a NURSERYMANs ability to grow certain hosta to peak perfection

would not hold too much water with me.. since i am not a professional nurseryman ...

since none of them are what i would call EASY TO GROW ...

and if he rates F&I as 7.5 .. and 10 of them died for me..

who in the world would want a 3.5???

i suspect.. my sand is a big part of the problem .. as well as my 'plant and forget' method..

but if you are limited for space.. why would you want any of them??? seriously .. if they have to do an article about how hard they are to grow.. IN THE NATIONAL JOURNAL

doesnt that really tell you all you need to know????

ken

ps: and yes.. i acknowledge the .. I CAN DO IT BETTER mind set ... why the heck do you think i tried 10 of them.. lol ... you would think the blood in my eyes.. from beating my head against the wall should have stopped me at what.. 3.. 5.. ....7....9 ????

pps: dont forget.. in my book.. GE .. remember me.. pandoras box ... etc.. are all in the same group ...

Yeah, that "I can do better" almost talked me into buying a GE the other day. But, I resisted. I have enough problems with the dirt, the heat and the lack of winter, without getting hard to grow hosta.

bkay

Oh no! I did not know Pandora's Box was in the difficult to grow category.

Well, I have one coming soon, but if it croaks I won't replace it. I decided to get it because it was the #1 favorite for the minis. I figured it would be EASY to grow if everybody liked it. Criminy....

Looking at duplicates from another point of view, I have you might say duplicates--things which are growing nicely in the gardens of other forum members. If it works, I will try it, unless I simply don't like the look. For instance, I do not like Spilt Milk. It may be the rage to get them with that sort of misty milky streaking going on, but it is generally not for me. What I like would be the orange tones in Orange Marmalade, and the plant that McTavish grew which turned orange leafed in the fall--oh my what a beauty. Looking at duplicates that way, I will pick one or maybe two that have a certain variegation, but honestly, I like a lot of green, not so much green with a pure white border. The white hides the ruffling, or it shows the damage to the margins when melting begins.

Ken, you know you can do it better, but I don't think so me. Not ME, is what I'm saying. I'd love nothing better than to set up my hosta garden with all the raw materials for the hosta to repeat their sporting, their natural hybridizing in the garden, so I like fertile plants, don't really like to think my plant came from a TC and is a clone just like thousands of others, reminds me too much of Pink Floyd THE WALL.

Oh Pink Floyd The Wall. Loved that album but Led Zeppelin um is my favorite rock band. Hmmm should we start a new for bands???

Scott

I try to avoid duplicates if I can, sometimes I don't realize that I'm buying one I already have a look-alike of until I get home with it (impulse buys, tho I'm sure none of you know anything about that, haha). I don't think any kind of data base would help me with that!

Location, location again, Ken, my Fire & Ice is fine, so is Pandora's Box. But no sand here, just reasonable soil and lots of rocks for drainage.

Sandy

Pandora's box is a difficult one for me, too. Last year it decided to die, only its hanging on by a thread....might as well be dead. I have weeds that are more impressive. I didn't realize Remember Me was a finicky one. I've got two of those, and both seem to be doing well. One was bigger than the other when I bought it, and has remained bigger, but they've both grown.