed" a new one to replace one the squirrels have been beating up. I went ahead and paid to get the discount.

    Then Paul started Bingo. Right away, there was another one I wanted that Chris has.

    There is no end.

    bk

  • in ny zone5
    10 years ago

    We gardeners are starting gardening early by looking at catalogs to survive this long winter right now. We need an uplifting experience over the last bleak weeks of winter and deserve ordering a few of those beauties. I kept ordering going from 35 to 205 different hostas in 4 years. It is a good experience. I am retired and such a hobby is what I need to stay busy. I found that ordering big divisions will establish a mature hosta garden so much faster. That is like instant gratification.
    Bernd

    This post was edited by berndnyz5 on Tue, Feb 11, 14 at 9:04

  • stoc zone 6 sweden
    10 years ago

    Mountainman,

    I just wrote to see if I could add:

    Kiwi Gold Rush
    Shade Master

    The prices are so good and a lot of them they list as fast growers,so I'm hoping that they are growing them out of house and home and they will be huge when they get here.

    Goober does look really cute.I have a Crumples in my cart at Van Den Top.

    Since you enabled me I'm going to return the favor.
    Have you heard of Eurohosta?
    Really low prices,but shipping to Sweden is ridiculous.The owner said she could send them by post but I think the prices from Fransens can't be beat by her.

    Not sure what stage of growth they are I don't think they are liners.

    The nursery is in Slovakia!

    Edit to correct the right country.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Eurohosta

    This post was edited by stoc on Tue, Feb 11, 14 at 13:43

  • stoc zone 6 sweden
    10 years ago

    Sorry Don,
    I just added Carder Blue too. 2 Euros..jeesh.

  • mountainy man z8 Ireland
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks Stoc, no I hadn't heard of Eurohosta, yes the prices are very good, the delivery prices seem to make no sense, 62.29 to you in Sweeden and 18.55 for me to Ireland, wrong way round I would have thought lol.(Fransens costs me 20.00)
    They seem to have a fairly good selection and from looking at their video the plants look like liners + one year ish so not bad. Worth a go at some time, even test for HVX.
    I think its Slovakia not Slovenia.

    As for your suggestions above Kiwi gold rush looks great but must try to calm the buying down a bit lol. there are 12 in the cart on VDT so really must resist........argh!

    I am hoping for biggies too.

    Thanks
    Denis

  • stoc zone 6 sweden
    10 years ago

    You're right Denis.Am tired and getting my geography mixed up.

    James

  • rosie742001
    10 years ago

    babka: You nailed it- "And the beat goes on" Loved the music, and Sonny and Cher, and that sems to fit us 'hostaholics' perfectly!! All we need now is a Hosta with that name! What a great idea!!!

  • don_in_colorado
    10 years ago

    Two Euros for a 'Carder Blue', James? How can you possibly resist something like that (Especially when you've put an order together already)?

    Hadn't seen 'Kiwi Gold Rush' but I checked the library and it looks like a great hosta.

    Don B.

  • almosthooked zone5
    10 years ago

    We are I trouble now! we just received the Hosta list of one of our local garden centres called the greenery and they have many of the new ones we will just have to NEED Myrle, Here we go again !! Yes the beat goes on.

  • User
    10 years ago

    Ahem....you know, in most every case, any sale is a "stock reduction" whether the item is replaced in inventory or not.....just thought I'd point that out......

    .....and meanwhile, is anyone else using the "sticky note" feature of Windows 7? Those little notes on my monitor are a great place to jot down the names of hostas I see in the Alphabet, and highly visible as I go flipping through online catalogs. No paper note to keep track of. Works for me.

    Those of you with nurseries closeby are so lucky. My closest is 200 + miles, just outside Birmingham. I did a Google Earth fly-over to the address, and the location shows highly wooded and evergreen, cannot wait to visit when the weather is better.

  • mountainy man z8 Ireland
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Well the order arrived this morning, my postie is starting to get used to this now lol,

    It was nicely packed as always with dutch newspaper.

    Lots of little and not so little baggies!

    made a potting mix of 80% partialy rotted bark mulch 20% multi-purpose compost, I hope this looks ok.

    Hosta Brigadier with a sturdy root system, nice.

    Hosta Curls with oodles of eyes.

    Group pic, the one without a label is Kelsey of which there were two plants so potted seperately, sweet!

    This is where some of my babies have been over wintering, this little shelter has been cobbled together from some old windows, this is to try and keep them relatively dry as our winters are kinda like a monsoon and also I used a peat compost and was afraid of rot if left uncovered

    The others are under my potting bench.

    Now I know these photos arn't very exciting but I had a nice afternoon potting them up and had to share lol.

    Denis

  • User
    10 years ago

    Ooooh, I'll wind up moving to Ireland! Drats, those walls fill me with angst for the old sod! Oh how I wish we'd bought the over 200 year old stone cottage near Miltown Malbay that was my DH's mother's birthplace. I loved it so. Mountainyman, you cannot imagine how much I enjoy your presence on the forum.

    Wet winters? yes, and that is what our winters are like too. Only not very cold....this year being an exception.

    Great pictures too. Only a hostaholic would find pictures of dirt and roots and small pips exciting. But I can smell the garden coming to life!

  • stoc zone 6 sweden
    10 years ago

    WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!

    Thanks for posting Denis! My heart started pounding looking at the pics.I am so looking forward to getting mine.Those are some serious roots you have there.I'm not getting mine until May 20th.So I will just have to live vicariously through you.
    You have made my day,I haven't ordered from Fransen's before but now I know i did the right thing.

    Thanks for all the pics,your setup looks great.Be sure to post some more pics when they start to come up.
    That was some nice looking dirt you have there.

    I saw some Snowdrops in my garden today and lots of other bulbs are about 3 or 4 cm up.What a shock for Sweden. I told them they were probably going to smacked down.This is a very,very unusually warm winter for us.I think the USA got our winter by mistake.

    Thanks again!!!
    James

  • mountainy man z8 Ireland
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Mocc, It would be great if you moved here, we could set up an Irish hosta society and have tae and sanguiches lol. I need to do the whitewashing as soon as we get a fine spell of weather (or if). It has been a very wet winter so far with flooding and bad wind storms although I don't flood up here on my mountain thankfully.

    I knew ye hostaholics wouldn't mind a photo of a half filled wheelbarrow!

    James, I frightened the postie shouting the same thing this morning! Oh how can you wait till may? lol.
    The roots on Brigadier are huge as were Antioch and Snowden, Devon gold and Goober were quite small but overall I am very pleased and was delighted to find two plants of Kelsey in the bag.

    This is the first time I have mixed up a potting mix as I have only used multipurpose straight from the bag before so I will be studying their progress closely and yes I will post pics, try stop me lol.

    This has been a fairly typical winter here temperature wise although we have had many more storms than usual and more rain. We have had 7 or 8 snowfalls and had snow on the ground from last monday night till friday night past, had a blizzard on wednesday afternoon with every vertical surface plastered withe a few inches of snow and with all that my snowdrops, which were flatned have stood up again. tough little fellas!

    Denis

  • mountainy man z8 Ireland
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Have just looked at my list again and realised that I didn't order Kelsey, they must have thrown it in as a bonus and there are two of them, double bonus! Nice people those dutch!