Hostas Approved by Better Homes & Gardens

I just got my free subscription to Better Homes & Gardens and was excited to see their article about hostas -- three of which are planted in our Welcome Garden -- so excited that I am even going to use photos that I'm not very proud of -- but you'll get the idea.  By the way, my free subscription came me to courtesy of the Georgia State Botanical Garden when I renewed my annual membership.  If you are not already a member, you are missing a great opportunity to be part of a very special place.  I could go on for pages about all the benefits but I'll let you check it out yourself at www.botgarden.uga.edu.

But back to my hosta excitement.  The title page shows 'First Frost', a fairly new hosta that I fell in love with this spring and just had to put in the Welcome Center garden.  It was the 2010 Hosta of the Year from American Hosta Growers and is a sport of the tried and true hosta 'Halcyon'. 

First Frost has firm, slightly corregated leaves with creamy yellow margins on blue leaves.  It grows to about 16 inches tall and 30 inches wide with lavendar flowers.  The plants in the Welcome Garden are young so I'm anticipating bolder variegation as they mature. 

Another hosta that BHG likes is Fire Island.   I bought this one last season for my own yard but brought to the Garden where it will actually survive instead of sitting in the blazing sun on my patio - I know, what was I thinking -- I was thinking a miracle would happen and I would suddenly get some shade.  But back to Fire Island..... 

I might like this hosta even better than First Frost just because it almost glows in the dark with its brilliant yellowish green leaves sitting atop red stems.  In this photo you can see it is hanging out with a Dragon Wing Begonia and Cephalotaxus 'Duke's Garden' - which makes for a really great combination of textures.  Fire Island grows to about 14 inches tall and 24 inches wide. 

And....then there is Fragrant Bouquet, which went into the Welcome Garden several years ago.  Like all plants in my life, this one got moved this year to a new location within the Garden and seems happy at the base of the newly arrived azalea.  The name says it all -- a bed of Fragrant Bouquet hostas will send up the most delicate, sweet smell when its three-inch blossoms are at their peak.  It is one of the few hostas that I allow to go to flower.  And the show doesn't stop there because the leaves are so striking the plant could be a winner without the blooms -- apple green, heart shaped leaves trimmed in creamy white.  This is a medium sized hosta at 16 inches tall and 24 inches wide. 

I have a few more treasured hostas languishing on my patio so they may join their friends in the Garden soon.   The Welcome Garden provides an ideal spot for growing hostas -- lots of shade with irrigation that provides a nice even level of moisture.   Next spring, after a year in the ground, these three should all be strutting their stuff.