Hostas So Beautiful I Had To…..
Hostas are used for many purposes at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens. Here, ‘Paradise Island’ and ‘Maui Buttercups’ (right) provide bold accents on one of our terraces.
….grow them for you myself! Every year I try to provide an outstanding selection of hostas to my customers. I peruse the lists of wholesale suppliers within a hundred mile radius to find the cultivars that I think are the best. I visit those nurseries and individually select each plant. Having high quality growers produce larger hostas for me is easier, especially since we are always space challenged at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens. However, to supplement that stock, every year I grow at least eight hosta cultivars that I want to sell because they are so unique and beautiful.
Here are the hostas I choose to grow this year:
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
.
‘Brother Stefan’, 2017 Hosta of the Year, 20″ tall and 36″ wide, near white flowers.
.
‘Brother Stefan’ with ‘Goldheart’ old-fashioned bleeding-heart along our front walk. It is so amazing that I have to point it out to Michael every time we leave the house.
.
‘Abiqua Drinking Gourd’, 2014 Hosta of the Year, 18″ tall and 36″ wide, white flowers in early summer (photo Walters Gardens).
.
‘Abiqua Drinking Gourd’ makes a stunning specimen with its bowl-shaped and heavily puckered leaves (photo Walters Gardens).
.
‘June Spirit’, 14″ tall and 26″ wide, lavender blue flowers (photo Walters Gardens).
.
‘June Spirit’ is a close relative of ever popular ‘June’ and ‘Halcyon’, a great medium-sized specimen for the front of the border (photo Walters Gardens).
.
‘Maui Buttercups’, 10″ tall and 14″ wide, near white flowers, elegant small hosta prized for its bright color and unique cup-shaped leaves.
.
‘Autumn Frost’, 12″ tall and 24″ wide, light lavender flowers in summer, the frosty blue leaves and extra wide bright yellow margins are amazing (photo Walters Gardens).
.
‘Fire Island’, 10″ tall and 15″ wide, lavender flowers, striking for its arresting gold color, red stems, and red coloring at the base of the leaf (photo Walters Gardens).
.
‘Blue Ivory’, 16″ tall and 30″ wide, lavender flowers, amazing combination of blue leaves with wide pure white margins, you have to see it in our garden (photo Walters Gardens).
.
‘Rainforest Sunrise’, 2013 Hosta of the Year, 8″ tall and 16″ wide, light lavender flowers, remarkable coloring and habit make it really stand out.
Carolyn
.
Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive catalogues and emails about nursery events by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information. Please indicate if you will be shopping at the nursery or are mail order only.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b/7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
Facebook: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens has a Facebook Page where I post single photos, garden tips, and other information that doesn’t fit into a blog post. You can look at my Facebook page here or click the Like button on my right sidebar here.
Notes: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.
CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
May 10, 2017 at 7:10 am
What a delight to see so many wonderful hostas brighten the landscape and page
May 10, 2017 at 7:16 am
Donna, So nice to hear from you. You should come to Carolyn’s Shade Gardens and see them growing in the garden. Carolyn
May 10, 2017 at 8:34 pm
It is a dream to see your gardens one day.
May 10, 2017 at 8:03 am
Hello,
Do you have any more of the Blue Drinking Gourd Hosta? I’d love to purchase one on Saturday. If possible, please let me know and save one for me!
TY,
Pam Burton
>
May 10, 2017 at 8:23 am
Pam, I have a good supply of all these hostas as they were not ready for sale until yesterday. None of my customers have even seen them yet. Carolyn
May 10, 2017 at 8:17 am
I thoroughly enjoy your posts and photos. I would love to grow hostas like these but have a vole problem. Where do you get your beautiful pots?
May 10, 2017 at 8:21 am
Elizabeth, I have cats and foxes so no voles. The pots are from local sources most of which don’t exist anymore. Carolyn
May 10, 2017 at 9:37 pm
If you have an Ocean State Job Lot in your area they have nice pots at a very reasonable price.
May 11, 2017 at 7:04 am
Thanks for the tip, Susan.
May 10, 2017 at 10:40 am
Dear Carolyn, You may remember that I bought a lot of nice Hellebores from you over the last several years, but that my wife and I now live in a Retirement Community near Atlanta, Canterbury Court, close to our daughter and her husband and our 11 year old twin granddaughters. It has a very nice garden, which was another of the attractions, along with regular trips to the Atlanta Symphony and Live From the Met opera transmissions. However I got a good-natured chuckle from the fellow gardeners when I unveiled my transplanted Hellebores, because they grow wild all over the place down here! Another thing is that the colored varieties all seem to turn to cream color after a year or so. Even the pure whites go to cream after a year. Mystery to me. Anyway we are enjoying the place very much! Best wishes to you and your great garden. jim davis
May 10, 2017 at 8:03 pm
Jim, So nice to hear from you. I had been wondering what happened to you and am glad you are enjoying Georgia. Keep in touch, Carolyn
June 23, 2017 at 1:47 pm
What a stunning array of Hostas! It is amazing the colours and variety in which they come. I have a Brother Stefan type hosta at the end of my garden; it gives me such joy (when I can keep the deer from eating it!)
June 23, 2017 at 3:27 pm
Yes, Liza, people sometimes think of hostas as unsophisticated, but I think only discerning gardeners can truly appreciate their beauty. Carolyn
January 30, 2019 at 10:45 pm
Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures. I am at beginning stages of planning my shade garden and lit on the Maui Buttercup. Please share what the companion plant is surrounding the Maui. Thank you again!
January 31, 2019 at 5:36 pm
Erin, The ferny plan with the yellow flowers is yellow corydalis, C. lutea. Carolyn