After reading this, Mocc I too am giddy for you! I can feel your joy busting out all over! HAVE FUN girl! :-)

Me? Oh, I'm just going to grab a snow shovel to move the snow off the deck, in order that I can go down the stairs, move through feet of snow, just to "be" in the backyard, you know?

I can feel your excitment from here!

Its going to be a great year, twenty odd of my new hostas I have not seen in leaf yet and am going crazy waiting for them but at the same time don't want them too early with frosts and all, aaaah lol!

I keep going to the hosta library to look at their pictures and sighing. Good news is that we are promised a week of dry settled weather in the mid teens C. so I can finally get to preparing my beds after a very wet winter, we havn't had a day without rain or snow since november 30.

I hope it will be a good year for everyone here.

Hi, Denis! The spring anticipation is building! I can imagine how you are looking forward to seeing all your new babies poke their noses up out of the ground...it'll be an exciting year for sure! :-)

I am happy to report signs of life in most of my hostas today, too!! So excited!!!

As usual, Mocc, your words capture it all!

I have been a fair-weather friend on the forum (lurking around without jumping in), but now the garden is waking up and so am I! We had our first above-40 weekend here, so I was mucking about all the while. With all my poking about, I think I harass the hosta more than the squirrels or chipmunks I've been worried about. :)

I only found a couple things awry as I made the rounds..Niagara Falls has a mushy eye, so it may not pull through. It was one of a handful of hosta that I put in potting soil instead of my mostly-mulch-mix. Boo! (Oh, you bet I'm replacing it! And adding Bridal Falls or War Paint for good measure!) The other issue was that a chipmunk had burrowed right under 'Fat Cat'. Guess the name meant nothing to the little guy. He hollowed out all the soil underneath much of it, but not a nibble to be seen off roots or crown. It didn't really look worse for wear.

Here's to hosta season making its way from your garden to the rest of us in the weeks to come!

Aha! Here we have two winter-dormant forum folk poking noses up, a really SURE SIGN that spring is almost here....

Hi Jadie and Brandy, good to see you back.

It's almost SHOWTIME.

Mocc. Glad you have all that balmy weather and your Hostas are starting up. Thought I had some coming up in the garden, but sadly, it's just the tulip planted next to the Hosta that's showing up. But the two I brought into the house and under lights are doing better. Have 7 pips showing on Surfer Girl, and 1 showing on Hideout. Nothing on the ones in the garage. Temp today is 39, but have a storm warning for tomorrow night thru Wed. with up to 6 in. of snow. Spring??? HAH!!!!!

Check out my post "spring is here?" For a good laugh!

Mocc, I am so happy for you! May your hosta garden be healthy and beautiful all year.
Kathy

The last couple of days with the sun shining and the snow actually starting to MELT!! have been pure bliss. C'mon, Jo, don't let a little snow stop you! I've been doing the rounds around my 'yard' at least once or twice a week all winter, looking at the trees, looking for beauty even in the brrr! My serviceberry tree is practically jumping up and down, saying how much longer? I do have a few patches of bare ground showing now, though most of the yard still has nearly two feet of snow. Ten days ago I went to the Stratford Garden Festival and brought home a couple of bare root hosta, which I of course potted right up for in the house for now. Victory is now about 4" high, and Sun Power has 3 eyes and is about 2.5" high. A bare root daylily 'Kiss Me Softly' has a fan the size of a leek, is nearly 12" tall, and has a small fan off to the side. Mocc, you said it, happy, happy!

Well, the snow is gone and the daffs are starting to peek out, but it will be a few weeks before I can join you in the happy hosta dance. Enjoy seeing your babies!

Gardens1....you're right! thanks for the uplift! :-). Happy, happy it is! I'm going to bring some babies in, just like Smith...the difference being that mine will be on the windowsill and not under grow lights. Good sunshine during day, cooler temp. at night. We'll see how it goes.

Well I'm "happy, happy" for you too Mocc but difficult to share your enthusiasm. I spent 2 hours shoveling the drive this morning and still strap on snow shoes to get near the garden area. You do however generate a little hope. I did notice snow melting off the bed of leaves that my hostas in containers are buried beneath so yes, there is hope.
On a positive note here, I did do start some seeds last night, a first for me.

Hey Mocc, please send some of your weather here to Buffalo NY. We had temp of 51 yesterday, blue skies. even had the windows open in the car. Today we've had about 18" of snow with high winds and blowing snow. Can't open my back door, about 2-3 ft.drifts in my driveway. My Bella has to practically make a tunnel to get into the yard . My car has about 3 ft. drifted around it and the street looks like a desert full of sand dunes but with snow instead.
Hope my snow guy can snow blow all this stuff. Don't know where he'll put it. But I just checked the pots I have in the basement and my Frosted Mini Hearts shows nothing yet, Emerald Tiara 2 pips, Surfer Girl has 9, and Hideout has 2 with one leafing out.. So I'm kinda Happy Happy. But my nephew in Md. depressed me a bit telling me about his 70 deg. temps and daffodils up about 8". If this keeps up I won't have my new Hosta bed done till July. Think I'll light a candle for spring to hurry up!!

'Showtime', eh? Nice-lookin' hosta ya got there, Ms. Mocc! Kinda looks like...a fragrant. Kinda looks like a sport of 'Fragrant Bouquet' or something. Do those blossoms have the sweet, sweet odor of Pez candy and Mama plantaginea? I looked it up in the hosta library, but there is a pic of a plant by The Late, Great Indiana Bob. It's a pretty gold, but it's not the same as the plant YOU have. What do you know of it's family tree, if I may ask. Because now I would like one. : )

Thanks Mocc,
Don B.

P.S. I say 'Pez candy' because that is what my olfactory input sensors tell my brain fragrant hosta blossoms smell like...Weird, huh? I haven't smelled actual Pez candy in several years.

donb, it is a fragrant from van wade recd in 2012 late in season. paul aden regis in 1987,
says 'Fragrant Bouquet' x 'Fragrant Candelabra' quote from myhostas.be ;
='Abba Showtime'.
Registered in 1987 but just getting to market. Dark green leaves have a sheen and are surrounded with a wide creamy border that turns white as the season progresses. A third color is evident where the white and green overlap and the clump is topped with near white fragrant flowers late in the season.

do not have a clue aabout the hosta by same name in hostalibrary.
here mine is again as it looked last april

don, i b looking for pez candy to compare. see the SIZE OF THAT TRUMPET? it seems the scent is lighter than gardenia which is very heavy, it makes me inhale deeply as i track the source, mucho simpatico, ripe fruit but not strawberries, not cantaloupe, but i always catch the sweetness.some say honey, perhaps if bees get honeysuckle nectar.

Don, this is what the hosta registrar says about Showtime:

'Showtime' * (O) P. Aden (R) 1987 Plant: 32 in. (81 cm) diameter, 22 in. (56 cm) high; Leaf: 8 in. (20 cm) long, 6 in. (15 cm) wide; 5 pairs of veins; dark green; white margin; several undulations; Scape: 32 in. (81 cm) long; Flower: flaring; New York - August 7 - August 28; [H. 'Fragrant Bouquet' ÃÂ H. 'Fragrant Candelabra'

On the front page of the HL, it says there are some mistakes in the IDs of the photos.

Wonder if Kevin Vaughn bred this one, too? Aden registered it about the same time as So Sweet.

bk

BKay, I'd bet you're right about it being Kevin Vaughn's plant. From what Steve mentioned, Vaughn was the only person in the U.S. developing fragrant hosta at that time. And we know that 'So Sweet' and 'Fragrant Bouquet' were stolen from him, so...2+2= It's Vaughn's plant.

I am Happy Happy! Kevin Vaughn is starting to get recognition/credit for his work.

Don B.

There seem to be major pitfalls on the road to breeding fragrant hosta. To lose the recognition for two such creations as So Sweet AND Fragrant Bouquet, ...what a bum deal. Kevin Vaughan has my thanks for his efforts.

Cannot resist...from last year, of course

Have you seen any hummers yet, Mocc? They are reported to be in your area these days.

Steve