Thursday, July 10, 2014

The Hosta Collection

The backbone of our garden is the hosta collection, I think over 300 varieties when we first moved them here.  Hostas like shade, so the dappled shade along our old stone fencerow was the perfect place for them.  They are virtually all named varieties, collected by the Head Gardener here 10-20 years ago.  And this is the season when they look best, just as they are starting to bloom. 

Here are a few pictures from our collection - one of my favourite groupings, so dense you never have to weed here.

Another group under the old hawthorn tree - there are over 20 different varieties in this picture alone.

Another flourishing patch under the old apple tree.


 Some of the larger hostas down at the end of the row, and a closer look at two of the largest.


A couple of my favourite.  Notice how the colour variations are the opposite here.  The hosta on the left has yellowy in the centre of the leaves and green on the edges; the one on the right is the opposite.

And my favourite view of the garden (in spite of all our colourful flowers out in the sun beyond), along the long line of hostas in the shade, and my sitting spot under the old apple tree.  I like 'green'.


8 comments:

  1. Beautiful plants. I like hostas too, but the slugs and snails seem to like them even more than I do.

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  2. Thank you for his. I love hosta and am trying to create my own collection, but the deer have discovered them. How do you keep the deer from eating them?

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  3. OH MY HEART... I absolutely LOVE Hostas... I am beginning to put more and more of them in our shady yard.... I have no idea what the names are ---but didn't realize until recently how many different varieties and names there are... Yours are fantastic --some of the prettiest I have ever seen... Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  4. Oh wow, I am jealous and inspired. Where I live the hosta is becoming my major plant as our summers seem to be so extreme from year to year. I am just now noticing the differences of my hostas and really can't find many new ones out there. Your plantings are very impressive.

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  5. Wow. I think I have three or four different ones. You're setting the bar pretty high here. lol

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