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.
.
Clockwise from upper left: ‘Holy Mouse Ears’, ‘Frosted Mouse Ears’, ‘Blue Mouse Ears’, ‘Green Mouse Ears’, and ‘Mighty Mouse’.
In 2012, I wrote a very popular post called I Love Mice about little hostas in the Mouse Ears Series. In that post I talked about ‘Holy Mouse Ears’, ‘Frosted Mouse Ears’, ‘Green Mouse Ears’, ‘Mighty Mouse’, and the little hosta that started it all, ‘Blue Mouse Ears’. I extolled the virtues of their round, rubbery slug-repelling leaves in beautiful colors, their symmetrical habit, and their lovely proportional flowers. Since then some new mice have arrived on the seen, and I want to introduce them to you.
.
‘Sunny Mouse Ears’ is tiny and adorable in a new color for mouse ears minis.
It was just a matter of time before someone selected a gold-leafed mouse ears hosta, and ‘Sunny Mouse Ears’ is it. It has tiny, perfectly round leaves 1 3/4″ long by 1 3/4″ wide. It forms a mound 3″ tall by 10″ wide. ‘Sunny Mouse Ears’ is the first gold-leafed cultivar in the Mouse Ears series, although there is another described below. It has the same thick substance that repels slugs and the same enchanting, pixie-like pale purple flowers in July as the rest of the mouse ears clan.
.
Hosta ‘Ruffled Mouse Ears’ in the foreground contrasts nicely with the rounded shape of most of the other mouse ears hostas, here ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ in the background.
.
A close up of ‘Ruffled Mouse Ears’
‘Ruffled Mouse Ears’ is another new addition to the group. It has blue-green leaves 2 3/4″ long by 2 1/2″ wide with highly ruffled margins. Although it has the same rounded, thick, rubbery, slug resistant leaves as its parent ‘Blue Mouse Ears’, its rippled and frilled margins provide a great contrast to the other mouse ears hostas. ‘Ruffled Mouse Ears’ forms a mound 6″ high by 14″ wide and has the same desirable flowers.
.
‘Mouse Cheese’ is definitely a clever name for this gold-leafed mouse ears hosta.
‘Mouse Cheese’ is the other new gold-leafed mouse ears hosta available this year. At 2 3/4″long by 2 1/2″ wide, its leaves are larger and not as round, but they are bright gold with the same thick texture as the other mice we have come to love. ‘Mouse Cheese’ forms a slightly larger mound 4″ tall and 12″ wide. It has very cute pale purple flowers in July and retains its gold leaf color all season.
.
The texture of Hosta ‘Church Mouse’ stands out in a mixed planting. Photo courtesy of Walters Gardens.
‘Church Mouse’, the last of the four new mouse ears hostas, has very blue leaves with unique, highly ruffled margins that make a good contrast with other mouse ears hostas. It has the same thick substance that repels slugs and adorable, well-proportioned lavender flowers in early summer. It forms a larger mound 8″ tall by 15″ wide, but has the same neat and symmetrical habit.
If you would like to read more about little hostas, click on any of the following links:
2013 New Miniature and Small Hostas
Hostas Containers and Companions
.
Carolyn
Nursery Happenings: The 2015 Miniature Hosta Availability for mail order and pick up at the nursery is here. You can sign up to receive emails by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
If you are within visiting distance and would like to receive catalogues and information about customer events, please send your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.
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.