Rosa 'Abraham Darby' & Hosta 'Paul's Glory' 8 August 2022 |
In 1986 we moved from our townhouse in Burnaby to a large house and a corner garden in Kerrisdale. It soon became evident that we could not afford to hire the local Japanese gardener. We were paying a $3500 monthly mortgage.
The garden had many trees and shade from the neighbour’s trees made it even more so. In all the garden books I read one plant kept creeping up. This was the hosta.
At the time many homes in our neighbourhood were being torn down and Rosemary kept a good watch as to when the hydro lines were cut. We would then visit those gardens with our wheelbarrow and spades. In one garden she pointed at a large dark green plant and said, “Alex, that’s a hosta.” The hosta came with us and five years ago when we moved to our little Kits duplex I had amassed 600 of them.
There is one that is dear to my heart. It is called Hosta ‘Paul’s Glory’. I bought it in 1992 when I attended my first American Hosta Society National Convention in Columbus, Ohio.
In those days convention people would buy hostas and take them up to their hotel room and flush the dirt several times in the room bathroom. I did that with my Paul’s Glory and Hosta ‘Patriot’. When I got to the airport I was a tad nervous. I had two hostas in my suitcase wrapped in moist newspaper. I showed the man at security and little airplane I had purchased at the Columbus Museum of Flight. The little plane made jet noises. The man smiled and waved me through.
So my Hosta “Paul’s Glory’ is 30 years old and now lives in a large pot underneath the English Rose Rosa ‘Abraham Darby’.
I could not resist scanning the friendly pair