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Gary P.

More About Gary

Gary's many hats: 

Gary has been with Rush Creek Growers for more than twenty years. He does the basket designs and all things baskets. He is often found visioning how to organize the warehouse and store our extensive hard goods inventory. He works on production, construction, grounds keeping and cat caring. His dream stories often ignite belly laughs at morning meetings.

The 2027 staff musings prompt is to write about a plant we believe is a underrated or unsung hero.

Gary: 

This is more about a part of a plant that may be under-appreciated and I only started thinking about this because at my home I have many Hostas close to where I sit and relax outside and have been noticing the goings-on about them. Though some varieties have very distinct and noticeable blooms, Hosta flowers are generally secondary to the plant form and the nearly infinite range of their foliage available.

 Long ago when I did garden maintenance for the rich and famous, some of the clients would have us de-scape their hostas because they found the flowerscapes unsightly. They had rows of the old school lancifolia with the typical pale lavender flowers, not overly floriferous but flowers just the same.  We cut back the scapes before they bloomed or just as they started blooming down into the base of the plant.  Most clients did leave fancier big white fragrant plantaginea flowers on, but not exclusively. It was all about them having a visual design, order, and lots of control which they sometimes possibly thought was their birthright. 

Besides all the butterflies that are visiting my Leah Buddleia I have noticed the nonstop visitations by various insects to my hosta flowerscapes everyday.. They certainly have been put on the daily rotation and flight schedule of my local bumblebees. I think bumblebees like them because of their basic conical shape, easy to enter and go about their business. Well now I’m making up stories about the possible thoughts of a bumblebee, but I do lament the loss of pollen stockpile potential I was made to remove many moons ago. 

Like my clients of old, I do really like to de-scape my hostas but only after they are done flowering. I have some with scapes that reach 6 feet tall and a dried up flowerless stick does distract from the distinct form hostas add to the garden landscape. So I guess I'm a bit of a snob, but not before the bugs get their breakfast.