Invincible

Reptilian

DeLuxe Edition

Key West

Golden Meadows. Beautiful!

Spilt Milk

I've never seen or heard of Deluxe Edition....love that photo with the contrasting ground cover. Thank you for sharing!!! It's so nice to see some green coming...I should be right behind you in a week or so.

June

Striptease

What is the first one? Guardian Angel?

Atlantis

Great Arrival

Sorry, yep Vanessa, Guardian Angel.

Don B.

Fragrant Bouquet with Parky's Prize

Journey's End

Blue NOID

Alligator Shoes

Blue Angel

Spring Fling

Looking great there Don! A few of mine are just starting to open, mostly pips yet. Warm weather coming, should give them a good boost.

Mister Watson got a little bitten up by freezes, recovering very nicely

Deliverance. Them colors sure is purdy! Do you hear banjos?

Liberty really got blasted by the freeze, but onward and upward, eh? I'm glad to see good increase from last year.

Don B.

Fair Maiden, far ahead of St Paul, whose pips you can just see on the right.

Luna Moth

Queen of the Seas

Whirlwind

All That Jazz

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Wed, May 7, 14 at 20:27

Gone with the Wind

And Satisfaction. Those are the highlights so far, folks. Thanks for looking.

Don B.

Very nice! You have a great selection of good looking hosta! Most of mine look like yours do. The ones in the warmest spot of the yard are starting to leaf out and the ones closer to the house are mostly still pips but it shouldn't be long now. We have had rain for a few days and next week will be warm again so I'm sure they will start growing like crazy then.

The waiting is the hardest part....LOL.

I hope you post pictures again when the are fully leafed out.

Thanks
Linda

Yes, it would be fun to see posts now and then through the season of your hostas. They all look marvelous, thank you for all that effort. It takes a while to do all of those pics, ids and posts. Luna Moth is pretty...I've noticed that one in a number of posts by others, I must be drawn to that one.

Looking great! That Golden Meadows is a real winner! I'm adding that to my want list. Love the Spilt Milk and June never fails to amaze me.

Thanks, glad you like 'em, folks. More pics to come, garden just waking up. Looks like some are losing their 'baby' characteristics. Pretty cool. I forgot Spartacus...how could I forget Spartacus...here is Spartacus...

Cheers,
Don B.

Deliverance is a very interesting looking hosta. Keep us posted on that one.

Very nice Don, nice to see a young Spilt Milk I wasn't sure if it showed the milk until its older, I don't have it, yet!

Denis

P.S. All That Jazz, that's another Olga one isn't it?, nice.

Beautiful, Don! I have my Spartacus and it shot up like a rocket. Don't have the Mister Watson, it will ship the 12th May. I don't see a Lionheart which will go beautifully with your Golden Meadow, you know. Mine is still all stitched with a white middle, I know it will turn sometime, but so far it hasn't. I've moved it and White Elephant where they get a couple hours of direct but late afternoon sun. I highly recommend Lionheart to you.

Instead of Olga's Jazzy number, I'm getting All Jazzed Up, which is fragrant and it was developed by an Alabama woman some years back. We'll see if that relieves me of the need for All That Jazz!

Great to see your garden come to life. It is sure difficult to wait for the leaves. Mine are already going into flower scape mode. Everywhere I look, another plant shooting a scape up.

Looking good, Don.

I'm glad you are finally getting some green!

bk

Really enjoyed looking at all your hostas, Don! I've added a few to my 'want' list:
Deliverance
Spartacus
Spilt Milk - wanted this one for years now

Thanks for sharing!
Angie

don: cannot believe your garden is so far ahead of mine. most all of mine are still eyes.

_~

dave

Don, nice collection, nice show! Deliverance and Reptilian are on my list.

Last week hail falls here and has damaged some leaves, ...I don't want cheese with holes, not even hosta with holes ...Lol

Don, you really got some good stuff! You are certainly very enabled.
Mine are 1-2 weeks behind (even mye lawn is 1 week behind).
Thanks for showing!
Bernd

Luuk, I wish I could expect perfection of my hosta, but it is not to be. I love to garden, and hosta are my thing above all else. Wish I'd discovered them about 40 years ago so I'd have all this history with the development of hosta when the first great hybridizers were doing their thing.

So it just hit me, that here we are at the far frontier of hosta culture, and it is where no man has gone before.....or close there-to. So I decided to stop stressing out about it, and figure those problems we are having in our zone is similar to a soldier/sailor at war. It can get to be ugly, you know. I am highly supportive of my hosta, and I don't criticize them for the slug holes, a bout with southern blight, some spots on the leaves, signs of nematodes, heaven forbit some frost burn (now how did that get in there?), and I decided to show the ugly with the pretty. They are doing the best they can.

Why I say that is I have been repotting the big number of hosta I bought in 2012, and I am amazed that some of them are alive at all. I was so ignorant! They flourished in fact. Even when one non-draining pot smelled so musty I was shocked. Yet it was one with a root ball so dense I had to shake it to make it turn loose the old potting mix. Now that is a TOUGH HOSTA.

I also have an idea why DonB has hosta leafed out and yours are still pips, Bragu. I can see Don and his DW out there on the driveway giving a big ole college try, She dressed in a green/gold (U of Guac) cheerleader outfit, he bullhorn in hand, telling every hosta GIVE IT ONE MORE FOR THE GIPPER.....the ole team spirit. Cheering them on works like a charm.

And here is a picture from MY garden today....still in the camera in fact...or on the SD card not even downloaded. Note the big dude on the left margin, that is Victory elevated to give the others some shade. He is about to be relieved of western sunshine duty by a big pot of Tropicana Canna looking good and wide to assume shade duty. That canna LOVES the western sun, let HIM do that job! Victory will go to the far end of that row of golds where again he will be elevated, making a fine umbrella shape to anchor the closest row of golds which will all be fragrants, with some greens of appropriate heritage on the outer half of that double row. On beyond is taking shape in my head as the duplicates, which are sacrificial lambs if need be to take the most inhospitable location where afternoon sun is brutal and a solution escapes me...momentarily, of course.

I've also decided to move the Pink Pirogue from one end of the garden (north end) to south end, 100 feet through dense hosta jungle to proceed without incident. Just I have to empty the sucker of the worst soil I ever saw, and hope the blueberries forgive me. Maybe I can make bricks from it.

But all that isn't shown in this picture, unless you can see into the shadows. We are looking north here. I was out prowling the garden while dinner cooked on the stove, and light was fading. I hate to be indoors at twilight. It is the most perfect time of day. Except sunrise, when there is mist hanging in the air up in the trees. And that is when ideally, I like to go to bed....

This post was edited by moccasinlanding on Thu, May 8, 14 at 23:30

Hi Mocc,

That's funny, but no need to add my DW to the hosta-growing credits. She could not care less about my plants and deserves no credit for anything associated with the word 'hosta'.

Most of my hostas are NOT leafed out, and still pips. I'm glad for that, cause some of the leafed-out ones got smashed into pieces last night during the two bouts of hail that came through. Oh well.

Oooops! Celebrated too soon.

Don B.

Don, thanks for taking the time and effort to post your lovely looking hostas. You reminded me how much I like Guardian Angel :)

Up here in Ontario zone 5, most of mine are pips and the rest haven't even woken up yet!

Ahhh, Don, you forget that us ladies like to dress up, so see if you can find a cheerleader outfit for your missus to bring her around.

So sad about the hail catching your beauties. Like I said, it is a kind of warfare, the hosta come by their scars honestly, and they are survivors. It's all part of the mystique. I get so caught up in babying my hosta, I sometimes forget how strong they are. Even with my mistakes, they not only survive, they ....thrive? flourish? With this environment outside their expectations, they adjust. Some better than others.

Oh yeah, they'll be back this season. Wasn't very many that were leafed out anyway, maybe 20-something out of 165 or so. Funny, but that hadn't happened to speak of since before 2012, when I first started hoarding plants. Almost all of 'em under the pines have a super-shield of protection from hail, as I just learned. They are barely touched.

Dave, this is the second solid week we've had temps in the high 60's and 70's, with a couple 80+ days thrown in here. Nights in the 40's. Before the higher temps hit in the last week of April, I had a few pips, but that's it. Aren't you just a little behind us as far as warm weather goes? I think that's the only reason my plants are ahead of yours, really.