Why I Oughta...

Over the years, I've dug-up, transplanted and even divided a series of hostas of various varieties along the foundation and around the corner of our kitchen windows from the back of the fence to the Karl Foerster Grasses that are planted right below the windows .  This post from June 2020 shows how a series of hostas that were from teardowns had grown and thrived in this spot.  I ended up digging a bunch of these up, moving some and dividing others.  Leaving us with a row of three Lancifolia Hostas from the fence gate to the corner of the house.   They seemed fine.  Until this year.  Have a look at the photo below.  These are, I'm pretty sure... sun burned hostas .  Or...as some people call it:  hosta scorch .   Could I be giving these hostas more water?  Sure.  But, I'm not sure that's really the problem.  This seems like a situation where these aren't a fit.  They'll need to be moved and replaced with something that can handle more sun.   This situation has

We have a miniature variegated hosta that sits right below the large Northern Red Oak tree that our tree swing hangs from that I really like.  I'm not sure where it came from, but I am guessing that I pulled it from my Sister-in-laws lot right before they started to build their house back in 2018 .  I ended up stashing a bunch of that stuff back in the far reaches of our yard and mostly forgot about all of it. It was planted near a larger Catalpa tree in the back that the kids like to climb and that meant that it was getting trampled by little and looked a little neglected.  So, I dug it up in June 2019 and transplanted it around the large Oak tree on the north side of the lot.  In that post in 2019, I talked about how I admired this thing and said that as it grows, it was one that I should try to divide to make even more. I posted a follow-up photo of this hosta last Summer (June 2020) and showed off even more new growth as it began to spread out a little bit. Here, below, is a

Yesterday, I posted a photo showing the new location of the dozen Fanal Astilbes that I transplanted out to the edge of their new bed and commented that that was the FIRST of a few posts showing the transplanting that I have been doing this Spring.   Today, the photo below shows the new location of 15 teardown hostas that I planted on the southside of the yard in the curved border of this new bed.  You can see the first three on the left taking the 'second row' spot and if you look closely, there are two more in the 'second row' under the Oak tree at the top of the photo: Here's an annotated version of that photo showing the 15 hostas: A few important notes: 1. These hostas are (I'm pretty sure) Lanifolia Hostas .  Based on this "What hosta do I have?" page , I found this Lancifolia page in the Hosta Library.  Things check out.  I inherited them when we moved in.  They're plain green with glossy leaves.  2.  They get to a nice size - if left alone

This hosta is planted in the far back of our property - where I put down a base of wood chips earlier this Spring.  Based on where it is planted and how it is pretty unique in color/texture from the rest of our hostas, I'm thinking that I dug it out of Nat's sister's lot before she tore down her house.  Here's a photo of a garden cart full of stuff that came from there .  I don't see any hosta leaves in the photo, but I, do, mention them in the post.  I also mention ferns in the post and I know the " teardown fern " that I post about is from her lot - and it is adjacent to this hosta.  Hence...my pretty strong suspicion that it came from across town.  In terms of gardening debate, I think that hosta flowers might be the 'hot button' between Nat and myself.  They are something that she just doesn't care for.  Me?  I love them.  Now, I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure why I love them goes back to my Mom.  And my childhood.  I

On Friday, I posted some photos of how I removed and divided a very large Hosta from around our rear hose bib.  In that post, I mentioned that I wanted to dig up another of the hostas and move it East a couple of feet to make the spread of these a little bit more even.  And, that's what I did in the photo above.  There were four Hostas in this row.  I removed #3 (from the left) and relocated it .  I then dug up #2 (from the left) and moved it over to the right so the three remaining hostas are a little bit more evenly spread.   I'll water this in pretty hard to get it set up to succeed this Summer.  But, hoping that by next year, it will have totally recovered and we'll have a nice set of three spaced out here.

A few days ago, I posted some photos of the teardown Hostas that I had planted around our hose bib outside our kitchen window and talked about how it was time to remove and relocate one of them to make room for the rest that had grown up and out.  I decided to yank the 'middle' of the three along the house out to start and divide it.  In the photo at the top here, you can see the gap that now exists with the largest of the hostas pulled out.  I plan on taking the Hosta on the left of the photo and moving it out - to space these out a little bit. In that post , I mentioned that there were a few locations that need hostas including our front bed, by the screened porch, priority area 2 and 3.  So, where did I put them?  None of those spots. I ended up dividing that one Hosta into four smaller ones - and put a series of three of them just to the East of the 2nd largest Oak tree on the South Side of our lot.  You can see those below.  I wanted to put the third one around t

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a miniature hosta that I transplanted from the far back part of our yard to underneath the Oak tree swing trunk and mentioned that I was watching it to see if it was healthy enough to divide into multiple plants.  While I wait for that....I wanted to post about a few other hostas that were certainly *healthy enough* to divide.  You see them above in the photo.  These are all "teardown hostas" that I grabbed in the Fall of 2017 and was surprised in 2018 when they all emerged.  Hostas, are indeed, hearty perennials. This post shows the location in question and the landscape plan that was drafted :  it includes 4 Hadspen Hostas that wrap around the corner of our house.  If you look at the photo at the top of this post, you'll count five (5) hostas.  And...in the middle of that photo, you can see one of them is bigger than the rest. I'm thinking my plan is to dig out the two 'middle ones'.  That would be the largest one and t

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a few of the teardown hostas that I divided and transplanted underneath the Hornbeam hedge and talked about how it was getting me closer to fulfilling my goal on " Priority Area #2 ".  I mentioned that I planted a few more as part of this set around the Oak and flowering Pear tree in that area.  In the photo above, you can see an existing hosta in the blue circle that I *think* is one of these Bessingham Blue hostas that I planted a few years ago as a bareroot plant .  On the backside of this Oak tree is this miniature variegated hosta that I transplanted last year .  It has started to pop through the mulch.  The hosta that you see in the middle of the photo at the top is one of the hostas that I dug up from in front of the house that was on our property before we tore it down.  I stuck it back by the Dawn Redwood for a few years.  Now, it is here.  And, below, you'll see three more clumps of that same hosta around the larger Chant

The hostas that are emerging from the mulch in the blue circles are ones that I've planted over the past few seasons.  They were taken from other parts of the yard, divided and planted in this bed.  I have nine blue circles, but I think that there are 11 current hostas with a couple of them being just 'tips'. The two hostas in red circles are non-variegated hostas that I dug up from around the kitchen window, divided and transplanted here.  These are some of the 'teardown hostas' that I've posted about over the years including when they flowered last year .   If I get around to it, I'm going to dig up another bunch to split and transplant further back in the bed - along the fence - like the two current transplants.  I think a blend of different color hostas would look nice filling in this area below the trees. I also transplanted some of these hostas around the tree swing Oak tree - and I'll post about that tomorrow but the most critical part of t

It may be the last day of March, but - just like the peonies - the hostas are now tipping through the mulch.  You can see the purple tips that have sort of spiraled their way through the ground and are ready to unfurl in this bed underneath our kitchen window.  Those of you eagle-eyed readers might also spot something else in this photo:  a piece of burned wood/charred hardwood.  On the right side of the photo in the middle.  That's a result of spreading the hardwood ashes from our fireplace out in the yard .  I've put some of it in the grass, some in the beds including around these hostas.  This is the teardown hosta that I've been tracking since I transplanted it.  Here's a look at this plant in mid-Summer last year .  This is a bed that I'm going to try to tend to with a topcoat of hardwood fine mulch because, as you can see, most of the remaining mulch is the larger, more coarse pieces.

These large stemmed hostas are what I've been calling our "Teardown Hostas" that I planted right outside our kitchen window in the backyard.  I put them in the ground in October of 2017 and they came back for the past few seasons and have filled in the space really nicely.  Here's a photo of these same Hostas emerging for the first time in Spring of 2018.   I haven't posted about these particular flowers in the past, but I did post late last Summer about some white flowering hostas that are also, kinda, teardown hostas.  This post shows some in our backyard that throw off white flowers that I pulled out of the front yard of the house we tore down before we built.   The photo you see above show a different kind of stalk coming out of the hosta plant.  Normally, I see a series of those trumpet-shaped flowers that come from a central stalk.  If you look at the photo above, you'll see that it is more like a central flower that has emerged from the t