Hosta 'Liberty' 21 April 2020

When my Rosemary, our two daughters and I moved to our large corner garden house in Kerrisdale I knew very little about gardening. We hired the local Japanese gardener and he did our garden until we soon realized we could not afford him.

Even early on, our garden had lots of shade. I discovered hostas. At that time many houses in our neighbourhood were being torn down. Before they were ploughed over we would go with our wheelbarrow and spades to liberate the plants. There was one big plant that Rosemary pointed out was a hosta. I returned with it and it grew well in our garden. Since I did not know what kind of hosta it was (it was plain green) I called it Hosta '41st & Hudson'.

By the early 90s I was crazy about hostas and I became a card-carrying member of the American Hosta Society. We went to their yearly conventions and we got to meet all the important (and most pleasant) hybridizers of the plant. In one occasion we even took our granddaughter Rebecca. It was in 2003 in Falls Church,Virginia.

 

Over the years I have transferred my allegiance to old roses. I like their history and their scent.

 

But many of the hostas (in Kerrisdale I amassed 475 of them) in our present garden, about 60 have the faces of the hybridizers who were my friends and many of them are now dead.

At about now there is nothing fresher and more spectacular that the pristine hostas emerging from their pots or from the garden.

The one here is called Hosta ‘Liberty’ that was introduced in 2000 by a handsome, tall and young man called John Machen Jr. Its yellow edge is a very bright yellow. It has thick substance (thick leaves) which makes the plant impervious to slugs.

Quite a few of my hostas can never be replaced. They came wrapped in newspapers in my luggage from flights I made from the US. I would not dare to do that now!

Hosta 'Liberty' 1 June 2017