how did you make a pre-aged sign ...

here is what i recall about this one ...

nancy krul .... who was a good friend of herb benedict.. and a relative neighbor of pauline banyai ... had her own little biz called ... Belle Gardens .... . i believe... which was her backyard ... in royal oak MI ... or one of those burbs ....

ed elslager became good friends with her. ... and after she passed.. i think he went to a lot of trouble to register many of her plants ...

back in the mid 90s or so.. prior to TC .... the big money raiser for clubs.. was their annual plant auction ... and if you wanted new plants .. state of the art stuff .... you had no other option ... but to spend beaucoup bucks at these actions... ALL PLANTS WERE OS .... as there was no other option ... and if the grower said this was the first time he/she ever cut a piece of... we are talking multiples of hundreds of dollars ...

i dont recall how i got this specifically ... probably some denial there.. lol ...

anyway .... very late 90's somehow i got in contact with Paula Reschke, her daughter .... probably at a hidden lakes auction .... nancy had passed... and she was selling off some of the plants ... and invited me to what was left of Belle Gardens .... and i picked up some cool exotic stuff .. like rosie posie... of which jerrys pic in the library is my plant... and maybe this PI ...

and so.. i fast forward the legacy to phil ....

is this listed in the hosta finder????

ken

Ken,the sign is actually brand new,it just looks that way because of dirt on it from rainfall. Thanks again! Phil

i tell you.. back in the 90's .. the MI club would meet for their annual work day at the hillside at hidden lakes ...

and who would be there::

herb and dorothy benedict
jim wilkins of wolverine fame.. etc ..
van wade and shirley
jim dishon of mack the knife fame etc
ron livingston
stuart asche
brian and virginia skaggs or empress wu fame
gil jones of warwick everything fame
clarence falstad of walters gardens fame ...

all run by clarence owens of sally and bob fame..

oh.. and sally and bob would pop in once in a while ... murphy.. lol.. i blanked there for a minute ....

not to mention folks who would travel from IN.. IL.. and IA ...

man this was the place to be if you were a hosta fiend ...

and all i was was the poparattzi ... afraid to talk to any of them.. lol .. but boy did i listen....

ken

Very cool looking hosta...it really caught my attention when you last posted a pic, Ken. Quite a generous gift!

Nice plant, Phil and even nicer hosta lore Ken. Both are gems that add to the richness hosta gardening.

Thank you to both of you.

tj

It was the standout hosta to me in the Wade and Gatton gardens. All I wanted was one little eye. Nope! Figures! WW