i dont understand what the hurry is???

maybe you will get lucky on someone nearby .. but if you dont ...

just go take 20 pix .. and post a few a night.. and by the end of summer.. you ought to be all set..

no need to be retentive about your garden.. that attitude.. kinda defeats the whole point of a stress reducing garden.. dont you think ...

good luck

ken

ps: have you ordered labels.. and a label maker yet??? created a dB .. etc .... there are plenty of older posts on brother ptouch.. and the various label sellers ...

I guess it isn't a hurry, I think I just want to skip over the learning period and be an instant expert :)

I was thinking about getting bricks and writing on them with a sharpie for labels so my kid can't mess up the system.

What is a dB?

I had a few NOIDs when I started back into hosta. I had about a dozen varieties for about 20 years. I started with 12 at the start of 2009. Today I have 260 varieties. It has taken my three years to identify a single old variety hosta that I had for a very long time. I had two NOIDs that were mis-labled when I bought them. After posting a couple dozen photos of the leaves closeup, clumps, pictures with a ruler, pictures of blooms, the number of vein pairs, everyone helped out with their input and quickly identified what those two were. The more info you can provide, the easier it will be.

Always taking pictures throughout the year and naming the photos is not only good practice for what is to come but they are also great to have for reference between now and the future. It also helps in learning the names, habits and preferences of the hosta.

Sharing photos is also how we enable each other. There is nothing more tempting to a hostaholic than the photo of a gorgeous hosta they don't have.

Also, start two lists. A "Have List" and a "Want List". The want list will be your shopping list!

Adayiana, where you live there will probably be some arboretums or conservatories with plant collections to go visit. And, the AHS shows, plus some display gardens, don't know the area well enough to say all the resources at your disposal. But one nice thing about going to those display gardens, they are ALL IDENTIFIED with big name tags, which you can include in your pictures. Anything that looks remotely like your plants, shoot it!

You have no idea how fortunate you are to have mature plants already in the ground, without going through the awkward immature stages of newly planted hosta. They change a LOT as they grow. So, you will have a better chance of your plant looking like another mature plant with its name tag provided.

Just my two cents. :)

I guess it isn't a hurry, I think I just want to skip over the learning period and be an instant expert :)

==>> there are diagnosis's for such.. lol ...

sharpie on rock or brick will NOT work in iowa in winter ...

dB = database...

ken

Well if you are anywhere near Independence, IA you can go see Josh at In the Country Garden and Gifts. I'm sure he will help you out and sell you a few Hostas to boot.

Steve

I remember looking at this house before we bought it and thinking, okay, hostas, that will be easy. Then I discovered Hostas are a whole world of their own.

I am staying at one of my daughters home for a while. She is my non-gardening daughter (takes after her mother). But she has nice landscaping. A family member who is a horticulturalist bought the plants for her and planted them. She has a foundation border in front of her house with 6 hostas. I didn't buy them and she didn't keep records. There are two of a kind X 3: those green ones with a thin white margin, those cartreuse centered ones with a green margin, and those green centered ones with a wide white margin.

As a guessing person I would say Francee, Gold Standard and Patriot, and I am probably right. But I wouldn't swear to that in a court of law. My guess has to do with known performance, what was commonly available at the time,and what would have been reasonably priced.

Before I go home to my records and db I am going to take pictures, pictures and pictures. Then I am going to measure and count vein pairs, if I can get down there and back up. The same as I have done with my 65 varieties and I still have one NOID. It was labelled Invincible but I am convinced it is not. When I decide I have it right, I will have it right in my mind.

We have all done this and accept it adayania. I am far from being an expert and I was raised with hostas 60 years ago. I used to POP the blooms of Lancifolia before they opened, which didn't thrill my grnadmother. I also used to play with those "cute" horned snails with no shells. Now on THAT I am an expert. Ugh, a slug!

Come along for the ride and enjoy yourself!

Les

Do slugs roll up in a ball when you see them? Because I saw a lot of those when I was digging today. When counting vein pairs do I could the strips or the lines? Will every leaf have the same number of vein pairs?

Independence Iowa is on my way to my parents' house, so I will stop in there on my way to visit them soon, thank you!

Those are Roly Poly aka pill bugs aka Woodlouse.

Slugs are slimey. It is a snail without a shell.

You count the lines when counting vein pairs. Different hosta have different numbers of vein pairs. Some will be the same but not always. It is a good way to rule out certain hosta when trying to identify them if the count is too far off.

Here is a link that might be useful: Woodlouse

I am willing to ID some for you. email me @ flowergal@netins.net
Rox