Hosta Miscellany

Memphis is a hosta-loving town!  At this year's sale sponsored by the Mid-South Hosta Society, over 1600 plants were sold - a record number.  Were you there?  I was in line for the opening and you  would have thought we were waiting at St. Peter's Gate!

I've fallen in love with mini hostas, mainly because I've run out of room in this garden.  (BUT - we've bought a new house!  With a bigger yard!  And it's like a blank slate because it hasn't been tended for years!  More in future posts...)

Back to mini hostas.  Here's my small collection:

Clockwise beginning at the bottom left:  Frosted Mouse Ears, Justine, Spinach Souffle, Wonderful, Rainbow's End, Blue Mouse Ears, Green Mouse Ears (the tiny one in the middle.)  I also have Holy Mouse Ears...

...but it's in my Heavenly Garden along with Pilgrim, Cup of Grace, Cathedral Windows, and Guardian  Angel.  And yes, that's a heuchera 'Midnight Rose.'  I know it's doesn't exactly fit in with the heavenly theme, but that's where it had to go.  You know I love heucheras!

But I digress.  I mainly wanted to link you to a great hosta discussion that Margaret Roach had recently with Tony Avent.  You can read about it here and there's also a link to the podcast.  Tony has a 10 foot rule that may intrigue you and there's scientific information that helps you understand about hosta colors and fading and fragrance.

Speaking of Tony Avent, I bought a book recently at Booksellers at Laurelwood called The Roots of My Obsession, edited by Thomas C. Cooper.  In it are essays by thirty great gardeners telling why they garden.  Tony says,

I was born with a fully functional 7.0 horticultural operating system, along with some specialized apps like an obsessive personality, and overactive imagination, an overly logical brain, and a touch of ADD.

Sound familiar?  I'll share more of these gardeners' motivations as I read the various essays.  I'm trying to take little bites of this book so I can prolong the pleasure!

p.s.  -  If you know someone in the market for a zero-lot line house in East Memphis with a great shade garden, let me know!

Rhodes College Southern Literary Garden

I love themed gardens.  Most of us are familiar with Butterfly Gardens, where the plants are chosen for their attraction to butterflies.



Source

Another example popular in the South is the Biblical Garden, filled with plants mentioned in the Bible.

Kew Gardens, Kew, England

You can plan a garden around any theme you want.  Here's a teaching garden for different grades to learn about plants.  Check out the cute Alphabet Garden!

Alphabet Garden

The same rules apply to theme gardens as to regular gardens, the main one being make sure all of your plants share the same growing conditions.  Say you have a cat-themed garden.  You wouldn't want to put Hosta 'Kitty Cat' in the middle of a group of cattails!

Here in Memphis at Rhodes College we can visit a Southern Literary Garden.  According to the brochure published by the school, "The plants in this garden are mentioned in poetry and prose by distinguished Southern literary figures."


Daylilies in the Southern Literary Garden

What are your favorite theme gardens?  What kind of theme garden would you like to have?