Dixie Hosta

from Chuck Zdeb:

If you missed the Dixie Regional meeting, June 1 and 2nd in Birmingham you missed a great time!
The faint smell of burning south Georgia swamp was in the air as we arrived Friday afternoon for the beginning of the 2007 meeting. After signing in and grabbing a quick snack (those Alabama folks know how to feed you) I headed off to the Judges Clinic. Judges training chair Claudia Walker conducted Judges Clinic II for nine eager students. At 4:00 Dixie Board Meeting was held. It was decided that Atlanta would host next year’s regional meeting; details to be settled on later. Later Nashville called in an offer to host the meeting and so Atlanta said ok, and the next Dixie meeting will be in Nashville on May 30 & 31, 2008.

Dinner was at 6:00 followed by a plant/garden stuff auction. Auctioneers Mike Chambers and Bob Solberg raised slightly more than $1800.00. for the Region and Alabama Hosta Society to share. Saturday morning found everyone bright and ready for a days worth of classes. I am going to try to summarize what each of the speakers talked about. My apologies in advance, if I missed anything. Mike Chambers welcomed everyone as the Dixie Director and also gave a $500 donation to the Birmingham Botanic Gardens on behalf of Dixie. The BBG did not charge us anything for using their facilities this weekend. After the introductory remarks our keynote speaker W. George Schmid gave his presentation on “Hosta Flowers”. George opened his talk with some slides of hosta flowers. Hosta flowers can help identify the species of hosta. In addition tube length and color help identify the genus. Some hosta have branched flower scapes such as H.tibae. Hosta developed their flower scapes according to their environment. Tall scapes developed on hosta in competition with tall grasses. These hosta have greater distance between the flowers. Some hosta scapes lay close to the ground, so that low flying or crawling insects could do the pollinating job.

Staging of hosta is very important. White flowers show up better against a background than colored flowers. Some of George’s favorite hosta foe flowers include H.nakaimo, H.’ Rocky Road’, H takahashi.(two color flowers). H.yingerii is the only hosta which has flowers that grow around the flower stalk. All others only grow flowers on one side of the flower stalk.

George was followed by Dr. Daniel D. Jones. His specialty is ferns. Alabama has 86 native ferns, part of the 10 to 12 thousand fern species available world wide. Ferns date back over 200 million years. He said that red light helps fern spores germinate. Some of his favorite ferns are; Uulong Island Fern, East Indian Holly Fern,
Autumn Fern, and luctulosum (only 4-5” tall). Among the draught tolerant ferns are the Marginal Woodfern and Champion’s Woodfern.

Our next speaker was Jan Midgley, owner of Wildflower nursery and author of several books on native plants and native plant propagation. She propagates plants using seeds collected from the wild. She divides plant seeds into two categories. Wet seeds have an aril or a fleshy covering or just do not tolerate drying out. An aril is an appendage on a seed which makes it attractive to ants. The ants pick up the seed, take it back to their nest, eat the aril and then throw away the seed thus spreading the seeds around. Wet seeds need to be planted right away or stored in a plastic bag with peat moss or sand and a small amount of water.
Dry seeds can be stored for a long period of time in paper envelopes in the refrigerator. Seeds require various ways to scarify or be pretreated before they will germinate. They may also require various light levels or temperatures before they will grow.

Our last speaker before lunch was Mr. William Cureton aka “Captain Compost”. Mr. Cureton spoke at length about the benefits of compost and compost teas. He has web site at www.captaincompostalabama.com.
After lunch our first speaker was Susan Webb, a landscape designer. She spoke about the Woodland garden and landscaping with ferns, hosta and wildflowers. She packed a lot of design information into her talk. The key to using ferns, hosta and wildflowers is to plant them based on their natural habitats planting from sunlight to shade. A woodland garden is about space. The woodland garden extends vertically to the deciduous canopy above. Plant carefully around pine trees. They can be real consumers of light and water. Establish perimeters for the area you wish to develop. A border makes a room; rooms need to be connected with a path. The path or steps should be smooth and wide and not straight. They should lead to a focal point or destination, and then lead on to the next focal point. In a real woodland garden ephemerals (plants that come and go) should be about 2/3 of the plant material. Arrange the plants according to the perspective and scale, with a foreground, midrange and background. Water if used in the garden should be heard before it is seen. It should be a surprise.

Our last speaker was Bob Solberg owner of Green Hill Farm. He spoke about growing hosta in pots. The primary reasons to grow hosta in pots is to defeat tree roots, and to create more garden space by using decks, patios, driveways and porches where you could not normally plant hosta. Planting in pots is easier than in the ground and the pots are more easily moved around. You can create a perfect growing environment which helps to defeat pests. The drawbacks are the additional water needed the cost of pots and over wintering the plants. Potting mix can be mixed according to the amount of work you want to put into watering. Larger particles allow water to drain through. More peat moss or compost holds water. For fertilizer he recommended Miracle grow tomato food or a slow release granular. What kind of hosta should you grow in pots? Hosta that are difficult to grow under normal growing conditions, baby hosta that need to grow before they can be put in the garden, specimen clumps, mixed pots and miniature hosta are all good candidates for growing in containers.

After the last speaker the winners of the photo contest were announced. Delona Schockley and Chuck Zdeb won for their entries. Attendees were then free to shop the vendors and to take a guided tour of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and their new hosta walk.