Hostas and Hydrangeas

The hosta beds are coming along nicely and I think this coming year will really show us what the beds will look like when all the hostas mature.The roses were doing so well until the Japanese beetles had a field day with some of them. The Knock Out roses and the Purple Carpet roses were not tasty enough for the beetles and were for the most part left alone.

Last year we put down granules to kill the grubs and I would guess that our Japanese beetle population was cut in half. So maybe if we repeat this procedure for the next couple of years we can rid ourselves of this nasty pest.

The beetles also hit our plum trees pretty hard but did not touch the Asian pear trees. We had an abundance of Asian pears (20th Century variety). These pears were the absolute juiciest pears I have ever tasted.

We planted about 23 different heirloom tomato plants. Holy cow. They grew and grew and grew. Lots of tomatoes but some never ripened or we just had an abundance of foliage and only a few tomatoes. We narrowed down the varieties we are going to plant this spring. We have decided on Brandy Wine, Half Moon China, Great White, Amish Paste, Lemon Boy, Golden Boy, Orange Oxheart, Russian Prince, Sweet 100's, and Rose de Borne.
We also planted several new varieties of hydrangeas. I was really surprised with the 2 red hydrangeas I received free from Bordine's Nursery the year before. They were only 6 inches tall and I thought these will never survive so I planted them behind some other plants. I was weeding and when I lifted a low branch this is what I saw....I transplanted them last fall. They had doubled in size from the year before so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they make it through this nasty winter. The only good thing I can say about this winter so far is that there hasn't been any of those plant killing thaw and freeze cycles. It's just been one constant FREEZE!!!!