April Fools

To All of the Hosta Dreamers:

It's a little late but I certainly fit the category of April Fool.

I grow almost all of my hosta seeds under lights, but this year I had a
flat of  open pollinated  H. 'Chop Sticks' and H. 'Cinnamon Sticks' left
over.These plants bloom late here and I don't always have developed seed to
play with. I placed them on top of a radiator and in a south wwindow. I had
a number of plants in this area including some coleus which I had rescued
from the frost. They were too good to let go. My desultory daylily crosses
are grown in the same window, along with Japanese ferns, some other fern
spore from Mildred Seaver, and other odds and ends. I water them and pass
by, generally indifferent to what is growing.Taking note in mid-April will
be just fine. They feel it but what can I say. One passion in the plant
world in enough.

This morning I picked up the daylilies (all white...in theory) to
transplant and place in the greenhouse to freeze.I didn't have my glasses
on but don't really need them for daylilies or to get across the room. Next
to the daylilies was the flat of hosta seedlings. In a moment of absolute
joy I saw three wonderful seedlings with red and violet centers and green
edges in the H. 'Chop Sticks' section of the flat. I immediately pictured
fame, fortune, the Nobel prize and a center page fold out in THJ.  This
lasted for perhaps 3 seconds. I got a lot in during those 3 seconds. It was
the bright (day-glo) violet in the leaf which brought me back to earth, I
have only seen that color in one plant leaf...the extravagant colorful
prostitute of the garden...the  coleus. Sure enough, next door to the hosta
flat were my coleus plants. I had clipped them back pretty regularly, but I
knew that some of them had gone to seed. I did not give that any thought. I
have never grown coleus from seed...NOR WILL I AGAIN.

CHOWRIE: n.: a fly-swatter fashioned from a yak's tail.
Glen Williams
20 Dewey St.
Springfield , Vermont
05156
Tel: 802-885-2839 


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