Absolutely gorgeous. Don't worry about us getting bored with your 'same ol' hostas; Just keep showing us pics like that! Great-looking property there!

Don B.

Your "old" hostas can easily outshine some of the newer ones. Your hostas are beautiful! Your Liberty and Thunderbolt are super! You have created a great garden.

P.S.: I'm finding that my 'Spartacus' is proving to be quite a fast grower also.

Don B.

Great Hostas...is the main large up-right green hosta in the first picture niagra falls?...it looks superb!

You have such a lovely garden. My goal is to have my gardens look as well maintained as yours do... some day.

Your gardens are perfect. Each hosta is a specimen! Love seeing your pictures, they are never same ol.

Gesila

Beautiful gardens, thanks for sharing.

Paul

aw .. pshaw ...

you underestimate your audiences ability to forget ... lol .. we are not a young group ...

i have no recollection of your garden..

and thoroughly enjoyed your pix

thank you

ken

Are those the pots you made that you mentioned in my cement urn thread? They display so nicely and their organic feel meshes wonderfully in your lovely garden.

This is actually the 2nd time I've said this, this am, but the manner in which you've added lifts and levels to your garden is so interesting, I adore it!

Are those astillbes in front of your 'Heatwave'? I'm thrilled because I've never had much luck with them in the past, but the 2 in my current garden are massive (knock on wood). What's the purple variegated plant in that pic?

Could you coax the warblers over to the 'Thunderbolt', that would be an amazing shot, lol

The 'First Frost, J. Painted Ferns and chartruese ground cover makes a striking arrangement! Love, love, love - thanks so much for sharing!'

Love the Parhelion in a sea of Sweet Woodruff. Never get tired of looking at your garden, Coll.

Steve

Speak for yourself, ken! I am still a spring (okay, summer) chicken and I remember you garden pics bc of the nice massings if fern and lily of the valley. I love what you do with color, too. Nice plants, great stuff!

Coll, I always love looking at your gardens and seeing your hostas mature into such fine specimens. I bought Blue Hawaii and Parhelion after I saw your plants. I'm also giving Thunderbolt another try this year as it dwindled down to almost nothing in its last spot. Please keep sharing.

I'm jealous! I can't wait for mine to grow in. and you have WAY more than I do, and probably will be able to, given the amount of shade we have. Beautiful gardens, and lovely hostas!

Coll, Don't forget some of us are new to GWF and are viewing pics of your gardens for the first time. You've inspired me. Thank you for the tour, just beautiful. WW

Lovely garden. Loved looking at your pics. Spartacus is catching my eye. Also Heat Wave. Your Parhelion is gorgeous. Can you post a closer view of Thunderbolt? I can see why it's your fav. Your tiered levels are great. Lots of work went into your garden. Sorry to hear Big Daddy is so slow. I bought one earlier this year.

Coll, your gardens are fabulous. Haven't seen your hosta before but the only same ol' I see is same ol' beauty from picture to picture. Wasn't bored in the least. Thanks for sharing!

Very nice... looks very well organized and spacing very well... not like mine lol!!!
do you have to overwinter your hosta in the pots somewhere or tip it on its side? I noticed you bury some of the pots 3/4 into the ground.

Love your pictures, thanks for sharing! Your Thunderbolt is wonderful. I have one too, that I love to look at, but can only get good pictures of single or double leaves. Would that work with yours? Some plants just need to be seen in person!

Your gardens are really beautiful. Your Remember Me stuns me and puts my three leaf, 5 year old plant to shame.
It looks to me like you have lots of room for many more plants but then I like things crammed together.

Coll,there is nothing wrong with your 'same ol' garden! Mine is similar. Most everyone has seen my garden in its entirety. I still have a few places where I can plant a few more hostas,but most of my property is too steep,or too shady to grow more hostas. Be proud of what you have done,and even I have to look at my same ol' garden every day. Nice garden! Phil

coll - your gardens are spectacular. I particularly like your use of pots - they are understated and play a great supporting role without trying to steal the show. Do you use them in places with rock/tree roots that make digging a hole a no go? And they don't all look frostproof - what happens in winter?
Your 'Liberty' is absolutely spectacular - and in a pot if I'm seeing clearly.
You certainly made lemonade after losing your tree!
Jan

Coil , your garden is spectacular and and totally enjoy seeing pictures over and over , Your levels with rocks and cement pots give it a perfect look that blends in to the scenery of the hosta that are very well placed and compliment the whole area. I would be proud of a spectacular garden like yours and hopefully mine will someday look half this good.

Thank you for sharing with us
Faye

Nothing 'same ole' about your garden.
I do remember the time you posted that rocky hillside with the steps, and now it looks great. You are fortunate to have a lot with varied levels to keep the view exceptional.

If you think you are out of space and cannot add another plant, consider adding one of those "caps" to the 4x4 fence posts. I have a couple of those which I line the wrought iron cap with a coir liner-basket, and then put asparagus fern in them. That is very hardy stuff. I'm also thinking I might plant a small hosta in one and try it out. My fence posts are up to 8 feet tall though, and draping ferns do fairly well but I could not see the hosta in such pots.

I've also considered adding small sections of 4x4 set in a Meta-Post driven into the ground, then adding the wrought iron basket to the top more at eye level. Sort of a way to feature a smaller hosta where larger ones are predominant. All your plants are so outstanding, and each one deserves to be featured solo.

You are a very good gardener. Thanks for sharing your skill with us.

Oh my, I don't think I could ever tire of looking at pictures of your garden.. . Beautiful, inspiring, and peaceful. Thanks for sharing.

Coll, I had forgotten about your fountain. Please show it again in another thread. I will never find the old thread.

bk

STUNNING! Absolutely stunning. Every picture is better than the last. You force me to put Spartacus on my wish list. Also love the pic with the floating lilac blossom, that is precious!

Thank you all so, so much for all the nice comments.

My garden is soooooooo far from perfect or well maintained. Believe me, you are not seeing the multitude of weeds, messes and various other gardener "fails" in these pics!!!

I started my garden in 2006 and it's been a work in progress- there isn't one hosta that hasn't been moved at least one time. And most have been moved several until I found just the right spot. I do enjoy having some in pots because that gives me the freedom to change up the display from time to time.

To respond to some of your comments:

Uk hostaman, that one is Queen of the Seas, and is reaching specimen status this year, I think. I will post a new thread with a better pic. I don't have Niagra Falls, sadly, because I am out of room!! I do have Lakeside Ripples, but that sustained some damage this year.

hostafrenzy- yes, those are hypertufa pots I have made over the years. Yes, that is astilbe in front of Heatwave- 'Pink Lightning'. I love astilbe but it doenst love me back. Although I feel like I water all the time, I cant seem to keep up with Astilbe's insatiable demand for it. And some years I don't get a great bloom. But still, I love it. I will post more pics when it blooms.

The variegated stuff I think you're talking about is 'Green Spice' Heuchera.

hostahosta- i will post some better pics of Thunderbolt in a new thread. Good luck with your Big Daddy! I am a believer in the dud gene theory and I think my BD is just a dud- hopefully yours wont be!

melati- the hostas that are in pots are in black plastic nursery liners inside those pots, so at the end of the year I take them and bury them along the side of the house of in an open spot in the garden.. Last year, I was really lazy, and just sort of tipped some. It was a severe winter and I had several losses...I think they fare much better if the roots are below ground. The containers I just turn upside down so they dont fill up and freeze.. Some do have some cracks.

I don't have any that are buried 3/4 into the ground, but I do have many that are planted in sunken pots or spinout bags. I think what you may be noticing are my slug rings. These are 3" bands of copper foil around certain hosta. I have found this to be the most effective way of preventing slug damage.

Jan,-ha, yes, losing that humongous pine was traumatic ( and did I mention that it came with hail that wiped out my whole garden?!) yeah, that was not a good year. But losing that tree was the best thing that happened to my garden. Not only did I get some prime real estate to add more hosta, but that whole larger bed got some nice morning sun. Oh, and Liberty is planted in the ground. That's a slug ring you are seeing. All my big ones are planted in the ground, pretty much.

bkay- I will post the fountain in a new thread too.

moccasin- I am actually trying to downsize, lol. I am feeling overwhelmed with taking care of my various potted babies as it is....I am not even filling all my containers this year with assorted annuals. Just don't have the energy. I think my losses this winter were my garden's way of telling me to take a break! But it's tough when people post pics of so many new and interesting hostas!

Mctavish, I have heard Remember Me is difficult, but I have been lucky with mine. I have two- I bought a small one and then a few months later found a huge one I just had to have. Most of my duplicates have a similar story, lol. So the one by the birch tree is the smaller one, but they both are growing well. The larger one lives in a pot that is sunken into a bottomless hypertufa pot. I just leave this one where it sits all year and it does well.

Here is the bigger one

and the birch bed one

Irawon, I hope your Blue Hawaii does well! Mine has been a real dud....I don't know if I have done something wrong or what. Last year the eyes came up looking good but they opened with small leaves. Same thing this year. Ugh! And talk about a "fail"...Blue Hawaii is in a bed along the back fence. A few years ago, the neighbor behind us decided to cut down all the trees back there. I was freaking out that my hostas, which were in pretty deep shade, would fry. So I planted a fast growing kiwi vine and also a clematis, thinking,"wouldn't that look pretty behind Blue Hawaii and others. Well the clematis is blooming nicely this year....unfortunately all the blooms want to open on the OTHER side of the fence, facing the neighbors house and the Eastern Sun. Even the Kiwi vine looks much prettier when viewed from his side. See, fail! Well, I hope the chainsaw happy neighbor appreciates them, anyway.

Here is my mutant Blue Hawaii and a couple of clematis blooms that couldn't make it through to the fence to the other side

Beautiful pictures of an inspiring garden.

Thank you for sharing!

Beautiful garden! Makes me wish I had a slope in my yard.

How did you make your slug rings? I need to do something because my poor Empress Wu is being eaten alive by slugs and snails. I have been putting down slug bait but something is still eating her while leaving the other nearby hostas alone.

Thanks for the pictures, I really enjoyed them.
Linda

I love your gardens! The combination of the trees, walkways and rocks are simply beautiful. Your Liberty is one of the nicest I have ever seen.
Absolutely stunning :)

Paula

Same ol' what? Every year a garden changes and, as Ken said, a number of us have "mature memory". I really enjoy seeing the lay of your land, the terracing and all. Thanks for some very nice shots.

tj

Outstanding hostas. Beautiful gardens. 'nuff said.

Hi Coll...I so enjoyed your beautiful garden pics...outstanding! I have a question that I wanted to ask you but could not find your email address...the question is regarding your fountain..could you kindly email me ...hostajocee@gmail.com.

Thank you, Jo.

Saw when you terraced that bed you love to view from beneath...what a beautiful place you made. Hope my energy does not run out before my place becomes a real garden too.

Guardian Angel is a real beauty!!!! (so are the rest, by the way)

I'm echoing many of the nice sentiments posted here about your beautiful garden, and I never tire of seeing all the photos posted on the forum. I just planted Spartacus and can't wait until next year to see it based on your wonderful photo. My small island hosta garden can only accommodate 40 hostas at the most - not that's frustration!!

DD

Always enjoy a stroll through your garden. I love the fountain. Hosta are beautiful, as usual. Thanks for sharing.

bk

So glad someone bumped this one up again. I just love seeing your garden and NEVER get tired of seeing it . You should be very proud of what you have and after all is said and done, more is not alway better. Hard to improve perfect!
Faye

You guys are too kind! Jo, I will drop you an email in the morning.

My garden had a good year until August, when we didn't have a drop of rain. By that time of year, I am usually pretty burned out with the garden, so the last thing I wanted to do was worry about watering- ugh! Then we got a month's worth of rain in one day and the basement flooded , which is fine, if it was good for the hostas!

This year I am vowing to do a better job of putting the potted ones to bed for the winter. Come late winter, I will start to think about replacing some daylilies with hostas and maybe removing some ferns and putting a third hosta tier in on that side.

on most forums people come and go, like, ahem, me. so go ahead and post every once in awhile I really like the beautiful pictures of a beautiful garden!

hh

I agree, please post your beautiful photos of your garden. Coll, I too, burned out by August and we didn't have any rain either. We go on holidays in August so I don't miss the 'good' part of summer at home. :)

Paula

Thanks for the photos of your beautiful garden. I love to see other folk's gardens. All of your hostas look very happy and I've put Remember Me on my wish list.

Remember Me caught my attention both times this year when I was shopping at Hosta Fever...each time I stopped and admired it....But i was practising restraint, following a list...After seeing it here (looking ever so stunning) I will arrange to pick it up within the week! Last one for this year.

The way it was growing at Cindy"s, it sent out longer petioles at the perimeter, sort of halo-ing the centre circle of growth...I hope it still looks like that when I pick it up so I can show it to you...maybe the new growth caught up already. If its still there! I hope...

I'm going to hop your fence and steal your Liberty.....holy frig

Coll, I think your garden is just stunning!

You mention the garden is fairly small, and you have about 125 hostas, and also that you have a bathroom area for your dogs. How big is your yard and garden, actually? I posted some photos of some of my hostas the other day, and am going to add a couple of wider angle photos to show how the yard sits (size, arrangement, etc). Would you maybe be able to do the same? I'd love to see the total overall effect. You said that in the photos you put up, we just couldn't see the weeds, failures, etc, and I have to admit that I tried to avoid those in my first photos as well, but I'm going to go for it and lay the whole thing out there for all to see! LOL! I'm hoping you'll do the same :-)