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.
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It is very hard for me to pick a favorite mouse ears hosta, but I think ‘Holy Mouse Ears’ is it. The colors in the leaves are magical.
My post Miniature (& Small) Hostas is the most popular article I have ever written for my blog. In that post, I described how, when I discovered miniature hostas, I reached a new level of hosta addiction. I try not to purchase (five of) every new miniature hosta I can get my hands on, but it’s a struggle. Luckily my nursery allows me to mask this addiction as “business development”. Now I specialize in miniature hostas, and mail order them all over the US.
Hosta ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ is the parent of all the miniature hostas in the mouse ears clan. It is so special that in 2008, the American Hosta Growers Association named it the Hosta of the Year.
The miniature hosta that really took me over the edge was ‘Blue Mouse Ears’. It was definitely love at first sight. I fell for the very blue, very round, very rubbery leaves and the perfectly symmetrical habit. When ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ emerges from the ground, it is in a cluster so tight it looks like a rose. It reaches about 6″ in height and scoffs at the idea of slugs as do all the mouse ears hostas. Most days I stop on my garden ramble to touch its thick leaves. To me they feel like mouse ears, not that I have ever felt one.
‘Blue Mouse Ears’ emerging in the spring.
‘Blue Mouse Ears’ is a descendant of ‘Blue Cadet’, which is a beautiful small blue hosta with very clean leaves and an elegant habit. Boy was I in trouble though, because ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ was only the beginning. As is the nature of hostas, ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ has given rise to a whole family of little mice. All of them are between 5 and 8″ tall and form a clump about 12″ wide. Technically, some of them get slightly larger than what the “authorities” consider mini. Their unique characteristics are their very round rubbery leaves and their symmetrical habits. However, I may be prejudiced by my love of mice, but I think these little gems have some of the best leaf colors of any hostas on the market.
‘Mouse Trap’ is one of the newer mice to hit the market. Its bright white leaves with a blue-green border are striking.
Naturally I had to have all the mouse ears hostas in my collection, and my quest began. I now have seven mice and have located a source for two more, ‘Royal Mouse Ears’ and ‘Calico Mouse Ears’, which I will be ordering shortly. While researching this post, I found a Rutgers University site with the hysterical name of Hosta Garden Mouse Index. The photos are not very good, but it seems to list all the mouse ears hostas available. Apparently my quest will last a while longer.
Photos of three of my mice appear above, and here are the remaining four:
I think ‘Mighty Mouse’ has the cutest name in the mouse ears series.
This early spring photo of ‘Frosted Mouse Ears’ does not do it justice. It matures to a dark green leaf with a wide white margin.
‘Green Mouse Ears’ is the smallest in the family with very shiny, thick bright green leaves. Don’t you want to touch it?
‘Mouse Tracks’ is my latest acquisition, and I love its tie dye swirls of yellow, green, and blue. It is a child of ‘Mighty Mouse’ and very rare.
I haven’t mentioned one of the wonderful features of the mouse ears hostas, their flowers. Instead of having the long, dangly, out-of-proportion flowers that are produced by some miniatures, the mice have short, fat flowers in proportion to their size as illustrated by the photo below. I grow them for their flowers too, which is something I can’t say about most hostas.
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‘Holy Mouse Ears’ in bloom
Of course my mice deserved a special place in the garden where touring customers could view them up close and admire their cuteness (is that a word?). What better place than the trough that my husband gave me for our anniversary. My mice nest happily there:
‘Green Mouse Ears’ upper left, ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ middle, ‘Mighty Mouse’ middle right, ‘Mouse Trap’ lower left, ‘Frosted Mouse Ears’ lower right. The companion plants are dwarf Solomon’s seal and miniature lady fern.
The whole mouse ears family.
It is easy to add mice to your garden, and they will bring a smile to your face for the whole season.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens specializes in miniature hostas. I have 25 varieties available at my nursery right now. I am thinking of starting a mail order business for miniatures. If you would like to mail order some this year and help me test out my plan, click here (US only).
Carolyn
Nursery Happenings: If you are interested in receiving miniature hostas mail order, click here.
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 