Tri-State Tribune. Tri-State Hosta Society. President s Message. The Newsletter of the Tri-State Hosta Society of NY, NJ, & CT

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1 Tri-State Hosta Society Tri-State Tribune The Newsletter of the Tri-State Hosta Society of NY, NJ, & CT Volume 2017, Issue 3 Inside this issue: TSHS 2017 Garden Tours 4-5 Hostaphile vs Hostaholic 6-7 October Meeting - Speaker Dave Wanninger 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 7 October, 2018 marks the 25 th anniversary of the founding of the Tri-State Hosta Society, so in honor of this occasion we will be having a special celebration at our Fall meeting on October 27, Details are still being worked out, but it will be a catered affair (no black tie required), so make sure to note the date on your social calendars for next year! Our resident catering member, David Obssuth, has graciously agreed to provide the food, but we are seeking volunteers to serve on our 25th Anniversary Committee. Please contact Roberta if you would be willing to lend a hand (or two!) in organizing this event. What a great gardening summer we had with an unusual amount of rain and cooler temperatures.good for hostas and people alike! We started the season off with a bang in late May by traveling to Pennsylvania. Despite the distance involved for most of our membership, about 40 members drove to Russell s Wholesale Nursery in Churchville, PA to fill their carts with hostas, herbs and perennials at bargain prices. Then most of us joined other members in Point Pleasant, PA to revel in the spectacular beauty of the Gardens at Mill Fleurs, the home of Barbara and Robert Tiffany. A short week later about 25 members traveled to northeastern Connecticut to enjoy the lakeside serenity of the gardens of Lynn and Paul Peszynski; a garden meticulously groomed to showcase hundreds of enormous hosta specimens. Obviously hostas respond well to the extra nutrients found in lake water! We were reminded that hostas and water go well together on July 4 th President s Message weekend, as we toured the garden of new member Tom Smith, owner of Garden State Koi. We were surprised and delighted to put aside our toted peanut butter sandwiches when Tom treated our attendees to a delicious salad, grilled steak and vegetables. To round out this special day, several of our members donned their bathing suits and joined our host to swim with the koi! To wrap up our summer excursions, about 40 members joined us at the home of Suzy and Lou Ludwig, where we were amazed to see how many hostas and other plants can be tucked into a relatively small amount of space, proving that beauty in a garden has nothing to do with the size of your property. I hope that many of you were able to attend at least one of our summer tours. If not, photos of our adventures can be found elsewhere in this newsletter, as well as on our website, tristatehosta.org, and on our Facebook page. A special thank you to our summer garden hosts, our photographers, and to Fall 2017 Amy Cichocki for posting all of these terrific pictures. Our participation at the Sussex County Fair in Augusta, New Jersey went smoothly this year with the help of members Laura Hooper and Gene Tappan. And though our leaf display received many favorable comments from attendees, and many membership applications were taken, to date we have only gained one new member as a result of our exhibit in this event. Unfortunately, other garden clubs and volunteer organizations in general, seem to be witnessing a decline in their membership. It appears that the computer has stolen the need for personal social interaction and gardeners are simply not joiners anymore. Our guest speaker in October, Dave Wanninger, is coming all the way from Milwaukee to regale us with his words of garden wisdom. Some of us had the opportunity to hear Dave speak at the American Hosta Society Convention in Milwaukee in Dave (Continued on p. 3)

2 PAGE 2 TRI-STATE TRIBUNE VOLUME 2017, ISSUE 3 Tri-State Officers President Roberta Chopko daveroc2@aol.com Past President Dave Chopko daveroc2@aol.com Vice President Claire Connor leonardc@wpunj.edu Treasurer Ernie Jeffery Piermont Avenue Hillsdale, NJ erniethehostafarian@yahoo.com Membership Gene Tappan Ridge Road West Milford, NJ genetappan@hotmail.com State Directors New York Renee Bruce binkybruce@gmail.com New Jersey Suzy Ludwig suzyludwig@verizon.net Joan Naugle naugs@msn.com Connecticut Sue & Lee Vincent hostasusan@gmail.com Treasurer's Report for the First Half of 2017 Submitted by Ernie Jeffery, Treasurer of Tri-State Hosta Society Balance Forward: 01/01/17 $14, INCOME Membership Dues $ Raffle Auctions 1, Plant Sales Book Sales TOTAL INCOME $6, EXPENSES Printing & Postage $ Picnic Internet/Website Raffle Insurance 1, Plants/plant sale expenses 2, Membership chair expenses Hospitality Prizes/AHS Memberships Miscellaneous TOTAL EXPENSES $4, Balance Ending: 06/30/17 $15, Auction Director Dave Chopko daveroc2@aol.com Recording Secretary Madhuri Mukherjee mukherjeem@wpunj.edu Sunshine Secretary Emilie Cullerton oxfordwalt@aol.com Newsletter Editors Roberta Chopko daveroc2@aol.com Amy Cichocki amycichocki@msn.com Tri-State Webmaster & Facebook Amy Cichocki amycichocki@msn.com Join The American Hosta Society $30 INDIVIDUAL DUES FOR 1 YEAR $34 FAMILY DUES FOR 1 YEAR For complete details, go to the AHS website: Photography Credits Many thanks to our contributors for the donated photographs in this issue: Joanne Foster, Roberta & Dave Chopko, Sandra Wimet, Suzy Ludwig & Amy Cichocki

3 VOLUME 2017, ISSUE 3 TRI-STATE TRIBUNE PAGE 3 President s Message (Continued from p. 1) (Chopko) and I found his presentation to be both knowledgeable and extremely entertaining, often having the audience in hosta hysterics hearing his unique perspective on gardens, gardeners and plants. Please be sure to join us on October 28 at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, NJ. Finally, as we begin to line up our member garden tours for next year, please consider contacting your state director (names noted in our masthead) to offer to host one of these tours. No garden is too small, and as the enclosed photos prove, we always have a good time! Also, consider celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the American Hosta Society at the next AHS Convention in Philadelphia. PHIFTY IN PHILLY, June 20-23, 2018 is probably as close to us as an AHS Convention will ever be, and our friends at the Delaware Valley Hosta Society have big plans for this event, so I am sure you will not be disappointed! Hope to see you soon! Roberta Chopko, President GARDEN BOOK SALE Several of our members generously donated their excess garden books and magazines for a mini book sale at our January, 2017 meeting. Lillie Dorchak and Shirley Rovinski manned the sale table and thought that this effort met with enough success to be worth doing it again. They will repeat this event again at our meeting on January 27, 2018 and will begin by collecting books at our October meeting. Thanks to all those who contributed books and magazines for this sale in the past. The funds collected from the sale of these materials were added to our Treasury and many of the excess books were donated to the book sale cart at the Arboretum. AHS PRESIDENT S WALL OF HONOR The Tri-State member who has been selected to receive this recognition by the American Hosta Society this year will be announced at the meeting on October 28. Please try to attend and congratulate our honoree. American Hosta Society - 50th Anniversary Convention Phifty in Philly June 20-23, 2018

4 PAGE 4 T R I - S T A T E T R I B U NE V O LU M E , I S S U E 3 Tiffany Garden, Point Pleasant, PA Peszynski Garden, East Hampton, CT

5 V O LU M E , I S S U E 3 T R I - S T A T E T R I B U NE Smith Garden, Wantage, NJ Ludwig Garden, Allendale, NJ PAGE 5

6 PAGE 6 TRI-STATE TRIBUNE VOLUME 2017, ISSUE 3 Hostaphile vs. Hostaholic? Recently I read an article in the American Hosta Society Journal addressing this very issue, and I had to ask myself, which one am I? I ve been running the question through my head for the last few weeks, and haven t come up with any definitive answers. So when in doubt, make a pro and con list. In my mind, a hostaphile has numerous hostas, all neatly displayed and professionally labeled in their weed-free gardens. He or she knows them all by name, their parentage, their sports, how big they get, the size of their leaves, the vein count, what colours they display at any given time of year, including flower colour, the name of the originator, etc., etc., etc. They can take you through their gardens and expound the virtues of each and every plant. They have hundreds of hostas, know them all by name without looking at the tags, and are forever on the lookout for new and exciting hostas. Part of the thrill is in the knowledge. If you need a hosta identified because so -and-so s grandmother gave you this hosta, this is the type of hosta expert you need to find. They can help you out. The downside is that when you were really only after the name of the hosta, you will get a twenty minute dissertation on where to plant it for optimum performance, what to expect at any given time of year, make sure you do this and make sure you do that. A hostaphile cannot fathom that your interest in these plants is not the same as his or hers. A hostaholic can have all their hostas neatly displayed and labeled in their gardens, but can make do with venetian blinds for tags, quickly scribbled names using permanent marker, which is only permanent for a couple of years. He or she knows them all by name, and how big they get, but doesn t necessarily know their parentage, their flower colour or any pertinent factors that identify that hosta. They can also take you through their gardens and expound the virtues of each and every plant, but if you are lucky enough to get the tour, chances are that the hostaholic will be pulling weeds as you go. While they definitely love h o s t a s, t h e i r m i n d s a r e n o t % focused on showing their gardens. And even though they know each by name, if you were to take a picture or a leaf of a hosta to that person for identification, chances are good that they don t know. In their minds, they have a memory of where they are placed in the garden, rather than the plant itself. They have hundreds of hostas as well, probably more than a hostaphile, and not only are they forever on the lookout for new and exciting hostas, but they can move mountains in their efforts to acquire same. The thrill is in the acquisition, especially if the hosta is really new to the industry, or not yet available in Canada. Nothing is more satisfying in knowing that no one in the country has this hosta. In purchasing a hosta, a hostaphile will consider a particular hosta, check out its parentage, its size, its merits, and after careful deliberation, decide where it will go into their carefully prepared hosta beds should they be fortunate enough to acquire it. They can be quite meticulous in their choices. If a hosta has a certain parentage that the hostaphile knows does not do well in their area, they won t buy it. Move on to the next one! A hostaholic will buy hostas willy nilly, doesn t care about maturity size because they plant their treasures far too close together, working on the premise that there is always room for another hosta. If they know that a certain family of hostas hasn t done well for them in the past, or doesn t do well in their area, they buy it anyway, thinking for some reason that this time will be different. It rarely is! How many times have they bought White Feather or Tattoo, thinking they will be the ones to have perfect specimens in their gardens, and be the envy of the hosta world at large? Too many to count! So again, I have to ask myself, Which one am I? The answer is, both! At one time, toward the end of the summer season, I would take a day for myself travelling to every nursery and garden centre within a hundred-mile radius. If I saw a named hosta that I didn t have, I bought it. If I loved the look of it, I bought it. If it was on sale, I bought

7 VOLUME 2017, ISSUE 3 TRI-STATE TRIBUNE PAGE 7 Hostaphile vs. Hostaholic? (Continued from p. 6) it. I would tell myself that it was okay to spend like this, because after all, we are seasonal collectors and have a very small window of opportunity to purchase. Several years ago, I actually came home with the same hosta in triplicate. I bought it one place because I liked the look of it, and at the next garden centre, I didn t even consider what I had already packed into the truck before buying it again. And again! Definitely shades of hostaholic here! At the end of the day, I would unload my new treasures into a shady spot, thinking of all the planting I had ahead of me, and move on to something else for the time being. They were safe and snug where I had dumped them, and I would get to them sometime. I am ashamed to admit that I currently have about 100 hostas... no, honestly, more than that are currently awaiting a new home in my gardens. I tell myself that I am looking for the perfect spot, and that is partially true, but the fact of the matter is that my gardens are near overflowing and I don t know where to put them. New gardens are obviously needed! That is a hostaholic for you. Age and wisdom has pushed me from being a total hostaholic who has to have them all, to being a partial hostaphile. I spent last winter researching the parentage of each and every hosta I own, and incorporated the information into my carefully detailed charts. What I was surprised to discover was that over the years, I have gravitated toward a certain family or two of hostas. It is amazing how many of the Halcyon sports I own, totally by chance, and they do very well for me. I have made a concentrated effort on getting as many of the Striptease sports that I can acquire, but who knew I was doing it unconsciously with other hosta families. And by the same token, I own only one hosta in the montana family. Has not done well for me in the past, and the others that I have purchased have gone to hosta heaven. Who knew? So, hostaholic or hostaphile? Which one am I? Neither. I am of the new breed of hosta collectors. We are not defined by a title, but by a condition (no, IT IS NOT A DISEASE). There is no cure and we don t care. The Latin term is wackohostitis and I wear the badge proudly. Jayne Christiani Hosta Vista, Baby! PS. Other Latin terms to consider that I have jotted down over the years. I never got around to making the garden signs I wanted to do: Insectum Devourum Et tu Insectus? Plantaholica Incurablis Plantum Whydibuyum Costa Fortunii Gardenitis Uncontrollus Reprinted from the Fall, 2017 edition of the Ontario Hosta Society newsletter Fall Meeting Saturday, October 28, 2017 at 12:30 p.m. Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown, NJ We are pleased to welcome, Dave Wanninger, as our guest at our fall meeting. Recognized in the field of horticulture as an entertaining and energetic speaker, Dave is currently the Horticulturist in Charge at the Boerner Botanical Garden in Hales Corners (Milwaukee), Wisconsin. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in Horticulture, Dave initially planned on a career in golf course management, but was seduced by the variety and beauty of ornamental plants. Early in his career he managed the nursery at a large independent garden center and loved the dual challenges of both growing plants and helping customers solve their gardening problems. A fifteen-year stint teaching several different classes in the Horticulture Department of Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, Wisconsin enabled him to hone his enthusiastic speaking style, discovering that if he could teach a three-hour-long night class in soils and fertilizers without putting his students to sleep, he could talk to gardeners about the plants they love. After his teaching career Dave moved on to becoming the Chief Horticulturist at Beaver Creek Nursery, the wholesale division of Klehm s Song Sparrow Farm. Working with Roy Klehm exposed him to an incredible array of species and cultivars of both woody plants and perennials. He also worked with, and sold to, municipal arborists, botanical gardens, landscape architects, and other nurserymen, and learned from them all. In 2011, Dave left private industry to work at the Boerner Botanical Gardens, part of the Milwaukee County Parks system, in his hometown of Milwaukee. Gardening, growing and teaching about plants are Dave s passions, and he gets to scratch that itch in a whole new context at the Gardens. Also a long-time home gardener, he believes that you can never really know a plant until you have grown it, and possibly killed it, a few times. Dave s passion for gardening embraces a large plant palette, but he particularly favors dwarf conifers, peonies, and shade perennials that start with the letter H : heucheras, hellebores, hakonechloas, and most particularly, hostas. So join us and be prepared to be educated and entertained! Bring your lunch at noon, and a dessert to share as usual, and our speaker s presentation will follow a brief business meeting.

8 Directions to the Frelinghuysen Arboretum Traveling NORTH on Route 287 Take Exit 36A Proceed East for 1/2 mile in the center lane of Morris Avenue to Whippany Road. Continue to the second traffic light; make a left turn onto East Hanover Avenue. Travel for 1/4 mile. The entrance to the Arboretum is on the left opposite the Morris County Library. Traveling SOUTH on Route 287 Take Exit 36 following the signs for Ridgedale Avenue. Bear right on the exit ramp. Proceed to the traffic signal and make a right onto Ridgedale Avenue. Proceed to the second light and make a right turn onto East Hanover Avenue. Travel for 1/4 mile. The entrance to the Arboretum is on the right opposite the Morris County Library. From New Route 24 Travel WEST to Exit 1A, 511 South, Morristown. Make a right, go under the Bridge and make a right onto East Hanover Avenue. Travel 1/4 mile. The entrance to the Arboretum is on the left opposite the Morris County Library. Directions and a map to the Frelinghuysen Arboretum can be found on the TSHS website. Visit the Tri-State Hosta Society website at: Tri-State Hosta Society Calendar of Events Saturday, October 28, at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown, NJ. Lunch at noon. Speaker Dave Wanninger. Saturday January 27, Lunch and Learn at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown, NJ. Saturday March 24, Annual Plant Sale at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown, NJ. June 20-June 23, AHS National Convention, Philadelphia, PA Garden Tours To be Announced Saturday, October 28, at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown, NJ. Fall Meeting and Tri-State s 25th Anniversary Celebration. Tri-State Hosta Society Roberta Chopko 93 Intervale Road Boonton, NJ REMINDER: There will be a Board Meeting at 10 a.m. on the morning of our October 28 meeting in Morristown.