will

of my 1600 ... i would say 1000 came by mail ...

check the link, especially these links therein:

BUYING HOSTA AT WHICH IS A LIST OF HOSTA VENDORS ...

and check out this link [http://www.naylorcreek.com/] .. ROAD TRIP!!!!! if they are open to the public... mention my real name.. and it MIGHT get you in the door .... or let me know and i will email an intro ...

http://www.naylorcreek.com/

the boyz are way cool ...

and use the AHS site.. to find a local chapter.. and if nothing else.. join the local.. and hit the garden shows this season ....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thanks for the info Ken!

wait... 1600 hostas Ken...?? lol and you call me crazy? :)

You sir, lead by example.

-Will

The Naylor catalog is like an educational textbook on new hostas and developing trends. They have a personal relationship with Marco Fransen (Paradise hostas, Holland) so they often have access to European hostas other folks won't be able to offer.

They are on the Olympic pennisula (Their hosta releases often begin with "Olympic...") in Chimacum. Their website has maps, so they must allow visitors. I've never had the pleasure, but have met Gary and correspond with them regularly... I plan a road trip to visit them one of these years.

Walden West - home of Dr. Chuck Purtyman and the "Abiqua" hostas, including Abiqua Drinking Gourd, Abiqua Recluse, and Abiqua Paradigm - now just Paradigm - and lots of other good hostas is/was in Scotts Mills, Oregon. We visited there some years ago when Dr. Chuck still lived on the property. He is gone now. Jay Hyslop was taking over the business, but I can't find any current reference to it. Maybe somebody knows what became of that business and its valuable breeding heritage.

We were struck by the fact that there were such famous hosta businesses - Naylor and Walden West and Robyn's Nest (long defunct) in the Pacific Northwest- and superb hosta growing conditions, yet driving around we saw far fewer hostas than in the Upper Midwest where we live. When we asked folks, they pretty much just said the slugs drove a lot of people away from hosta gardening.

There are lots of great Hosta nurseries on line, Among the best is Hallson Gardens. I belong to their club and they are a wonderful bunch of folks. They ship the most beautiful, healthy plants. Try them, you will like them!!

I second the Hallson hosta mail order plants, great service & spectacular plants ! They must have the best growing conditions as pants I purchased from there had great roots & really took off for me. Another mail good order is White Oak , they should be having their annual refrigerator sale here very soon. I was able to get quite a few very nice sized plants from them very reasonable.

Well I just called Naylor Creek to see if they were open to visitors and the game practically knew all about me. The wonders of the internet huh? He was like, is this Will? LOL... cool stuff... I spoke with Gary and he said they are going to be having a local sale something like 5 miles from my house. Gotta love it, if nothing else, this part of the country sure seems well suited for nursery availability. Gary said they were very busy and not open to the public, but I'll be eager to check out their wares in a few weeks. I'll be sure to check out Hallson hostas as well, I realize that mail-order is a pretty good option for the hosta collector.

Thanks again!

-Will

Will, after the 5th,6th June at Glenwood Gardens, NC will have a fall sale at the park in Chimacum, along with several other local nurseries, you will probably find several that weren't available now. the spring freeze caused a lot of problems with burned leaves. they'll all recovers in the summer and look nice and fresh by late summer. there's no problem with the natural fade into dormancy. I've picked up some great buys at that time. ones that were in short supply and not in the catalog were available, like Gunthers Prize. what a beauty!!!!! good luck at the June sale, say hi to the Boyz for me, hostajim

Gary is a gas... I hope you get to chat with him at the sale...

I visited Hallsons last year... they aren't too far from Lansing where the AHS convention was held last year.

Not only do they have fine growing conditions - they are in a spot that they moved too after several years of seaching for just the right combination of shade trees and land - but I was impressed with Chris Wilson's commitment to only sending healthy, mature plants. Chris has been at the forefront of spreading information about Hosta Virus X.

There are too many people advertising hostas that are actually just first year or second year tc plants they are buying and immediately reselling. Hallson's plants for sale are usually a year or more older than the ones from most of the competition... more eyes, better roots, and grown in the ground rather than potted greenhouse babies. I'm told they also include really nice bonus plants with each order. I don't order retail, so I can't speak from experience, but I'd order from them if I was going to based on visiting many retail nurseries.

I agree Will. I ordered a few from Hallson Gardens this year and his plants are superior to anything I have ever gotten. In fact as brand new plants I think they would already live up to Ken's hipe of growing on a driveway. I will be ordering from him again for sure.
Cher

I really like Naylors! I ordered from them a few times last year and they sent me their catalog for this year. In it they mentioned that they are going to be at the Midwest REGIONAL (yes Ken, I knew that) Hosta Convention in July in Des Moines IA. My biggest enabler hosta-friend lives in Cedar Rapids. So two birds with one stone, so to speak. I can visit my friend and we will go to the convention and meet the Naylor brothers at the same time.

Oh wait, I should have said three stones since I MAY buy something from them. (guffaw!) : )

chris

Ken, Washington is one area that is slow on the uptake of Hostas, you can't go into a box store and find over a very few old cultivars. nurseries rarely have them. even collectors you can count on 2 hands in the AHS members book. one great Nursery Catalog and you already know who it is. they make up for the lack of retail outlets. Naylor creek is at all the garden shows. so that helps a lot. they've been my supplier for at least 10 years, and now are picking up some of my hybrids they're looking at spring 2011 to introduce it, it's out of TC and growing on at their nurserys, and Paradise Hosta in Holland. nice writing to you again, I've been recovering from acute renal failure, and still I'am maintaing my hostas, not well, be they'll survive. and I will to, have you got any new ones your showing on the forums? I have so many Atom Smasher. are you interested in a division? I know we talked about it when I first aquired it from Ron Livingston. of course the $250 price is down now. just as long as I sell it privately. they're all OS divisions. it produced one I named Sizzle a veriagated tight wavy leaf gold with a green edge. it's in TC and should be out in 2012/2013. it's great to be back, hostajim

Thank goodness for these forums. I live in SW WA state and have found it very difficult to find hostas, even at some of the better nurseries. Just put in my first order with Naylor's!

Jim glad to hear you recovered. having acute renal failure would scare the piss outa me. Anywho, so have i misread your post are you a professional hosta hybridizer? and you mentioned you don't buy retail to include catalogs, which if i read that right, you by wholesale making you a grower or a retailer, Of course there is the fact i can't spell or compose a proper sentence, but am i near right.

just couriosity, no real reason i need to know.

For anyone else interested in buying Hostas in the pacific northwest my choices would be Naylor and also Sebright in Oregon. Both are excellent and very helpful. You can't visit the actual Naylor nursery but you can visit Sebright. Check out their website for details.

www.sebrightgardens.com

Some of the older, harder to find varities are very inexpensive there. Since they are in Oregon, I don't know if it would be too far of a drive for any of you Washington hosta people but if I lived in Washington instead of Canada, a five hour drive once a year would be a must. I haven't been able to go there yet but one day I will.

Naylor is (as far as I know) going to be at a plant sale on the Blodel Reserve on Saturday, April 16, 10am-5pm; Sunday, April 17, 10am-2pm. The Bloedel Reserve is located at the north end of Bainbridge Island. I will be down in Washington then helping my sister in her garden. We are planing on going if nothing unforseen comes up. I'm looking forward to going to what looks like a beautiful park to pick up my Naylor order for this year. You might check it out. McT

Another vote for Hallsons. I visited their nursery in July and picked up about 20 hostas. Great experience despite the rain and misquitoes. They had a great sale in September and I ordered about 15 more hostas though the mail. Packaging, plant size, etc was great! Halycon sat on my kitchen counter for about a week until I planted it and it sprung right back up. I thought the plants looked great for getting them so late in the season. Chris is a great wealth of knowledge and is very active on his forum.

I had good experiences with Hallsons and Land of the Giants hosta farm, great selections and good size plants at good prices. My local nursery has pots with multi-eye hostas at $18-25, worth it for instant gratifications.