LOL My wife has said on occasion that she doesn't like the rippled/piecrust leaf edges, because it makes them look chewed on by bugs...I told her she's nuts...Then again, she likes our lawns, so go figure...

Don B.

Once, while I was proudly showing off my hostas, my husband said to me," Why do you need so many of those? Aren't they all basically the same thing?"

Huhhhhhhhh?

LOL yeah, I've heard, "Why do you need more"?

"I don't NEED any. Why do we need that horrid GRASS in the backyard? I could make room for a hundred more hosta (or any number of other nice plants) without that garbage taking up everything!"

Don B.

P.S. Funny post, LW!

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 18:47

LOL, Don. I'm a big fan of large patches of grass myself....especially with a sprayer full of roundup in one hand and a shade tree to plant in the other! :)

You're speaking my lingo, Flower Frenzy!

Don B.

My husband has also remarked that I have enough of "those", meaning hostas. And he can't believe they have individual names. He just wants me to grow sunflowers and pumpkins. (in the shade)

My DH said the other day that he really liked the hosta, and was even learning their names. I was really interested at this point. Then he said, "That one is Charlie".

Oh, well.

bk

While helping my step-daughter and future son-in-law plant their first front yard garden last month, I (of course) suggested she plant some hostas. Son-in-law: "What's a hosta?" He's 30 years old for gawd's sake. I almost smacked him.

Well after all guys, isn't beauty in the eyes of the beholder?
I really didn't take notice of Bressingham Blue and Niagara Falls until my husband commented on them. He takes no responsibility for my hosta beds but likes to wiew them after a game of golf... adult drink in hand.

I guess I'm lucky. He knows when I'm hiding new acquisitions but doesn't give me a hard time.

BTW, the craziest thing I heard in my garden was from a garden club member during a tour of my garden. She wanted to buy a piece of my 3-eyed Lakeside Paisley Print. Do you really think she wanted to pay for it?

This post was edited by irawon on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 20:19

Two funny things...

Years ago, our local hosta society reserved the picnic area at our city park. When we arrived a week later, the placard on the tables read, "Reserved for the West Michigan Hospice Society".

The other funny thing is when my friends and I were at a hosta garden a few weeks ago. We were looking over the wide assortment of hostas, and I saw one which I had never notice before named 'Camoflage'. I instantly commented, "Now there's one I haven't seen before..." My friends broke out in a loud roar when they realized that the one I was pointing at was named 'Camoflage'.

Its not something I heard - its something I did (blushing).

My Orange Marmalade came up this year with a few leaves that were all shriveled up. So I dug it up and tossed it into the woods. The vendor kindly replaced it. Anyway, yesterday I just happened to glance in the woods, spotted it, and you guessed it - there was my OM bursting with new healthy leaves. She's back in my garden, but the guilt is overwhelming!! HA

Ha ha these are all good ones!!

Don B.

Not heard in my garden,but a few years ago,a woman from my church brought some newly-divided hostas with her to our choir room,to give away. I asked her whay kind they were,and she said"the variegated"! Phil

Almost always Im either on the forum, downloading hosta pics to photobucket, or researching the hosta library. One time my hubby walked into the office and asked me why I was looking at tobacco leaves on the computer. I could have smacked him (but I didnt). Then working in my hosta beds he came outside and said to me "hey, there's the tobacco you were looking at". (he was referring both times to sum & substance).

The funniest thing that someone ever said in my garden was when a friend and her husband came over one day and she took him in the back yard to show him how "pretty" it was. She was pointing out all the hostas to him when he noticed the nametags next to them. He said to me: "You name them?" I said, "well, those are their names." He stood there looking at me like I was some sort of crazy person. My friend then proceeded to tell him that "I" didn't give them the names, those are actually the names. I still don't think he believed us, because he ended up leaving with a very puzzled expression on his face. Either that, or he still thinks I'm some sort of crazy person for having this many hostas and putting their names next to them.

Not in the garden, but hosta related. My 20 year old daughter and I were at Meijer and I saw a beautiful collage picture frame with the words family at the top. I thought it would look great with pictures of my children and grand children in it. When I showed it to my daughter and told her I could put all my children in it, she adamantly said "NO, MOM, there aren't going to be any hosta pictures in the living room".

Gesila

I do have a funny story about what someone said to me in TRUDY's garden.

When Trudy had her tour and sale I managed to get there a half hour early, well I thought I could sit in the car and be polite, and wait.. or walk down there and start talking, and buying.. before the crowd hits !

Well I pick out plants, look around a little, talk to trudy for about half an hour, then a woman shows up, she looks around a half an hour, and then she goes home to get more money. Well when she came back at least an hour or 90 minutes after that, she see's me and says "You are STILL here ?"
I just started laughing, and told her I could not think of any where else I needed to be ... And then I said "Besides I drove an hour to get here..."

I have Hosta.. but when you go somewhere with Hosta in an
"ATMOSPHERE"
its really hard to go home to your little line of plants ;)

Our previous home in Delaware had 19 gardens separated by various paths, structures, rock walls, ponds and a few long piles of firewood.

When I say long, the piles ran maybe 50-80 ft, neatly stacked about 3-4 ft high and cut to a specific length for our stove. We heated our home with wood and kept a couple of years supply on the ground.

The piles were of course all over the yard, sides, edging some gardens, under the pines, in the forsythia hedge, everywhere.

We of course thought nothing of them, as did most hosta people that came to visit, noting that we burned wood for heat as many did in that area.

A couple that seemed new to gardening and hosta came over to see the gardens. I gave them a 20-30 minute general overview - tailoring the walk and talk to hosta newbies so I wouldn't bore them.

I finally asked them what they thought of the gardens and if they had any questions. The lady piped up with " Who did the design on your wood piles, I think it is just marvelous how they all fit together and wind throughout your yard, setting off the gardens". Her husband indicated they had seen many gardens in the past but never the use of wood piles like ours.

They were dead serious! I did not know how to respond but decided it was a learning experience for all, so I asked them what they really saw in the wood piles?

Artistic symmetry, consistent wood size and spacing, etc came back as the high notes. Also the fact they were a much easier design solution versus the traditional rock walls found in many northern Delaware gardens!

I then asked them if they wanted a gift hosta and they asked in return if only they could photograph the wood piles! Sure, I replied.

Never saw or heard from them again. And I do love rock walls in gardens and miss my wood piles!

Bruce

Leaflover, you simply MUST get a TOBACCO ROAD for your DH! It is an Olga hosta, gets very big, has broad strapping leaves (like tobacco) that are in the golden tones.....it is one he'll tell everyone he grows his own tobacco.

"That one is Charlie".
and BKAy, I can feel your pain with that one. But it is so cute....right up there with Babka's DH telling her "Don't Block the Exits".....

My DH experienced the mass delivery of "live plants" all last week, and I think he is dazed. After I potted up the last of 5 separate boxes of hosta around mid afternoon, I felt victorious but tired. He was anxious when he asked if that was it.....to which I replied, "For today." It is fine with him as long as I am happy about it. But I see in his head--these are all YOUNG HOSTA! I could hear wheels turning. :)

I am just shocked to find out I have a DH !!!!!!!

unless it stands for Digital Hoe

hahahahhah

This post was edited by leafwatcher on Sun, Jun 23, 13 at 0:41

Do you mean I accredited the statement to the wrong person? Well, dang. I had to scroll down so far, I forgot who I was commenting about. My brain has no holding pattern tonight. I am about exhausted.

Hope your Diagonal Hoe doesn't take offence. :)
Tobacco Road is still a good hosta for any reason.

I was finding homes for some Royal Standards... my neighbor tells her friend, another neighbor, who came by to pick up some RS.

She says, "oh, you have a lot of hostas. How many different ones?"
My response, "oh, 300 or so".

She says, "I have the green one with the white edge. Do you have that one?"

My response, "yeah, I have a few that match that description."

And then there's my husband.... "they all look the same to me". At which time, I promptly usher him to Mount Krishima, then a trip over to Paradigm.... followed by Praying hands and back to Krugerrand.
"Really Honey, 'they all look the same'?"

moccasin you are FAST ! I changed the Diagonal Hoe to Digital Hoe after about 30 seconds ......

It's so nice when it happens that way.....you get to feeling there is somebody on the end of the line.

Before you go to bed, look for the pictures of the 8 hosta I got potted today. In that series I begin, they are just in the sink getting school ID pictures taken.

Some amusing stories, though the first one was not what I was expecting from the thread title.

Posted by leafwatcher

As we walked by the Guardian Angel I pointed out its uniqueness, and my Wife says, and I quote
"I really don't care for it.."

Guess I really wouldn't qualify that as "crazy", Lw. LOL But then I say this from the standpoint of one who likes hosta but is not a "hostaholic". Guardian Angel looks a great deal like Whirlwind to me. So it's "uniqueness" --whatever it happens to be -- would likely be wasted on me as well. I have known a number of hostanuts who will rave over this or that hosta which to me looks basically the same as several others they have. Then they go on to try to explain about how "Oh no. That one has a slight undulation to its edge." or "This one has a wider leaf.", for example. To me such minor differences are practically insignificant and so to my eye such plants are "the same" for all intents and purposes.

And as far as not liking Guardian Angel, again not crazy. As Irawon said -- "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." There are some of the yellow/chartreuse hostas that I do find attractive. Yet when helping my sis pick out plants for her beds, she said she thought they looked "sickly".

Loved the story about "Charlie", bk.

â¢Posted by moccasinlanding

Do you mean I accredited the statement to the wrong person? Well, dang. I had to scroll down so far, I forgot who I was commenting about.

Actually, ML, you were spot on. Leaflover76 does have a hubby. Leafwatcher has a DW.

Not quite in keeping with the thread title, but rather an event I found amusing.

First, I will mention that I am the only gardener/plant nut in the family -- and I don't even have a garden (I'm an apt dweller). Couple years ago while visiting the folks I mentioned that I wanted to go visit Cedar Hedge Gardens. Though hardly anything my folks would consider a "fun time", they consented to go along. It was a typical warm, humid Michigan summer day and the mosquitos were out in force when we got there. Just after having exited the car, my mom says to me "We are only staying 15-20 minutes." Considering the plague of mosquitos and the fact we had not thought to bring any repellant along not to mention that they aren't into plants as I am, I agreed without contention. Well the proprietor came out to meet us and fortunately had a can of OFF with her and let us use it to spray ourselves down. 1 1/2 to 2 hrs later we finally left -- and it wasn't because of me! The parental units even bought a few hosta.

Since Mocc mentioned that she thought it would be well for me to place this story in this thread, here we go:

Recently went down to my sis's place to help her create a flowerbed along the back of her house. All was progressing quite well until one particular hole was being dug for a hosta division. The spot was only about 4 or 5ft from the wall of the house. We had dug 1-1.5ft down when we hit this:

Actually found two additional bricks as we dug other holes. My sis jokingly said that it could have been worse ... we could have uncovered a body. To which I replied "I would have preferred it had been a body. Not only would it have made more a much more interesting tale, but we could then have gotten the police/FBI to dig it all up."

In any event, we are left wondering just how many more we didn't find.

This thread is fun. . .thanks Don for starting it and everyone who contributed to it. .

One spring, my DH came in and announced that my Striptease was doing very well already. Knowing that it was far too early for it to be up, I asked him what it looked like. He described the nice green leaves with little red lines on it. My tulips were nearly ready to bloom!!!!!!!

Ladies who were touring my hosta gardens were standing by the first hosta bed I ever created, some 15 or more years ago. What with our northern climate, the clay loam soil, large and giant hostas have done what they were supposed to do. They grew. They grew big. One of the ladies turned to me and said "It must be so much work digging these up and dividing them every spring."

Not much understanding of hosta or plants in general. I tried to explain to her that the good thing about hosta is that you do not have to dig them up and divide them every spring and that they became more beautiful as they matured. But I could tell she didn't get it.

okay, well, we've ALL heard this one. had a friend to come over to shop for plants. stopped by pergola no. 1 which has about 36 dif named hosta.

"I've got all those."

Sure you do. okay, lets look under pergola 2 and pergola 3 and the other 450 varieties. I'm sure you'll see something.

he did.

baby steps

dave

Red rubber mulch? Blech. Now that is one of the craziest things I ever heard.

A very funny post, Sandy! I laughed out loud...still chuckling...the loving sarcasm in reference to your non-gardener husband is priceless. Did you happen to take a hosta home with you that day???? Before you hustled him outta there??? LOL

Well, I find that amusing too. Actually, it is a good product, just not for mulching plants. Down here they apply it liberally to playgrounds beneath things like swings so the kids don't skin their shins. I believe it is recycled tires....but not sure if tires are still made of natural rubber???

:)

Hi there, Mocc.! So nice to see you post - miss you around here. All your hostas good? You must be taking a breather from the renos.?

It was funny how he jumped on that red rubber mulch idea with so much enthusiasm. I know he was trying to help me do something once and be done with it, which is a smart way to work when you can do it. It could seem logical to someone who's never thought about building their soil into something plants can thrive in.

Jo, no hostas that day. I had to get him outta there fast!

Mocc, I can applaud recycling old tires, and playgrounds seem like a good use for this product. There's probably other things it might be good for. Maybe some landscapers like how it spruces up the looks of things fast. We have a new housing tract nearby, and it looks like they used that stuff along the fence line with intermittent shrubs. .....Hey, I thought you were done with your renovations and we'd see more of you here. I hope you're still enjoying your hostas and not having troubles with them.

I am thinking of doing my paths in rubber mulch. Takes a lot of bags EVERY year. But just the paths ...

Paths can take a lot of mulch every year. The rubber stuff should stay put a long time, but I wonder if it's slippery when wet. I've never walked on any to test it.

WTH is a DH? Designated hitter!

You must be a baseball fan. DH = Dear Husband, DW = Dear Wife.

We are all hosta addicts so it seems. I finally showed a non-gardening good friend of mine my backyard with 350 hostas. First he asked if those hostas were perennials or annuals, was to expect. Though he was impressed about my landscape. A 3 ft high and 6 ft wide 'Blue Angel' seemed also to impress.

I've heard rubber mulch attracts ants big time!

kathy