RE: getting ready for winter

Gentlepersons,
You are right, yet you may be a bit wrong, too!

Yes, I agree, Mother Nature does it best. I spend many days in the Blue
Ridge mountains during all seasons and I marvel at the way everything works.
The woods soil is something to die for and it is the accumulation of eons of
falling leaves and needles, not to speak of branches and even trees. To see
rows of native orchids growing on a rotting tree trunk in Slickrock
Wilderness is a wonder.

In Japan hostas grow the same way. Their native habitat provides all they
need, just as our native plants feed on nature's own detritus;

BUT

Hostas are strangers in our world. What I am getting at is that our native
conditions may present challenges hostas do not face in their native
habitat. I have never seen heat-dormant hostas in Japan as one would see
here in the baking, hot South. My point is that hostas are not endemic to
North America and there is a possibility that here they may encounter
adverse conditions and/or virulent pests unknown in Japan. Another point is
that gardens are not a native habitat. There is no balance of nature in
gardens. Grow hostas under a Magnolia grandiflora and leave all the leaf
detritus in place during late fall and winter and you will find out very
quickly that the hostas will quickly disappear.

It may be better for inexperienced gardeners to clean up before winter. The
old hats at gardening know where to look for warning signs under all that
trash. A newcomer may not know and find out too late that Southern blight
has attacked and decimated his precious hostas while they were covered up.
Let's see now: I have never seen reports of Southern blight attacking native
hostas in Japan. QED!

My nickel's worth with apologies to those who have been able to make their
garden a "natural" habitat. George 

W. George Schmid
Hosta Hill
USDA Zone 7a - 1188 feet (561m) AMSL
84-12'-30" W 33-51' N

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hosta-open@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of butch ragland
Sent: Monday, 24 October, 2005 1:38
To: hosta-open@hort.net
Subject: Re: getting ready for winter

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