Hosta-farians

There is plenty to post after the three-day weekend at the Hawksbill Cabin. We had an excellent time despite not making the trek to the Home Depot in H-burg. As an alternative, we actually hiked in the Shenandoah National Park - a two-part post will follow about that.






The Hostas are in bloom right now at the cabin, and today I want to post a couple of images of them at Mary's request. These plants are scattered throughout the gardens near the house, and thrive there in the partial sun.




The first image above is up the hill in the backyard, near an old tree stump. This is clay soil that nothing else grows in, but the hosta there holds its own. Also, this garden patch in the backyard has a profusion of blooms this year, and is paired up with three large rhododendrums that are also blooming right now. There are so many flowers, the bees are audible inside through the open windows.

Here is a view near the driveway, in a small garden patch that also has several spring blooming bulb plants and a lilac. In the background you can see one of two bee balm plantings - there will be a follow-up post on this flower later in the week.

In this final hosta image, here are some plants along the east side of the house. This was taken from the end of the brick terrace near the new steps to the pool. Because of the shade over here and the steepness of the hill, there is a great breeze and it stays very cool - probably five degrees cooler than elsewhere in the yard, as I discovered yesterday while reading out there.

Also, at one point in the morning, I heard a loud buzz. I thought it was a big bee, but as I turned to take a look there was a humming bird working over the hostas blooms here in this area.

One photo I did not capture yesterday is of the hosta "specimen garden" that we have beneath the apple tree in the front yard. An earlier post highlighted deer damage in this area (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2008/04/deer-damage.html) but you would never notice it now. I will try to get a photo next weekend if we go out.