HOSTAS

Here is the story of the hostas. They've traveled long and far to make it to the farm. These hostas started out at my grandmother's house on Dalewood, which then became my mom's and after her death, my sister's. I had taken a few clumps of these hostas when I moved into my first house on 17th St. They flourished in the front yard planter for nearly 20 years. I took several clumps when I moved into the A Ave. house. Again, they spread and bloomed for the nearly 2 years I was there, happily living under a huge maple tree in the front yard. In 2008 when Cedar Rapids was flooded I thought they were lost under the 10 feet plus of water the front yard saw that June. During the last day of clean up I was lamenting the loss of all of the potted annuals and the perinneal beds I had put in that spring and was particularly upset about the hostas. The Dalewood and 17th St properties had both passed into the hands of strangers and I thought Grandma's hostas were gone. Diane looked around and found a few stray pots and then dug up what she thought might be survivors. She took them home and popped them into her yard to see what would happen. These are some pretty hardy hostas. They grew in Diane's yard and last summer she dug them up and brought them to me. I had them in the pots under a shade tree but never got them planted. They wintered in the garage and I thought they would be dead by this spring. Let me tell you, these have to be miracle hostas because they survived the winter in those pots. I was looking for pots to put my herbs in today and found them and they are alive. So into the ground under the big shade tree in the front yard they went today, surrounded by x-pens. Here's to the Dalewood-17th-A-Post Flood Hostas-may you grow deep roots, big green leaves and lovely purple flowers.