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It didn't come as a surprise when I recently saw a report stating that hostas are now the best selling perennial in the country. After all, there have been a lot of houses built in my lifetime and a lot of little trees planted around these houses.

Lots of these trees grew quite large as my hair thinned and grayed. There are now a lot of shady gardens, and hostas have always been a stalwart in the shady gardens. Before I give a wrong impression, the shade requirement varies from variety to variety with hostas. Some hostas will take a lot of sun.

Still, I would avoid the direct afternoon sun. Such sites are often dry and hostas like soil on the damp side of average.

The many people that collect hostas fascinate me. I frequently hear people say that they have hundreds of different ones in their yards. I don't, but I have planted a number recently and will continue to add more.

I planted several mid-sized varieties several years ago. To my surprise, they now top out somewhere between my knee and waist. A bushel basket would need stretching to fit over them. Of course I planted them too close together.

There are also varieties that are big compared to the ones that I have planted. On the other hand, there are varieties that after several years would maybe fill a small soap dish.

Several days ago I was asked if it would be ok to move some hostas and peonies before a construction project destroyed their garden. Under such circumstances I try to relocate them most anytime. Most likely you can move or divide hostas at your pleasure any time in the growing season.

In reality, now is not too bad a time. All our rain would help, and the best time to divide and move hostas is rapidly approaching. Usually, the last half of August is considered the best time to do it. If you are thinking of dividing some hosta, each clump should keep several eyes or shoots. Foliage should be cut back hard to give the plant time to re-root without the pressure of excess leaves.

One small fault of young hostas is that the leaves will develop faster than the roots if the soil is cool and the air is warm. Actually, this is true for any perennial that is being planted, divided or moved.

In the fall the soil remains warmer, promoting root growth while the top growth slows as the air cools. That is the opposite of what is occurring in the spring. That makes fall a wonderful time to plant and divide.

I mentioned hostas to my 90 plus year old mother and she remembered that as a child they were green and very fragrant in the garden at her home. The fragrant ones are still in the marketplace along with hundreds or probably thousands that offer some unbelievable leaf color variegations.

If you have deer problems, they will like your hosta. Deer problems can never be eliminated, but can be managed. That is material for another article, but deer control must start with the first hint of spring before they form their feeding habits.

Slugs are also reported to be a problem, although I have not noticed slug damage in my limited plantings.

On your next trip to the nursery spend a few minutes with their hosta offerings. I'd bet you would find one that will improve a shady spot in your landscape.

Ever since one of the doctors, who regularly disseminates real wisdom a page or two from here, convinced me to surrender part of my girth, my lawn mowing has become more exciting. Even though I have created flowerbeds on the steepest spots, there are an increasing number of places where the mower balks at my commands.

As I have confessed in previous passages, I generally, or at least used to, think of the lawn as the space between flowerbeds.

First a review of history. It all started with a new house and a bag or two of grass seed 13 years ago. Each season it seemed that the mower got a little braver and wondered further and further from the house. In other words, much of my yard resulted as my mower reclaimed an old pasture bit by bit.

What we didn't have in quality we made up in quantity. The final step came last year when we convinced a waterway and gutter to become part of the yard. With that done, there was no place for the mower to go but into the woods, down vertical banks or across the road.At that point I surveyed my mix of grass, weeds, dandelions and white clover and vowed improvement. It was so bad that I sprayed a small section. To my joy, the weeds and white clover disappeared. To my chagrin, a bumper crop of crab grass replaced them.

In another area, I rented a fancy over-seeder and worked up a real sweat while going through several bags of grass seed. It was one of those that disturbed the soil rather nicely. It also awoke every crab grass seed in the area. Since my knowledge level forbade any spraying over new plantings, I confess that I must part the crab grass leaves to find the dainty seedlings I hoped for.

When I reworked the waterway/gutter last summer I knew that that area could take heavy flows of water during storms. After seeding, I applied several hundred dollars worth of jute matting to stabilize the situation. I was amazed at how well it worked.

Under the matting I got a beautiful stand of grass. I should have gotten another roll since, unfortunately, I did get a wee bit of erosion along the edges of the matting. It was one of those things that needed fixing, but was never so bad that the mower couldn't hop across.

Then we got the eight plus inches of rain, in three storms in four days, several weeks ago and the repairs were urgent. Again, I coated much of my patch up work with the matting. Again the results were much quicker and, I suspect, will be far superior to spots where the seed was just raked in.

Is my improvement plan moving ahead? Maybe. From a distance, my rolling hills look green and beautiful. Up close we have a varied and interesting mix of plants. Using the matting in difficult spots worked miracles. The chemicals and the reseeding have brought unintended results.

I hope our township officials make good on their promise to keep the area like it is and rural, because I fear it will be a long time before my lawn is ready to move to suburbia.

June has faded into July and I will confess that I still have a small flowerbed where I haven't won round one with the weeds. It will only take an hour when I get there, but I still need to get there.

Usually June is my month, but this year I didn't get the whole way around. I don't know whether to blame the weed's enthusiasm, a stiff knee, or the repairs made necessary with the eight inches plus of rain we had in four days recently.

Although I stopped counting at around 20 beds, it certainly can't be that I have too many flowerbeds.

Several days ago I inspected the bed to see how the desired plants were faring. The bed rings a small clump of trees. One plant caused me to pause. It wasn't any of the ferns, perennial geraniums, astilbe, bleeding hearts or broadleaf evergreens that I planted there.

It was a blue-purple tradescantia that wasn't supposed to be there. It is a wow. I don't know how it got there, because this native is a plant I never seem to include on my planting list. If my weed pulling had occurred on a timely basis, it would have found itself on the weed pile. Now it gets to stay.

Tradescantia may be better known by its common name of spiderwort. As I think about spiderworts I am again reminded about the miracles that are being worked with our native plants by the plant selectors and the plant breeders.

Looking at the many plant catalogs I have, I found more than enough different tradescantias that I could have a different one in each of my beds and have enough left over that I could make even more beds.

Spiderworts have succulent, strap like foliage and will fall into a height range of one to two feet. My observation is that they do best in sites that are on the damp side of average.

It is a long bloomer that starts in June and continues into early fall. Colors range from shades of white to blue/purple with lots of reds and pinks in between. Flowers can be single or double.Until recently they all had green foliage. Recently I have seen one with a pale yellow leaf. As always, expect an off-green plant to be a bit smaller and slower growing. This one, as you would expect, needs almost full shade. The green ones will take morning sun or light to full shade.

With too much sun or too little moisture the foliage can get ragged in the hottest part of our summers. When that happens, cut it off. It will jump back and reward you with more blooms. I see the plant as vigorous, but not aggressive.

I guess I have just added a new plant to my list of favorites. I hope I won't need a thicker notebook to hold my list, just more flowerbeds so I can grow them all.

It won't be long before one of my favorite dieback shrubs begins its long reign of color in my garden. I'm talking about the hibiscus that thrives in our gardens but dies back to the ground each winter.

Last season they started blooming in early August and kept going until late September or early October. Granted, last year was very rainy and that helped. Also I confess that in my enthusiasm I may have occasionally deadheaded the spent blooms as they started to form seed heads. I won't swear to that, but that would help extend the bloom season, too.

Its very large flowers are often said to match the size of your dinner plates. That may be a stretch, but they get close. Colors generally cover white and red and a multitude of shades in between. Lately there seems to be a lot of activity in producing new cultivars of this plant.

Many years ago, in another state, I slammed on my brakes and wheeled into a rest stop when I spotted a huge planting of hibiscus. I swear they had a yellow one. That started a search. Success came this spring when I found a yellow one. I haven't seen it bloom yet but the anticipation is high.

The first thing to know if you try to grow this plant is that it emerges from the ground very late. Usually they emerge in mid May but do not schedule any funerals until the second week of June. I have seen them come up and thrive at that late date. For this reason I always let the dead stems stand until I see new growth before I hunt the shears.

This year I was so slow that I just got there last week. I found the old stems so fragile that I could easily snap off at the ground with my hand. That's another note in my handbook for lazy gardeners.Once they emerge, they grow like gangbusters. The small ones will stop just past your waist and the tall ones will reach head high. The first year in the garden I started with a single stem. I had two to five stems the second year and this year up to ten or a dozen stems.

The shorter varieties seem to produce larger clumps more quickly. The tall ones may sprawl a bit if left un-staked. My solution to that problem is to pinch the tops when they are about two feet tall. That gives a stiffer stalk and promotes branching. That works with a lot of tall perennials.

This group of hibiscus has several insect problems. This spring something was shredding the first leaves. My observation is that it was the same flea beetle that is active in our vegetable gardens in early spring. Damp conditions also favor this small black beetle.

By the time I started to worry about this, the lightning fast growth of the plant had overshadowed the beetle damage. Japanese beetles also can be a problem. If it is a bad Japanese beetle year or if you live in an area prone to them, you may want to think about an insecticide. There is no insect that I know that is easier to kill than Japanese beetles.

I seldom spray, but I may be a bit more tolerant of damage, or lazy, or have too big a garden to get there. I just enjoy the natural shows that the garden produces. My hibiscus always produces one of the best ones.