HOSTA La Vista Baby!!

This post is an ode to the old garden standard....the HOSTA. One of my personal favorites....and the one my youngest boy, as a toddler, called Hosties! heehee!

When I first became acquainted with this "can't kill it wonder" it was growing wildly down many a side fence. Full of weeds and holes from a "slug" fest or two....or three. Yuck! Then I was given a piece by a good friend and...well....the rest is garden history.

Variegated and slug resistant varieties shown here

All of my plants in the back garden have been gifts or splits. (and I don't mean gymnastics!)

The azaleas in the photo above were dug out of a lovely school Principal's yard. She was divorcing. He hated the bushes that she had grown to love. He was keeping the house. She would be damned if he destroyed them. Ummm, so sorry....let me get my shovel. (Really? I can't make this up!) The hostas come from a lovely couple that dig each other as much as they dig their yard....a whole lot! They loaded my car up with their extra babies and filled this Zen space for me last year. I mean...pow....and look...it is poppin!! That's what's great about them....they don't die...they multiply! Woop!

Now, y'all  know I am a girl on a budget.....but there is a whole HOSTA society if you can dig it! (Was that corny? Sorry!) You can check it out here....

http://www.americanhostasociety.org/

So many varieties and even collectors. I have a total of 9 different kinds and I have a few on my wish list. The Big Blue is one I would really love......that sucker is huge!

But for now.....since the hostas were so easy to double down on (my term for splitting and making 2  or 3 outta 1) I focused on other plants like this. So......tons of Irises and Bee Balm. Now.....these came from the couple that moved into their grandmother's house they inherited after her death. She was a master gardener but her yard hadn't been touched in decades. And neither had their minds. Umm.....he had the confederate flag on his pick-up and there was a toilet on bricks in front of the million dollar house. You think that deterred me? I weighed my situation......and eyed those luscious green beauties that were mine for the picking and said......Here is a coffee and some gloves...tell me what I can take. 2 hours later I had ole boy following me in his pickup because my car was loaded. He even surprised himself. Plants can do that.....when you start digging and chatting the divide was broken......and of course I texted the address to my husband just in case I wasn't heard from again. Check out Grand mom's three full beds here:

these 3 beds filled with free craiglists "grabs" from a young couples grand mom's yard

Oh yeah...........so this is the green stage. Not a lot of color.....yet. Great plants to fill big spaces quickly that will look good all of Spring into Fall. I will share updates each month. The color is coming soon. I love these plants up. I snip, I spray, and I do talk to them. I'm telling you it works. And I am tickled every single year when I do my splits that someone trusted me with their history....with something they tended to at one time or another. So I share.....there are plenty of these plants in gardens all over. A friend here, my sister there, and last summer....against my husband's safety warning.....I went to a deep woods plant swap. Oh yeah.....picked up some Autumn Flower and Black Eyed Susans there. LOL. Anyhoo.....this is where we are now....more to come. HOSTA la vista, BABY! (that means "real talk" in plant Latin!)