Time to visit a Garden Fair!

The Dutch Hosta Society will be joining in the fun this weekend at Krijn Spaan Nursery!  A great place to pick up your Summer border planting, get a few ideas while walking through their show gardens, ask us all those slug questions! So if you're in the area, do stop by! I made my wish list of Hostas that I would like to pick up! See you there!

The Dutch Hosta Society's

 Hosta master Class and meeting was a great success! The presentation by Hugo Philips about the American Hosta Society Conventions that he has visited during the last 10 years was a great hour full of photo's, stories and humour that kept us all interested!

A few new Hosta names were written down by many of the Dutch Hosta Society members! Hostas such as H. 'Spring Fling', H. 'Sun Power', H. 'Choo Choo Train', H. 'Longipies F. Hypoglauca', H. 'Pulchella', H. 'Emerald Rough Cut', H. 'First Blush', H. 'Bamse' and H. 'Fluffy' which became H. 'Fancy Dancer', a sport from H. 'Stitch in Time'!

Hosta leaves and blooms make great flower arrangements!

 Then, to learn how to grow such beautiful Hostas, Piet de Rooij inspired us by his presentation about growing Hostas from seed. For him, this hobby progressed from seedlings on the kitchen windowsill to a super organised growing system in the shed!

But not each seeding makes the cut!

Every one can grow Hostas from seed! 

Thanks for all the tips and great striped Hosta photo's!  

Photo from Hugo's trip in the U.S.A.!

No one had this problem today!

Maybe the next time we get together!

After lunch, the Annual General Meeting took place. After an hour we were finished! There was enough time for refreshments and a social Hosta chat before Hosta friends headed back home to places in Belgium, Germany and cities through out The Netherlands!  

The Dutch Hosta Society's next activity is the

Summer Garden Tour! 2 gardens and a nursery!

Saturday, June 13th! See you there!

Hosta Time!

 Hello! Here we are,  almost March! Time to get things ready for the Hosta growing season! How are you dealing with slugs? What fertilizer are you using? How are Hostas looking by others? What are the latest developments in the Hosta growers world?

 Then it's time to attend the Hosta Master Class and Meeting hosted by the Dutch Hosta Society at the Wageningen University, Saturday,March 7th! There will be two great speakers, Hugo Philips will share his adventures as a participant during the last 10 years at the American Hosta Society! And their newest developments! Then Piet de Rooij will give tips and tricks about growing Hostas from seed! There's sure to be great photo's of Hostas to encourage us all!

Hostas! Did you send in your favourite Hosta top 5 list? You have until March 1st! See you at the Hosta master Class and meeting, Saturday march 7th, Wageningen University! More info click here

There was so much to see!

 The Dutch Hosta Society hosted their annual September Garden Tour yesterday! We started the day at a new destination for many of us, the northern part of the province of Friesland! Buitenpost! At De Kruidhof !That meant that the alarm clock was set for "very early in the morning"! There were 50 members that made the drive through the mist, were welcomed with coffee and a traditional piece of cake, and then set off to discover the 17 themed gardens! The morning past too quickly! You can click on the pictures to see them enlarged!

 At 12.00 we all headed to the next stop, Kabbes Nursery in Suameer! Brian welcomed us there and gave a short explanation about the idea behind his business. The soup was ready! We enjoyed lunch outside! The weather was most enjoyable for the beginning of September! Time to do a bit of shopping! It's always amazing how plant loving people can always find room for just one more plant!

The next address, found just 50 km south of Suameer, in the small village of Vinkega, was our last garden visit. One of the members of The Dutch Hosta Society welcomed us to her woodland garden! You could wander around, enjoy the colours of September and discover about 160 different Hosta's through out this 1.3 hectare garden! There were tables and chairs, drinks and snacks! The new and "old" members mixed and mingled and had one more chance to buy a Hosta! A lovely way to round off the day!
But this is not the end of 2014! It's the beginning of 2015! Seeds collected, garden plans made! What are you're Hosta plans? There's still one more Hosta activity on the 21st of September! Green Sunday in Losser! See you there!

Krijn Spaan Nursery again!

 Hello! It's already the middle of August! Time to attend another great gardening weekend event at Krijn Spaan Nursery!

 The Dutch Hosta Society was able to share a lot of information about 'new' Hostas ! We had 34 different Hostas on display! Take a look at Hosta 'Wheee' ! Now that's an eye catcher with its green twisted leaves and a curly cream-yellow border! And there was a lot of talk about slugs! That's also part of the experience!

 The Netherlands Butterfly Society was also there! 

Why don't slugs eat Hostas one leaf at a time! LOL!

Our next Dutch Hosta Society event is on the 6th of September!

We're off to Friesland ! See you there!

25 years!

 Hello! The Dutch Hosta Society celebrated its 25th Anniversary yesterday! 95 members and guests joined in the fun! The weather was sunny and warm!

 We started with cake and coffee at Hosta World

 Jan van de Top gave a great informative presentation!

There are a lot of new Hostas to look out for in the future!

 We had great fun looking around, visiting,

  Shopping!

 Finding a few new ones for the garden!

 And getting friendly advice from Jan van de Top!

 Next stop was the perennial plant nursery The Hessenhof !

 Hans gave us a tour!

 We learned all about the compost!

 The planting station!

 How things are shaping up in the at The Hessenhof!

 There's so  much happening in the plant world!

The auction to raise funds for the society was a great success! 

We finished the day with a buffet! What was it a great 25th celebration! Spirits were high! A lot of familiar faces, new ones too, laughter, friends getting together, Hostas, plants and sunshine!  I think we all went home with at least one plant and memories of what The Dutch Hosta Society is all about! See you at the next event!

At the Fair!

 Hello! What a great day it was for the Dutch Hosta Society to be active promoting Hostas and The Dutch Hosta Society at two Fairs! A sunny, dry, friendly day was enjoyed by the two teams! In Hilversum, in the middle of The Netherlands, we shared stories about slugs, favorite Hostas and visited with the other shade loving plant Societies and Nurseries!

 And in the southern part of The Netherlands, in Oostvoorne,  members were also having fun at the Fair!

Both Fairs were attended by lots of friendly gardening enthusiasts! Hostas are always an eye catcher and a great plant that brings people together! Soon it was time for the Dutch Hosta Society volunteers to pack up and head home with the remaining Hostas but well with more acquired plants for their own gardens! That's how it goes at the Fair, doesn't it? LOL! The next activity that we'll be participating in is at Krijn Spaan Nursery in August! Hope to see you there!