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| Hosta 'Liberty' & Camellia x williamsii 'Donation'- 17 April 2023 |
This is perhaps the first time that I have written a blog (I have written 5793) that is expressly destined for Facebook. I am writing it for the American Hosta Society group.
Why?
I must start at the beginning. My wife Rosemary (who had deep financial acumen) decided that we were to buy a large corner garden with an equally nice house in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Kerrisdale in 1986. I did not have any knowledge in gardening and noticed that the garden had lots of shade. I found out about hostas. At the time immigrants were coming to our neighbourhood and tearing down houses. They would then build monstrosities with four and five car garages. As soon as the original houses were vacant and all indications that the wreckers were soon to come my Rosemary would tell me and we would go with spades and a wheelbarrow. In one garden she pointed and said, “That’s a hosta.” I removed it and not knowing what the large green hosta was it became Hosta ‘43 and Hudson’.
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| Hosta 'Liberty' & a few H. 'Sunny Halcyon' and 2 H. 'Dream Queen' & a H. 'Blue Angel' for my daughter |
In the beginning she had her garden and I had my garden. She
had her perennials, trees and roses. I had my hostas.
But I eventually saw the light and the garden became our garden and my interest in a varied garden that was not monoculture of hostas became a reality.
It broke her heart when six years ago we could no longer fix the leaky bathrooms, etc of our old house. We sold it and became instant millionaires. We were able to inherit our two daughters while we were still alive.
Rosemary was not all that happy in our little duplex even though besides the deck it has four flower beds and a largish one outside on the lane since we do no use our garage as a garage.
She died on December 9, 2020 and my life has not been a happy one since. Because we had been married 52 years and I am now 80, my time with her was a big chunk in my existence.
I take photographs; I write my blog and walk my male cat Niño. His sister Niña is not so daring. I tell people as a joke that I am considering becoming a trans-woman so that I can be an authentic cat lady.
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| Niña and Niño |
I am saved of further grief by my two daughters. The older one, Alexandra (who will accompany me to the Ames convention) lives far in the town of Lillooet in the interior of British Columbia. She is a gardener and has a one acre property. The town is the hottest spot in Canada in the summer with temperatures reaching 41 Celsius. In the winter it can reach -32 Celsius but is almost a dry desert. It is in her garden that my hardy Gallica roses went to. Also there are all my large hostas. She has many hostas that seem to do well in spite of the terrible conditions. Last year I gave Olga Petryszyn’s H. ‘Coast to Coast’. I am sure it will adapt just fine to the conditions there.
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| Rosemary and Ale in Lillooet |
My other daughter Hilary (who accompanied me to the Minneapolis convention) lives in Vancouver and I see her at least twice a week. She smiles lot and calls me every day.
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| Hilary Stewart & Alex at Minneapolis Hosta Convention - Photograph by Janet Mills - the crying baby is Hilary as a little girl. |
Now, to the reason for this blog. Ale (Alexandra) strongly pressured me to enter the American Hosta Society FB group. She was right and now I am happy doing stuff so that I can contribute to this fine group.
In my native Argentina we have a saying that the devil knows more not because he is the devil but because he is an old man. I may know some stuff.
Here in Vancouver, until recently, we had many of those 19th century English defined ‘amateur gardeners’. My wife made me join the Vancouver Rose Society, the Alpine Garden Club and we were friends with the amateurs who were experts in rhododendrons, magnolias, ferns, roses but nobody really knew much about hostas so I became the hosta man.
Rosemary was a Master Gardener and when she retired she worked in the Shop in the Garden of the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and was a guide at the VanDusen Botanical Garden.
Thanks to Rosemary I am a well rounded (but thinnish) gardener.
And so here I am. Thank you all for taking me in.
The first photograph of Hosta 'Liberty' and Camellia x williamsii 'Donation' I photographed today for two reasons. Camellia 'Donation' was Rosemary's favourite camellia. And I would like to point out that Liberty does not mind being pot bound.
In the second photo with Hosta 'Liberty' are these bunch of Hosta 'Sunny Halcyon' I did not know existed until I saw them in a nursery last week.
In the third photograph you can see my Rosemary with Ale and behind them the Lillooet garden.
