Thoughts of the top of my head: August 2005
I heard this summer from an arachniphobic that you are never more than three feet from a spider. Could be true, you never know. Anyway, August is spider time, with webs everywhere. August is hurricane season, which connects us with the homeland of hostas. August is barbecue season when the deer come to nibble and the nematodes earn their stripes. From here, the hysteria about hosta virus seems years away.
This was truly the spring of virus sightings. Unlike UFO sightings many of these were confirmed. Hostas with virus again showed up in nursery outlets around the country. ‘Gold Standard’, ‘Blue Cadet’, ‘Sum and Substance’ and ‘Striptease’ were the most common hostas, although other hostas also showed symptoms. Without pointing a finger at anyone in particular, here are my thoughts.
Why didn’t you folks get this upset about foliar nematodes 15 years ago? They spread like crazy! Probably because they do not show up until late summer and many of you thought it was no big deal. But hosta virus shows up right away in the spring, right at the peak of hostamania. This is a good thing. It is better to see a problem than suspect one. There are lots of photos of virus floating around. If you have not seen one let me know and I will email you a couple of world class infections.
What to do? Do not panic!!!!! This is not foliar nematodes all over again. The virus is very slow to spread and easy to remove from your garden. I have visited many gardens this summer and on average each garden had one hosta with a virus. Most gardens had hundreds of hostas if not thousands. Thus, the problem is not widespread in gardens. Currently, it appears to be a nursery problem more than a garden problem.
Please, do not buy a hosta with virus even if you think it is the most unusually beautiful hosta you have ever seen. Just walk on by. If you feel that you are qualified, you may want to mention to the nursery owner that you think he may have a virused hosta in the nursery. Remember, hostas sport streaks, not splotches.
If you have a virused plant in your garden, dig it up and throw it away. Do not throw away the hostas next to it, do not treat your soil. Do not quarantine the plant, throw it away. Then you are done. Remember, if it looks like virus, then it probably is. Let’s nip this problem in the bud!
As hosta folks, we are really spoiled! I am at least. This year alone, for three weekends, I have been loaded on a bus and taken to the finest hosta gardens anywhere, all in peak condition. Years of preparation went into each one, with every hosta pampered to the point of it having its every wish fulfilled. We see the best of the best all grown to maximum proportions with no leaf out of place.
But hostas are human, too. They have good days and bad years. They look better in May than they do in August. When I visit hosta gardens on those “off” days, I am tempted not to see the hostas for all the hosta problems. In August, those perfect leaves of late spring are showing signs of to many long, hot days in the garden. Some are sunburnt, some have tanned. Some suffer from dehydration, others just look tired. Then there are the spots of fungus, the cutworm bites and the nematode streaks. Strange how your eye always sees what is wrong with the picture and forgets that it still a work of art.
I visited two Southern hosta gardens last week almost five hundred miles apart. Both were backyard gardens, maybe a half acre in size. The first began as an open sunny yard and featured numerous interesting small trees planted in the past ten years. The other was under a grove of huge ancient trees. They had little in common except for the fact that both housed a hosta collection of 700 or so hostas.
The first garden was all about coloring with hostas. The clumps were tight and turned their faces to the sun, many raising a single leaf higher than the rest as if to wave a hand to get attention. Many of the hostas were variegated and the colors mixed well no matter which hosta fell next to the other. There were hosta flowers, too. I am working on a theory that tetraploid hostas have larger flowers than their diploid forms. We gathered around a clump of ‘Holy Moley’ and without permission I picked a flower and headed off in search of ‘Guacamole’. ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ had to do and on first glimpse the flowers seemed the same size. They were the same length but on closer inspection the petals were wider on the tetraploid flower. Yes, they were larger, you just had to look closely.
The hosta colors of this wonderful garden on that 100 degree day stayed in my mind as I traveled west over the Blue Ridge. The second garden too is a collection but it is the green hostas that always fascinate me there. In the deep shade there are always flowers, flowers from hostas from a land far, far away. August is a great time to see the late flowering hosta species in full bloom. H. pycnophylla, H. yimgeri, H. rupifraga. H. tushimensis and on and one. The pure white flowered forms so rare among the deep lavenders shock the eye like an albino faun.. In the sun, where a large tree was lost are huge mounds of fragrant flowered hostas, hundreds and hundreds of flowers. Such a sight, and smell.
I lingered too long at both gardens, not really wanting to leave. I had gotten caught up in the ambiance. Cool spaces on a hot day with foliage and flowers to excite the eye. No the clumps were not perfect. Yes, there were problems and pests to be found but on those two days last week I looked past the flaws and saw the big picture. Hosta gardens have such a good feel to them and they make us feel good, if we just let them. I am really spoiled.
Newspaper columnists and garden writers are always asking me, “What is your favorite hosta?” The first hosta that comes to mind usually it is some seedling of mine that I am currently enamored with and not something with a name. So then I fall back to something new in the catalogue like ‘Corkscrew’ or ‘Orange Marmalade’ PPAF or ‘Ginsu Knife’. They need something with a name and a good photo. If you were to ask me this week, it would be H. plantaginea. I do so love that plant in flower.
I have three in containers on my front porch right now, (some crazy hybridizing thing you know.) As you know, H. plantaginea is the only night-blooming species. The flowers actually open in the evening, this week about 7:30. The big balloons open slowly and you can pop them open with your fingers if there is a little child inside you. Of course, three pots of those huge, most fragrant, overwhelming flowers will run you off the porch with their sicky, sweet smell. As a kid I thought orange blossoms were bad, hostas can be worse.
H. plantaginea is pollinated at night in the wild by moths we think and it is that strong sweet fragrance that attracts them to the flowers. We must not have a good supply of those moths in parts of this country because I read that the plants sets seed reluctantly. Maybe you should grow it under a lamp post. We have much better luck here in the South maybe because of our hot muggy nights in August. We do also have lots of moths.
Why do love it so much? The flower is so wide when open. If you only see them in the morning you do not get the full effect because they have started to close by then. This hosta flower will rival any daylily and besides it is pure white and fragrant. So get your flashlight and before you go to bed go our and smell the hostas. You’ll be amazed at what beautiful flowers they have.