Hosta Friends Newsletter | Fall 2007 Special!

HostasDirect, Inc. fall SPECIAL!

FEATURED SERIES:
Meet HostasDirect, Inc.
Mary Alexander

Blue Mouse Ears

"Mrs. Everything"

We are very fortunate to have Mary Alexander on staff at HostasDirect. Mary lives across the street from owner, Tom Carlson. She is married to a former high school basketball teammate of Tom's, Jon Alexander.   Originally from Michigan, Mary was a top student majoring in math at Alma College where she met Jon. Mary and her family have trained over 30 service dogs for the physically disabled, deaf or hard of hearing thru Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota www.HSDM.org.   She has also been involved with helping autistic children, her kid's schools, and more.

Mary has three children, two of which are still in college and all three are/were top students.   Son, Chris, is a senior at Illinois Wesleyan. He just left for 5 months of college in Australia. Daughter, Jennifer, is a sophomore at The College of Saint Benedicts in Minnesota where she studies physics and Math. All three have worked for HostasDirect to earn money for school and other needs.

Working with plants is a passion for Mary. She has created beautiful gardens of her own.   Mary is involved with almost all aspects of HostasDirect including: selecting the hostas we sell, business strategy, accounting, proof reading, and the very important job of caring for and shipping hostas. She is a very creative and caring packager. Your personal notes and comments on your packing lists come from Mary.

An exceptional SALE of well-developed hostas!

Late August and early September are great times to plant any perennial and in particular, hostas. I have even planted Best Value TC as late as mid October in Minnesota. People forget plants can continue to grow in the ground even after a frost, as long as the soil has not frozen. Plants that have been through dormancy are much larger than those that have not. Reminder: it is cheap insurance to cover your hostas the first year - especially the mini hostas.

We are offering new discounts on the following large, Best Value TC hosta varieties. We have the plants in hand and they look great! Orders can be filled immediately. Please tell you friends. All orders will be shipped. Sorry, no order pick-ups at my home.

Best Value TC price reduction on select items. Some are slightly root bound. While supplies last. In addition, our free hosta program applies to this sale.

	Avg.	Our	Our	Our	From
Hosta Name	Market	Reg.	Sale	%	Market
	Value	Price	Price	Off	% Off
Abiqua Drinking Gourd	$12.91	$7.95	$6.95	13%	46%
American Sweetheart	$17.01	$9.95	$8.45	15%	50%
Dance with Me	$15.89	$8.95	$7.45	17%	53%
Fantabulous	$15.18	$9.95	$8.45	15%	44%
Fragrant Blue	$14.12	$6.95	$6.45	7%	54%
Frosted Dimples	$19.89	$9.95	$8.45	15%	58%
Hidden Cove	$15.51	New	$8.45	New	46%
Mount Tom	$19.99	$9.95	$8.95	10%	55%
Olive Bailey Langdon	$12.95	$6.95	$6.45	7%	50%
plantaginea	---	$7.94	$6.45	19%	---
Popo	$10.55	$7.95	$6.95	13%	34%
Praying Hands	$16.55	$9.95	$9.45	5%	43%
sieboldiana Elegans	---	$6.95	$5.95	14%	---
Sum and Substance	$12.78	New	$7.95	New	38%

	Gold Sale - only $1.95!
I need to make space for newer varieties. We have dropped our price for divisions of a favorite hosta, Green Gold and Decorata, down to $1.95!

Fragrant Hostas

Tis the season for fragrant hosta blooms!

This is the season that H. plantagenia and its beautiful offspring are sweetening the air! H. plantagenia is the most fragrant of all hostas. It is also the first hosta brought back from Asia by the Europeans in the 1600's. It is 1 of 4 of the species hostas that evolved in eastern China and the only 1 of 40 species hostas that is fragrant. Most hostas evolved in Japan and a few in S. Korea. I love this plant and its offspring. They are a versatile hostas that grows well in the sun and humidity. It can be grown from Canada to zone 9 in northern Florida!

To find other fragrant hostas, try our FREE HostaSearch™ Database!

To learn and see what other hostas are fragrant (offspring of H. plantagenia) use our HostaSearch™ Database. You will find many famous hostas including Guacamole, Stained Glass, Fragrant Bouquet, Royal Standard, Invincible and over 50 others, many that we sell.

1. Log in to our web site (to create an account, register here for free)
2. Click HostaSearch™ Database at the top of our web site,
3. Find the heading "Flowers"
4. Find Fragrant and drop down in the box to Yes,
5. Scroll down to "Member Search" and click it

plantaginea vs plantaginea "Aphrodite"

The difference between H. plantaginea and H. plantaginea "Aphrodite"

"Aphrodite" is, I believe, 1 of only 7 hostas with a bloom, meaning it has more petals. See the others by using HostaSearch™. I took some pictures recently to show you the difference. Both blooms are big, fragrant and bright white! H. "Aphrodite" loves lots of sun. I am selling some divisions off of 10 year old clumps for $10.95 - CLICK HERE!

H. plantaginea "Aphrodite" (double bloom)

H. plantaginea(single bloom)

Stop fertilizing

I forgot to mention in the last newsletter that you should stop fertilizing your hostas at the end of July. The plants need to "slow down" before they go into winter dormancy.

Order your hosta apparel now (click here)

Our apparel supplier and good friend, a 40 year old mother of two, Jill Dawson, came down with a very serious form of cancer in late April. She has had two surgeries and is making the best of it. She is back running her EmbroidMe™ franchise. An amazing woman.

We will be placing an order with Jill for our Hats, T-shirts and Tote Bags soon. Our customers report back that they have had a lot of fun with these items. In fact, three sisters all bought "I Love Hostas" T shirts. They have a lot of laughs wearing them to various garden club meetings and more. These unique items also make fun gifts. They are for true, proud "Hostaphile" or the person you have a hard time shopping for. If you wish to get something for Christmas please consider it now. Click here to view!

Garden tool deal! (click here)

We have had many nice compliments about our weeding and digging tools. I use both almost exclusively. In fact, I have several around the gardens to save time.

Here is a deal. If you order these tools, use them, and decide you don't like them, just return them within 20 days for a full refund. Just pay the return postage and ship them back to us. We will credit the product cost in full - no questions asked. I am that confident you will like these tools. Click here to view!

Best deer product we've heard of
(click here)

I have heard from many people that the www.wirelessdeerfence.com has totally solved their deer problems. If you go to this web site you can see a video stream of the product in action and read a great deal of technical information.

Garden stakes & labels website

Our new garden stakes and labels website will be www.OUTDOORLABEL.com

It is currently under construction and will look dull and boring right now. Joe Husby, our computer guru, is back from a well deserved vacation and at work on it. It should be completed soon! We will send you an email when it is ready!

Our hostas survived 9 days in transit!

We have had good service and deliveries from the US Postal Service Priority Mail. However, recently we had a situation where a customer did not receive their package of Best Value TC hostas for 9 days after we shipped them as the postal service accidentally sent them to the wrong place. The customer reported that the plants were in good shape and still moist. Mary Alexander works very hard to make sure the plants are packaged well. This also shows how durable hostas are.

Pictures

Please send us your hosta and garden pictures for the HostaSearch™ Database. I am disappointed we have not had more contributions thus far. It is difficult to provide the free search engine, offer low prices and take all of the pictures. I frankly can't afford it and my staff and I don't have that much time during the season. We would appreciate it but more importantly your fellow hosta lovers would!

Miscellaneous

We will be closing for the season September 15. Frankly, we could use a rest!

Please keep an eye out for the survey we will be sending. It will help us greatly to plan to better serve your needs.

For those in Minnesota, we will be hiring some additional workers for next season. If you are interested please email me at tomcarlson@hostasdirect.com. Please note you must be able to endure bad jokes and you are welcome to bring your own.

Thanks again for your business and support. Please tell your friends! The more customers we have, the more we can offer everyone! Because our prices are so low, it takes a lot of volume to keep our business "growing."

Sincerely,

Tom Carlson
President