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[SHADEGARDENS] Forrest Johnson - Intro

Hi Sherryl:

Thank you for the "Welcome". That was fast! I had barley gotten on
when you message appeared.

In preparation for an activity for retirement, we started with a few
Hemerocallis and Hostas in 1987. Some of our first purchases were
made at Klehm's Nursery, in person, but they now only have mail order
I'm told. We also have quite a few different Daylilies. We have all
the Stout Award winners from 1950 to 1994, when we quit buying them.
Our gardens have become more and more shaded so we ran out of room
(and money to buy both) so we concentrate on Hostas and shade plants
now.

We now have over 200 different varieties of Hostas. William Lachman
and Sweet Standard are both on my "want list" for 1997. I had the
chance to buy Sweet Standard a few years ago, let it slip, and
someone else grabbed it. I've regretted that to this day! We met Mark
Zilis and his sister Mary Beth last year and I saw Mary Beth again
just Friday at the Mid-Am Horticultural Trade Show in Chicago.

I gave all of my seeds from Fascination, Dorothy Benedict, and Spilt
Milk to a new friend, Dave Husband. He tells me that he has lots of
streaked seedlings, my newest "grand kids" and they are doing fine. I
didn't plant the seeds because I need the room for adult Hostas that
are being forced for the Symphony In Bloom to be held in Rock Island,
IL in Mid-March. I will need the lighted space to house these Hostas
after the show is over. My Dalmatian Kennel is heated to 60 degrees
and well lighted so they should do okay until I can set them outside
in this Iowa climate.

I'm approaching 70 and my goal is to start a retail sales of Hostas
in another 1 & 1/2 years. I will be starting young Hostas this year
in preparation for that goal. Never a dull moment at this house.

Of all the Hostas I have, Regal Splendor, M. Aureo Marginata, V.
Aureo Marginata, Sagae, Shade Fanfare, and Patriot are among my
favorites. I like them all but those seems to do so well here and
stay nice the whole year. I have to mention Wide Brim here too.
Christmas Tree is a beauty here as well as a lot of others. Northern
Halo is a good doer and it has finally reach adulthood so it is
pretty spectacular too.

We have added lots of the variegated Yucca last year as well as
Astlibe, Huechera, and quite a few water plants since we now have a
large pond with some really big (18" Koi) swimming around. This is
the first Winter for them and so far they are doing fine. They have a
stock heater and a bubbler to keep them comfortable.

Within the next couple of years we hope to build a nice wooden shade
structure to display some of our better Hostas. Although we have an
acre lot, it will soon be filled to overflowing.

I recently saw a program featuring Tasha Tudor. She's a cute little
old thing and some of the things that come out of her mouth simply
tickled my pink! She said, "If you want to be happy for six month,
get married. If you want to be happy the rest of your life, garden."
She was happy to ditch her husband and said so. We've been married
almost 46 years and I think I'll keep her a while longer!

Of our Daylilies, Echoing Chimes, hybridized by Dr. Branch is
probably my favorite. Almost all of his stuff are Tets and very fast
growers with lots of substance and blooms. We paid $50.00 for it
several years ago and have lots of it now. It was $100.00 in the
catalogs at the time but we went to his house and since he's quite
elderly, he doesn't dig. We got everything for 1/2 price because we
did the digging.

Enough about me.
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