Until I sort of transferred my interest to old roses I
was known in Vancouver as the Hosta Man. I must have amassed around 400 of
them. In our recent move I had to play botanical Noah’s ark.The best of my
large blue or green hostas went to the UBC Botanical Garden. I kept the ones
that had the faces of my friends who hybridized them. And of course I brought
with me Hosta ‘Captain Kirk’.
With the gardening explosion of the 80s and 90s we are now
faced with an interest in patio roses for condos and maintenance free concrete
gardens.
I remember those many hostas with a fondness that I would
show to my friends. Particularly in May the emerge fresh and crisp and look
their best. Most of my hostas in our little deck garden are in pots. I am
curious how they will thrive (which they will) with the more light we have here
in Kitsilano.
One hosta I will not see is the one her posing with her friend
(and mine, too) Salem. She may have been one of the sweetest women I ever met.
The hosta in question is Hosta montana
“Auroemarginata”.
Salem got married some years ago and the last I heard she
was a mother. I miss that smile and I miss the crispness of that Montana.