Hi Esther , just looked at mickfield hostas' site and would add as a possibility Baby Bunting, mabey not blue enough?

It would be hard to beat Blue mouse ears, plus the flowers look lovely from the pics I've seen, bought it last autumn so not experianced it yet really.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baby Bunting

Blue Ice is WAY more blue than BME for me.

-Babka

BME or Blue Ice, both are great. My neighbor grows Blue Ice, I have a couple BME's. His Blue Ice is a truer blue than the BME's I have, though. Both will form great-looking little mounds. His Blue Ice has leaves that are nicely cupped.

Don B.

There's a reason why Blue Mouse Ears is high on the AHS Popularity list and why it won the Benedict Award. It's a great garden plant.

How about Blue Jay? Very blue hosta. It's a slow grower, which is good for your space. Some say 12" across, some double that number. I think it takes a while to get to 24" across, if it makes it that far. Here's mine last year:

Blue Jay may get a little big for you...

BME is not as blue, but does tend to get that nice silver edge.

tj

Thanks for the input so far. I appreciate it. I just cannot wrap my "Like" button around Blue Mouse Ears. The round shape and the blue-green color don't do it for me. I want a representative of the BLUE guys, so it has to be really blue. I love Dorset Blue but realize it gets way too big for my garden. Blue Jay is stunning (gorgeous plant you have, Tsuja!) but as was pointed out, might get too big for my space.

So what else is like a mini Dorset Blue, with the channeled leaves that are not wrinkly or cupped? I love my Maui Buttercups cupped wrinkly look, but on that lovely yellow critter, it looks RIGHT. I want to admire the smooth expanses of blue laid out to admire and gush over.

Thanks for the input so far. I appreciate it. I just cannot wrap my "Like" button around Blue Mouse Ears. The round shape and the blue-green color don't do it for me. I want a representative of the BLUE guys, so it has to be really blue. I love Dorset Blue but realize it gets way too big for my garden. Blue Jay is stunning (gorgeous plant you have, Tsuja!) but as was pointed out, might get too big for my space.

So what else is like a mini Dorset Blue, with the channeled leaves that are not wrinkly or cupped? I love my Maui Buttercups cupped wrinkly look, but on that lovely yellow critter, it looks RIGHT. I want to admire the smooth expanses of blue laid out to admire and gush over.

just to be sure.. you do understand that blue is a transitory coloration being bluest in spring.. and then subject to a host of insults.. such as overhead watering... ambient heat... how cool it gets at night [compared to day] .... etc ....

ken

ps: is gushing anything like spewing????

Naw, Ken, gushing is just standing there going, "Mmmmm. Awwww. Oh my. How gorgeous." Spewing is (a) talking about the latest antics of one's weirdest relative or (b) the forceful eruption of whatever you ate last, out of your oral cavity in the reverse direction from whence it got there.

crikey ... a lexicon-ologist ...

lol ...

listen.. frankly ... blues in your z7 ... are probably going to disappoint you on some level ... though you might enjoy all those z5 pix... i would suspect you might get better info from the warm zone peeps ... though i have no clue what funn smothered her blue jay in ...

i still dont get why you have a bug up your.. well.. you finish the thought.. about the asian fellow .... he could be doing a lot worse to your SHARED garden.. than putting out some whirligigs.. you have to admit.. the pottery is a step up from the prior stuff ... lol ....

frankly.. i cant even conceptualize your space.. in metro NYC ... and the vast horde of unwashed humanity ... with you you gardening in a space common to your building ... i give you two thumbs up.. note how green they are ... lol ...

why dont you stand it up.. and plant something asian in it.. oh.. wait.. hosta are asian ... bet it doenst have drainage in it ... so.. pot in pot ... SEE SEE !!!! .... he is enabling you ... lol ...

ken

and that Blue Jay pic was taken in Fall, too! I know blues are harder to come by in zone 8 and above, but there are plenty that make it just fine in zone 7 without all the fading. You just have to be selective about which one you buy and don't water it from the top. Not so hard. No worries, Esther, you'll find a good blue one for you. If we can do it down here in this humidity, you'll be fine way up there.

Blue Jay wasn't even my bluest. That would be Prairie Sky (pic also taken in late fall, mid-day, even):

Too big for you, Esther, but it just shows you how blue the right hosta can be in good ole Zone 7!

One that I like, almost a twin of Blue Cadet, is a really inexpensive oldie by Pauline Banyai. I believe Mark Zilis says it is one of the most underrated hosta good for a lot of purposes.

It is 'Banyai's Dancing Girl' and it also had the same bloom period at Blue Cadet.

Here are my two side by side, BC and BDG, last year.
In April 2013

in May...some loss of blue, but holding pretty well considering it is in zone 9a. VERY strong grower, outperforming Blue Cadet and looking good doing so.

KEN:

Hahahahahahahaha.

There, got that off my chest.

The Chinese guy is a boor. His 20-something "son" (who I suspect is an illegal tenant, probably sleeping in the attic, which is prohibited) litters all over the gardens, sidewalk, and lawn with disgusting cigarette butts. Who wants to look at those? Every Friday night, when I'm trying to enjoy the Sabbath, I have to listen to a knock-down, drag-out fight through the wall. He is screaming at his girlfriend or someone else, while I am trying to have a peaceful evening. He keeps putting unwanted cheap looking trashy stuff in an otherwise utterly beautiful and costly garden created by yours truly.

What's to like, Ken?

Here is an approximation of the latest cheap looking bottle--or urinal, who knows--he put into the garden. The hysterical thing is, he laid it on its side just like the white Garden Cat vase is lying, but THAT is on its side for a totally different reason--the freeze/thaw cycle.

And, I live in QUEENS. Not Manhattan. We actually have trees, grass, and flowers in Queens. This is a view of one of the courtyards in my complex, plus some unoccupied rooms (got the pic off a real estate broker site):

Does that look like a slum? As for the "unwashed humanity", I don't think many of them would pass muster by our co-op board, who has to approve of you before you can purchase. My immediate community is really nice, like a little village. You want to see unwashed humanity, try downtown Flushing, Queens, with its hordes of illegal Chinese immigrants, or Jamaica, Queens, with the people who toss trash out their windows onto the ground (just like back home!), or similar neighborhoods where the locals don't have respect for their environs.

Thanks Mocc for posting the pics of Banyai's Dancing Girl',
I ordered 5 of them from Fransens,coming this May.
I think they were like 1.50 euros each.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! That lightpost in between those benches looks dangerous, Esther. That could come loose in a high wind and impale someone! The 'landscape workers' had better encase that with a giant piece of styrofoam or something.

; P

I usually step on very small hostas, can not see them quickly enough. I bet your lawn mowers and neighbors will step on them too by accident. Bernd

Good for you, Stoc, I'm glad the little plant is getting some appreciation. You won't be disappointed.

Just wondering . . . do the other tenants in your building know that you paid for the plants and soil and did all of the work? Could they be under the assumption that you may have planted the garden, but that the money to do so came from the complex owners? Could you speak to the owners and ask to have the permission to be responsible for "your" garden for a set amount of time?

You're in a difficult position, that is, having used your funds to create this garden and yet not having any rights it seems.

Littered cigarette butts are truly disgusting. A neighbor of mine 3 houses from us chooses to throw her butts on her lawn, and then the winds often blow them over into my front yard. Dirty, dirty slob.

Don B.

DON in CO: OMG, you may be right! I should send an anonymous email to the vile co-op manager, alerting him to this danger. Meanwhile, my wrought-iron porch railing is loose and shimmies if you touch it. Mebbe I should put some styrofoam tubing (I have plenty left over!) on it to stabilize it, eh? Meanwhile, you reminded me it's time to rake the yard again and dump all the cigarette butts on the Chinese neighbor's porch. Just returning lost objects, trying to be a good neighbor, mind ya.

BERND, you made me laugh so hard that my Maine Coon cat felt it necessary for her personal safety to abandon occupation of my lap. I have landscape edging fencing all around my garden, which should provide ample warning, even to abysmally stupid "landscape workers", that "Herein lies a GARDEN, not WEEDS or LAWN". And the littlest hostas are in a big ceramic pot 20" above the ground. Hard to mow that!

NEW HOSTA LADY: My neighbors are WELL aware of who is shelling out the funds and rivers of sweat to break the sod, haul the many 30 lb. bags of topsoil 50 feet from my car to the garden, mix that into the existing contractor fill junk soil with a manual t-handle tiller, install the garden edging fencing, buy the plants, plant them, cover them lovingly with attractive mulch (which must also be hauled in large sacks from the car), put out plant I.D. stakes, and faithfully water the resulting garden. And they constantly tell me how much they enjoy the garden, as well as every passerby coming down the sidewalk.

The vile co-op manager just doesn't care. He wants to throw around his authority. That is much more important to him than having residents happy.

What about Blue Moon? I just happened across that one on the web a few minutes ago. It's small, it's blue. What else about it that I would like?