Organic Produce Information Rutland VT

Address:
Route 113
Thetford Center

Description:
Hosta - The Flowering Foliage Plant: A talk geared to gardening clubs and plant society members. An introduction to the joys of hostas. Mike Shadrack has been a member of the American Hosta Society since 1992 and is currently Vice-President Awards and Honors. He has also been a member of the British Hosta {e_description}amp; Hemerocallis Society for twenty-three years, is former Chairman and currently their executive Bulletin Editor. He has been growing hostas since 1986 and has been trying to hybridize almost as long. He came to hostas through his other hobby, fish-keeping, when the beauty of hostas reflected in the garden pond was drawn to his attention in a TV gardening program. He now has many more hostas than fish and, with his wife Kathy, now gardens in Western New York at Smug Creek Gardens where they maintain a large collections of modern hosta, daylily and iris cultivars and have a garden devoted to small hostas. ln 1996, Mike retired from London's Metropolitan Police after thirty-two years service and has rarely sat down since. As a police officer he served in many parts of London including Soho in the west and Whitechapel in the east and at Scotland Yard where he was responsible for Public Order and Ceremonial Planning. He is also a qualified London Tourist Board Guide and organizes garden tours both in England and specialized hosta tours in the US. Mike has worked at the London HHS Chelsea Flower Show every spring for many years and is able to offer rare insight into the worid's premier flower show. Another hobby, photography, has led to a library of about 5800 slides of hosta varieties and hosta gardens, many of which have been published in UK and USA catalogues and magazines. In addition, he supplied the illustrations for the Floyal Horticultural Society, handbook 'Hostas'. He is co-author with Diana Grentell and photographer of the book, "The Color Encyclopedia of Hostas, (ISBN 0-88192-618-3) released by Timber Press in April, 20

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