Boston Flora

Tag: American Hosta Society

  • Saturday, October 23, 12:00 noon – 3:00 pm – New England Hosta Society Annual Meeting

    The New England Hosta Society is happy to return to in-person meetings, and its 2021 Annual Meeting will take place October 23 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, in Classrooms A and B. At noon, bring your own lunch (tea, coffee, water, and soda will be provided) and socialize before the meeting and elections beginning at 1 pm. At 2, Bob Solberg, hosta hybridizer and owner of Green Hill Hosta in North Carolina, will speak. He is the recipient of the 2003 Alex J. Summers Distinguished Merit Award by the American Hosta Society. The company is among the leading introducers of new hostas in the world. Many of them were hybridized by Bob Solberg and other leading hosta hybridizers. The high quality of our plants and their very large root systems is well known. (Great roots make a great growing hosta!)

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  • Thursday, July 15 – Saturday, July 17 – American Hosta Society Virtual National Convention

    Welcome! It is with great excitement and pleasure that the Southwest Michigan Hosta Society and the West Michigan Hosta Society are partnering to bring you the first ever Virtual 2021 American Hosta Society National Convention.

    Register early to reserve your gift plant: Hosta Silly String. Registrants will also receive exclusive online access to: Speakers, Workshops, Clinics, on-demand, professionally recorded virtual garden tours, Ed Elslagar Seedling Competition, Hosta leaf show photo contest (unsanctioned), and more! Be sure to check back often at https://ahs2021.org/ for updated details on events.

    On Thursday, July 15, Rob Mortko will talk about The Hot Hostas of Tomorrow. Following the recent demise of both Shady Oaks and Q&Z tissue-culture labs, fewer and fewer new hostas are finding their way to market. Made in the Shade started up their own TC lab ten years ago and is attempting to fill this void. Working with both hybridizers and other growers, a number of exciting new introductions are making their way to market to become the hot hostas of tomorrow. Get ready to add some new entries to your hosta wish list. For 20 years, Rob operated Made in the Shade Gardens – a retail and mail order hosta specialty nursery. Rob is now devoted full time to Made in the Shade Tissue Culture – a plant tissue culture laboratory specializing in hosta propagation.

    In 2000, Rob registered and introduced his first hosta cultivar named ‘Heart and Soul’. His other hosta introductions include ‘Stitch in Time’, ‘Mouse Capades’, ‘Rising Star’, and ‘Carry On’. In 2019, ‘Stitch in Time’ was awarded Honorable Mention in its first year of competition toward the AHS Benedict Garden Performance Medal.

    On Friday, July 16, Bob Iiames will speak on Cohesion vs Chaos: Creating Design in the Collector’s Garden. Do you love to buy hostas and plants in general? Do you get home and wonder, “How am I going to plant these so they don’t look like soldiers in a row?” Join Bob for a look at some gardens and gardeners who have solved the collector’s garden dilemma. See how they have created a cohesive look in their gardens through the use of color, texture, shape and form. We will talk about how to put it all together so you CAN have one of everything and still have a beautiful and harmonious garden. Bob Iiames is a groundskeeper at the 173-acre Lange Estate in Ludlow Falls, Ohio. He is a member of the American Conifer Society, Ohio Valley North American Rock Garden Society, and is past president of the Miami Valley Hosta Society.

    The keynote speaker is Hans Hansen, who will deliver his talk on July 17 at 8 pm Central Time. Hansen currently holds over 179 U.S. Plant Patents and has registered 90 of his remarkable hosta originations. Furthermore, Hansen has contributed several additions to the Shadowland® series in the Proven Winners® program. Some introductions from his time at Walters Gardens include ‘Diamond Lake’, ‘Age of Gold’, and ‘Joy Ride’, as well as the action-packed convention plant, ‘Silly String’. We are pleased that Hans is telling us about his own interest in hybridizing the “friendship plant” with his presentation titled, “My Journey with Hostas.” From a very young age, Hans Hansen has been living and breathing plants. Raised on a dairy farm in SW Minnesota where he had a keen interest in plants, his early passion was lilies, peonies, and iris. Today, he is employed at Walters Gardens, Inc. where he is head of the hybridizing department. In a nutshell, Hansen is one of the premier plant breeders for all sorts of plants.

    Register online at https://ahs2021.org/register/

  • Wednesday, June 22 – Saturday, June 25 – The American Hosta Society National Convention

    The 2011 American Hosta Society National Convention will take place June 22 – June 25 right here in Massachusetts, hosted by the New England Hosta Society.  This year’s theme is Hostas and Heritage.  There will be optional bus tours to hosta gardens in four states – Wednesday, see the garden of Bernie and Sue Apter and the garden of Carol Brashear and Bill Meyer, in Connecticut, along with O’Brien Nurserymen Display Garden and Nursery and the garden of Kathie Sisson.  Friday’s main tour in Massachusetts includes Bob and Diane Adams’ Oakenstone Gardens, Mary Arnberg’s garden with roughly 500 varieties of hosta, the Cochato Nursery and Display Gardens, and Paula Lehtola’s “Deer Buffet”.  Saturday will bring you to New Hampshire to the garden of Cheryl and Rick Cravino aptly named HostaAmour, the garden of Roger Kinchen, and Chuck and Sue Andersen’s Mason Hollow Nursery.  There are also three gardens on display following the official end of the show – Sunday brings a chance to see the Hanover, Massachusetts garden of Gerry and Rindy Bennet, the garden of Rick Goodenough, and the Plymouth, Massachusetts garden of Rosemary and David Parks.  There will be seedling and sport competitions (called “First Look”), lectures and classes, auctions, ice cream socials, a judged hosta show entitled One if by Land and Two if by Sea (show schedule available for download on web site, www.hosta2011.org), the ultimate hosta supermarket, with nationally known hosta vendors, and all this within a short drive of Boston – in beautiful Marlborough, Massachusetts, at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel.  Fee to attend is $225, and you may register on line.  Make reservations at the hotel, if you are not inclined to drive back and forth, no later than May 28 by calling 888-543-9500 and mention “American Hosta Society” to receive the convention room rate.