6 - Happy Hostas

 Some years ago now, I gave up on hostas. But life changes, in this case for the best.

My happy hosta

Hostas project that lush jungle like vibe that I love. Having grown up in a rural area, surrounded by apple orchards, wheat, sugarbeets and lots of grassland dotted with Friesians (how typically Dutch would you like?), my world was flat, green, and small-leaved. My Mum took me to a hortus botanicus when I was 8, and I fell in love with tropical plants on the spot. Jungle Book became my favourite film, and I dreamed of living in a jungle. Mind you, visiting Aruba when I was 11 quickly made me realise: tropical plants, great, all those venomous insects that thrive there, and snakes, erm...not my thing. "Oh, don't you worry, they won't hurt you if you leave them alone", I was told. Yeah, right. After a very up close and personal encounter with a small scorpion that stung me on the stomach when it had hidden itself in my t-shirt for a nice snooze ("aren't you lucky it was a small one"), I decided jungle life was not for me!

Slugs! Loathe them! 

But the love for large green leaves remained. I wanted a gunnera, was told I was barmy, as it would dominate the entire garden. So planted a pergola kiwi instead. Very lush, very green, and it grew huge. And hostas, must have hostas, as they come as close to a 'tropical vibe' as you can get in this climate. But the many slugs and snails in my old garden came to dinner daily, and nothing worked. I tried coffee grains, sharp sand, sharp grit, beer traps, picking them off twice a day, and was still left with just the veins. 

Balcony garden  

On my balcony though, the picking off method works, hurray! As long as I do it daily. So here I have had two gorgeous hostas for 4 years. They take centre stage, and are admired by everyone that visits. They are blooming at the moment, a month later than usual due to the extremely cold April and May this year. And believe me they are pampered.