Fried Bananas

Fried Bananas
in full sun with purple petunias

Monday, October 17, 2011

It Starts

I've been gardening seriously here in Millbury (Zone 5b just south of Worcester, MA) for only a little over a year now.  Having retired in July 2010, I finally got serious about doing the things in this yard that I never had time to do while I was working.

I began by taking a chain saw to a Smoke Tree that I'd always hated, mosty because it was in the wrong place.  I replaced it with a 60 foot daylilly bed along the driveway with a dwarf Butterfly Bush as an anchor.  From there I moved to the other side of the driveway and decided to put in a bed of Hosta.  Unfortunately, that got me interested in Hosta all over again.  
Daylilly Bed in April 2011

I had just begun to create a Hosta bed in Holland before we left there in 2004.  I began to read and research different Hosta plants.  I ordered several plants in the Fall of 2010 from NH Hostas on line and heeled them in over the winter.  As of this writing I have planted over 150 cultivars of Hosta in 8 different beds.

But I'm expanding my horticultural horizons.  I'm putting in a full sun bed just off the back of our deck in a prominent position in the Spring, and it likely won't have a single Hosta in it (we'll see).   

Today I was digging hard.  I planted two Hostas under the Norway Maple in the front yard.  Both were planted in 'Spin Out' bags.  These bags prevent root competition with the Maple roots.  Planting under Maples is difficult in any case, but in this area there are large rocks and invasive Ailanthus Altisima roots to add to the difficulty.  It took me about 5 hours of digging to get these two plants in place.  But these are the last two Hosta I will plant this year.  Galaxy is a streaker that will produce seedlings. It is placed next to its parent plant Francis Williams.  Rhino Hide is a new cultivar that has the thickest leaves of any Hosta to date.  Its slug resistance will help it in this area.  I'm wondering though if it will take the sun as it's on the East side of the Maple.

Tomorrow I hope to finish edging the front beds and then work on the holding bed in the back.  More Ailanthus roots back there.

5 comments:

  1. I never heard of 'spin out' bags before, but I have heard of Ailanthus Altisima. There were five large ones growing in the back yard of the house I purchased. I drilled 1" holes all arounf the base of the trunk and filled each hole with Tordon stump killer. It took about two treatments, but it worked. I had the dead Trees of Heaven cut down and I have no problems with any saplings coming up since all the roots are dead.
    Where can a person find those 'spin out' bags from?

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  2. steve,
    I couldn't make my smarty pants phone send you a message via gardenweb, so I'll answer your question here.

    the wholesale operation selling hvx hostas is Sawyer nursery, somewhere in southwest michigan, perhaps zeeland, or thereabouts.

    Hth,,
    hh

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  3. Hi steve, great pictures of hostas;;witch nursery did you purchase hosta "greenbush line. ,,you can e-mail me at mc-rd@rogers.com. Thank you in advance Marc












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  4. Can you tell me where you purchased your spin out bags? I am having difficulty finding a place to purchase them. I want to plant hostas under our Maple tree.

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  5. I've had some real problems with my hostas under trees. I moved almost 200 here in spring 2015 - some are badly dwindling. Jeff Miller (Land of Giants Hostas) suggested good-quality landscape cloth - easier to line your holes.

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