Dividing Hosta that are starting to revert to green

Today I divided my Emerald Tiara hosta that was starting to revert back to plain green. Here are the steps for dividing a hosta.

Mini Container Gardens

Yesterday I blogged about mini hosta gardens. Today I want to show you how you can move the mini gardens to containers. I made the container using a recycled styrofoam fish box (see May blog where I show you how to do this). Then I added miniature plants (or hosta), which many times are found in the alpine garden section of nurseries. A nursery close to my area that specializes in fairy gardens and miniature gardening is Thistledown in Bonduel, WI. Then you can get creative and add all kinds of miniature accessories.

Mini hosta bed

Did you know that hostas come in all sizes they range from dwarf to extra large? Have you ever seen the cute little mini hostas and wondered how you can showcase them in your garden? Well one of the ways you can showcase them is to create a miniature garden. To create my mini hosta garden I added a garden bed on to an already existing bed using landscaping stones. I then moved all of my mouse ear and mouse ear sports into that bed. I decorated using miniature items I found in the dollhouse section of Hobby Lobby and ones I bought online through Janit at Two Green Thumbs. I also found small stones in the floral department of Michaels craft store.

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How to Grow a Hosta like this

When I visited Foxfire Gardens in Marshfield a few weeks ago, my friend, Gina, was amazed at the size of this hosta Montana 'Aureomarginata'. Even my husband told me I definitely had to buy one of those when we visited earlier in June. Gina and I are were trying to guess at how long that hosta had been in the garden. We both guessed that it had to have been there at least 20 years. So when we went up to the nursery and had a chance to talk to the owners we were surprised by the answer. It had been planted less than 5 years ago. The owner saw how surprised we were, and explained to us how that particular hosta had grown so big in so little time. The number one thing is that is needs to come from good stock. Then after that all this one needs is some sunshine (yes, you heard right) and an inch of water a day. Hostas are not sun intolerant, they are heat intolerant, and some hostas can take heat more than others. This is one that happens to love the sunshine in Wisconsin.

Photo-cataloging hostas

I decided today that my new summer project would be to photo catalog all of the hosta in my gardens. I have been meaning to do this for a while, as I like to see how they change year after year. So today I went out and started taking pictures of all of my hostas. It actually went faster than I thought and I've made it through the F's in the hosta alphabet. I was inspired by another hosta lover from the gardenweb forum. He has a wonderful website of all of his hosta. I recently found out that he is dying of cancer, and am deeply saddened by the news, since he was such an inspiration to many hosta lovers on the web. I encourage you to check out his website, and see if you too are encouraged by his beautiful work.

Visit to Solaris Farms

Today my friend and I visited Solaris Farms in Reedsville, WI. It is a farm/nursery that specializes in daylily, lilium, and peonies. The owners are very nice, and they have a very large selection of daylily, including many of their own hybrids. Right now is the optimal time to visit, since most of the daylilies are in bloom. The owner told me that next year they are going to highly increase the amount of lilies they are going to have, including many Orienpets. The two picture are of the selling area, which is probably 1/10th of the daylily they have.