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[SHADEGARDENS] Hostas on the cheap! (and req: for flowering vine for shade)

Thanks for the hosta info folks -- as it happens, I was at Home Depot today
and in the back of their plant-in-peat-in-bag display they had a couple
varieties of hosta billed as "super-value-pack".  Being the adventurous
sort, I just couldn't resist them at $10 for a bag of ten.  One bag was
labelled "Medio Variegata" and the other "Honey Bells".  I believe the
first is hosta undulata mediovariegata, not sure about the Honey Bells.
The photo shows them to supposedly be a plain green-leaf variety.  But I'm
also no hosta expert.  These are from the "Netherland Bulb Co., Inc."

I planted most of them this afternoon with some cheap caladium bulbs nearby
(23 cents each in bulk at Lowe's).  :)  If they come up, great -- if not,
then I'll know not to do that again.  That's the fun of bargain hunting,
you don't know what'll happen!  When I want a sure thing, I'll pay the big
bucks.  But it's so BORING!

Tomorrow I'll swing by a local nursery and see what they have.  Last time I
was there I don't remember seeing any potted hostas, just the bagged
variety.  'Course their bagged ones didn't look any different from the ones
I planted today -- they just came one-to-a-bag and cost three times as much.

As for the vine request -- I know there may not be a way to do this, but
I'd love to try training a pair of flowering vines into an arch over the
front door.  My house faces south, but is shaded by a mature oak and some
other trees during summer.  The rest of the year this spot gets filtered
sun through the branches.  The "feet" of the vines would be shaded by
evergreen shrubs (holly of some sort).  I'd prefer the vine to be evergreen
and do NOT want an ivy (overused).  I've heard tell of folks doing this
with clematis armandii -- anyone have first-hand knowledge of this plant?
Any other suggestions I ought to check out?  I'm open to annual vines too.

(just a note to the folks who sent the suggestions for stuff down by the
creek -- THANKS -- I'm digesting the info and will probably come back with
some add'l questions before too long)

Oh -- as for what's blooming, my daffodils have finished their blooms
(though some not far from here are still going).  My azaleas are thinking
about it, and fortunately seem not to have reconsidered after the freeze
last week (former owners put them in -- all I know is one set is red, the
other set is white).  Beyond that, I could tell you that this tree is
blooming white, that one pink, that flower over yonder is blooming, this
one here is thinking about it, but that's about the most detail I could
give ya right now.  :)

-- Lew Jansen
Atlanta, GA -- Zone 7a
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