Hosta ID, Please

 
I recently found a Facebook group that does nothing but help people identify the variety of Hosta they have. They have very exacting standards for the kinds of pictures they need, but there are several experts that really know thier stuff. I have learned for sure what several of mine are.

This is the yellow-green one I love so much that has all come from two leaves and a tiny root that I stole from a planter long ago. It has been IDed as 'Golden Scepter,' although a small one. Not immature, just small for some reason.

It is in bloom right now.

This one isn't very interesting. I'd be fairly happy to replace it, but haven't done anything about that yet. Then again, there is always a place for dark green just for contrast. This has those tiny white edges on rather pointed leaves. It was IDed as 'Allan P. McConnell.' It seems to be quite normal in size. Originally a gift from Ester. It has buds now, but is not blooming yet this year.

This is 'Golden Tiara,' but it makes me smile. This clump is probably 20 years old, in this same spot, and it stumped the experts until I got them good pix of the flowers because it is unusually small. Only 'Mouse Ears' and 'Tiny Tears' of mine are smaller. Its "normal" smallest dimension is 16" tall. Mine is more like 6". I'm very happy with it being small. This one also came from Ester.

Here are the flower stalks, called scapes.

And a pretty good view into the flower.

The one I just got from Ester last month has been IDed as 'Gold Standard.' This one is also supposed to get much bigger, but I hope it doesn't. I don't have huge beds to accommodate the big hostas. It has not bloomed yet, but it seems very happy considering it was just moved here a month ago.

Another freebie from Ester. I think I have three of these. They sort of hitchhiked on the rootballs of other plants. This is 'Halcyon,' a reliable solid blue hosta.

I think I only have two hostas yet to identify. This is great! You know I love having them identified correctly. I've found a ton of hosta groups on Facebook.

Every known Hosta has pictures and a link to the registration page at hostalibrary.org. The Facebook group is simply Hosta ID.

In other news: Air quality terrible as anyone local knows- AQI was at 500. Now it's down to 195, but the temperature went up! We had a surprise rain shower of 0.2 inches this afternoon which catalyzed the shift and bumped the humidity again. Whew.

I got myself in gear and took all the metal recycling to Padnos, the returnable cans and plastic bags to Meijer and bought ice cream! Edited and started writing my columns. The yard and gardens need work, but I really can't do much of that until the humidity backs off a little. No walking- that's not a good thing.

See One Handful of Hosta

Let the Day Lilies Begin!

There is still one of my day lily varieties yet to bloom, but I'm going ahead with sharing these because I'm not sure they are all going to be in bloom at the same time this year. The deer nibbled some buds, but then I sprinkled repellant around and so far they have stayed away since then.

First up is the lemon lily, perhaps my favorite! The yellow is so pure.

This is the 'Monterey Jack' I bought last year for $3!

Next up is the very old (registered in 1941) 'Black Falcon.' It's supposed to be one of the darkest day lilies ever developed.

And the similarly dark 'American Revolution,' registered inn 1972. They look quite different in these two pictures, but in the same light they are very much alike.

Today the air was very bad. It was even bothering me (official range "very unhealthy"). The only thing I did outside was to hang up and take down laundry. Mostly I did computer work, editing, volunteer stuff.

This does not bode well for the walking goals. If it wasn't making my eyes smart, I'd take a walk yet tonight, but I've conceded that this is bad- any exertion at all is problematic. The AQI here is 312, but I understand it is over 600 in some places in Minnesota. That is a lethal level for some people. It's literally off the scale. They say one more bad day here, and then maybe some relief.

See Lily Lane

An Orangely Success

As everyone in the northeast knows, the air quality is terrible due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. It is unpleasant, but it affects my ability to function much less than the heat and humidity.

Next topic. Some of you know I signed up for the Onekama 30-day Challenge. This is just to help motivate me to get into shape for the longish hike I hope to do this fall. At 78, I can't just "wing it" the way I used to be able to do without conditioning.

So I set my goal for the challenge to hike 100 miles in those 30 days. That's 25 miles a week. Today is the end of the first week, and I needed 6+ miles. I could NOT make myself to get up and hike early- besides, it was already hot in the morning. Then it got hotter. Then the air quality went bonkers due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. But the smoke blotted out the sun enough that the temperature declined to 82°. Still not great, but better than it was all day.

So... I headed out at 6 pm to get my 6 miles.

What the heck? Someone's been using spray paint in the woods?

Then I saw spots like this all over. Then I realized there were also stripes on the trees. It's the sunlight from the very orange sun through the haze!

Just for fun, I saw little orange mushrooms.

And other little orange mushrooms.

And the evening sun trying to shine through the haze.

A great horned owl flew across the trail in front of me, but no picture.

How'd I do? Got my first 25 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 213.1
Miles walked for the Onekama Challenge: 25
Miles walked for Hike 100 Challenge: 76

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, from Timber Creek to 8th St and back and a little more.

In other news: I stayed inside and edited a lot.

See The Small of Orange

My First GeoArt

This is going to be the topic of one of my columns this month- not sure which paper yet, but I'll give you a sneak peek.

Did you know there are some geocaches that are "multi-caches." They can be arranged to draw out a picture. Maybe. More on that in a minute.

So, who do I know that knows how to geocache, and is willing to drive terrible back roads, and would think it's all great fun? Sue! That's who!

Notice that she is holding a little tube that was hung in a tree. A geocache container can be pretty much anything that is waterproof. Quite a few of these were this size, but a few were bigger. There is a little log paper inside where you sign your Geochache Name and the date.

You also record on the official Geocache app map if you found it or not. We eventually did find all of the sites, although we had to go back to 4 of them a second time. I'll talk more about this in the article, but what I didn't know is that the actual locations of the geocaches do not make a picture. It's just that there is a cache associated with each dot. Yellow means we found it, and you can see they are all yellow.

The ones we could not find had the hint "PMD." Even though Sue is experienced with over 4000 cache finds, she did not know until we were able to look it up that meant "Pull Me Down." The cache is high in a young tree that had to be pulled over. See the painted bottle up there?

The last one of the day was way up high. I'm holding the tree down. Sue signed the log and we let it snap back up.

The name of this GeoArt is "Cider Apples" and it's in northeast Mason County. Each of the 33 locations is named for a different kind of apple. We started at 8 am and finished around 3 pm. It was 92° when we got done, but we were determined to find the four that we missed the first time.

Most interesting coincidence? 15 years ago Ellen and I went exploring and found Black Lake, a tiny puddle. We ate a picnic lunch in the freezing cold. Today, Sue and I came in from the other side- I didn't realize it was Black Lake until we were almost there. Today was totally the opposite of freezing. (Link below)

Nothing else happened today, but I am all set to write my columns for this month.

P.S. Doing 33 geocaches in one day is a lot.

See Brrr- Lunch at Black Lake

Moon Garden Plants

I'm not quite done with the Moon Nook, but I managed to get the other Brunnera in the ground, so I'll share pictures.

This is the one that was totally root bound. I actually dug it up again, broke up the roots even more and replanted it. Now it's not wilting at the end of every day like it was. This one is called 'Alexander's Great.' The root bound condition is probably why I got it marked down, but that's OK, it should be fine in a while.

The surface of the Moon Nook still needs one more block, but enough is done that I could get the placement of the Brunnera at the other end. This one is 'Alexandria.' As I think you can see, the leaves are more solid white. I've really fallen in love with Brunnera, and the deer hate them because the leaves are as rough as sandpaper.

I picked up some end-of-season Artemesia 'Silver Mound' for $3 each. They look all scraggly now, but should be fine next year. At that price, I couldn't pass them up. They are in the foreground of this shot. You've seen the other plants here previously. This is such a tiny beginning, but it counts! I'm still watering these every day, but they didn't seem as wilty this afternoon, which is amazing because it's SO hot outside. I think they are getting established.

I do need to move that grass yet this year, but there is plenty of time yet.

Now, for the super exciting one (to me, anyway). I paid full price for this. I hunted up the palest blue hosta I could find that was actually available to buy anywhere. (Yes I know 'White Feather' is almost pure white, but it can also be tricky to keep happy, and it's not white all season.) Anyway, I LOVE this. It's called 'Steal the Spotlight.' The undersides of the leaves are extremely pale. I'm leaving it in the pot for a while to develop some better roots, and I don't have the space where it will go dug up yet.

The deer are partial to hosta. So, except when I'm showing it off, it's currently in prison.

I ordered another plant today too. About 60% off and shipping wasn't outrageous. This is a good time of year to get cheaper plants if you aren't too impatient for a "finished" garden.

In other news: I did my little summer job in the morning. Thankfully the laundromat is air conditioned. The afternoon was pretty much a bust. It's 85° here with 70% humidity. I managed to keep breathing and read a bit. That's about it. Went to the library and the senior center briefly. Qualifying seniors can get $25 of free produce, so I signed up.

See Moon Garden Beginnings