{"id":6709,"date":"2023-01-17T18:52:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T17:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/?p=6709"},"modified":"2023-01-17T18:52:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T17:52:48","slug":"hosta-potpourri-by-john-baker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/?p=6709","title":{"rendered":"Hosta Potpourri, by John Baker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Our first club night lecture of 2023 was given by our very own John Baker, who gave a very entertaining lecture about all things Hosta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/John-Baker-1024x675.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6711\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/John-Baker-1024x675.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/John-Baker-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/John-Baker.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>John went right back to the origins of the Hostas we grow in our gardens today \u2013 which originated in Manchuria, and from there spread to Korea, Russia and Japan.&nbsp; They were originally classified as Hemerocallis, or Day Lilies \u2013 which explains their common name of Plantain Lilies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plant Hunters brought the Hosta back from Japan to Europe in 1790.&nbsp; The Dutchman Philip von Siebold was the most famous of these hunters \u2013 and many hostas today bear his name \u2013 sieboldii or sieboldiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hosta \u2018June\u2019 is the most popular, and award winning hosta today.\u00a0 Many of our popular varieties come from crossing the species to provide the unusual leaf markings and varied leaf sizes that we love today.\u00a0 The current range spreads from the giant \u2018Empress Wu\u2019 to the diminuative \u2018Mouse Ears\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"940\" height=\"940\" src=\"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000028134.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000028134.webp 940w, https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000028134-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000028134-150x150.webp 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000010754_card4_lg.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6715\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000010754_card4_lg.webp 1000w, https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000010754_card4_lg-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pl2000010754_card4_lg-150x150.webp 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>John couldn\u2019t talk about Hostas without addressing the elephant in the room \u2013 Slugs and Snails.\u00a0 He gave us recipes for garlic spray and told us how to use Epsom salts and Ammonia.\u00a0 And his top tip was to mark February 14<sup>th<\/sup> in our calendars for the Valentine\u2019s Day massacre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John and his wife June have travelled widely to see hostas growing in the wild, and he showed them growing in swamps, forest floors and in the cracks of rocks near waterfalls.&nbsp; They have made many international friends along the way \u2013 showing how plants and shared enthusiasms can bridge language barriers and cultural differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through it all John\u2019s knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for hostas shone through.&nbsp; We all came away wondering where we could find space for at least one more in our own gardens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our first club night lecture of 2023 was given by our very own John Baker, who gave a very entertaining lecture about all things Hosta. John went right back to the origins of the Hostas we grow in our gardens today \u2013 which originated in Manchuria, and from there spread to Korea, Russia and Japan.&nbsp; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/?p=6709\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hosta Potpourri, by John Baker<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-club-lectures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6717,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709\/revisions\/6717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grayshottgardeners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}