The Bridgewood
Gardens Hosta Book

Chapter

Why We Grow Hostas

 
 
Growing Hostas
Why We Grow Hostas
Where Hostas Grow
Growing in the South
Planning Hosta Gardens
Watering
Fertilizing
Dividing
Fall Planting
Winter Losses
Hostas in Containers
Problems
 

Choosing Hostas
How Big Will They Get
Hostas for Sunny Areas
Green Hostas
Gold Hostas
Blue Hostas
White-Centered Hostas
Tetraploid Hostas
Fragrant Hostas
Streaked Hostas
Hosta Flowers

Plantain Lily and the Great Slug Bait Episode
A cautionary tale about using slug bait and other chemicals in the garden

The Big Move
In 2003 we moved our nursery from Maryland to Virginia. If you would like to see the story, click here.  It seems funnier now than it did at the time.












 


























 

 

 

I'm not a botanist, I don't know the science.  But I do know that hostas have some kind of chemical in them that makes people nuts.  I know people who have normal size houses, with normal size back yards, normal kids and a sensible spouse, and these people grow a thousand or more different kinds of hostas.  I don't know just one of these people.  I know a bunch of them.  These people are obviously nuts and they have only one thing in common, they've all come in contact with hostas.

Obviously, there are still people who add a few hostas here and there to their gardens and leave it at that.  There must be some kind of threshold you have to cross - one day you're a sensible gardener, the next day you're nuts.  I think the first sign of trouble is when you say to yourself, "I wonder how many of these things I have now."

So you count your hostas and you're surprised to realize that you already have 40 different kinds.   You don't remember buying that many, you never thought of yourself as a collector, it just sort of happened. And so you start slipping it into your conversations with other gardeners, which is your first mistake.  Because someday you're going to tell someone you have 40 different hostas and they're going to say, "Hey, that's a great start.  I have about 300 now."  And that's going to drive you nuts.