Meet the New Board Members
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Don Dean
AHS
President |
Don
Dean was first introduced
to hosta in 1984, when his mother gave him a sizeable chunk of Hosta
‘Undulata’, taken from an old established clump in her yard. Don and
family
moved to their current home site, located upon a wooded lot in Ramsey,
Minnesota, in 1987. He joined a local garden club looking for solutions
to a
newfound gardening problem, shade. A visit to a hosta collector’s
garden
created the ‘hook’ and set Don upon a path involving hosta from that
point to
the present. Don
volunteered as a bus captain for the 1990 AHS
National Convention in Minneapolis, MN. He attended the Midwest
Regional
convention that same year. Conversation ran wild, leading to him
co-founding
and becoming the first president of the Minnesota Hosta Society. He
began
growing seeds under lights in 1991.
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National
and regional meetings became regular annual
events, with Don volunteering primarily during auctions. The Peoria
convention
of 1998 marked the start of a 10-year period of service as the AHS
Auction
Chair. The AHS Online Auction was created by Don in 2002 and continues
to the
present; it is still coordinated by Don. The need for an Online
Journal became apparent
in 2010. Don was part
of the original four that pioneered its creation and has been the
Editor for
the past two years. This year, 2013, marks the beginning of his service
as
President of the AHS. |
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Judy Feltman
Treasurer |
Judy
Feltman has
been gardening for over 30 years and has lived at ‘our little house
here in the
woods’ since 2006. She is passionate about collecting and caring for
her
plants, plus she enjoys sharing her gardens with individuals along with
local
gardening groups. Judy has been a Master Gardener for more than 20
years and is
a past president of the Birmingham Fern Society.
In
2010, Judy
started her retail business after the Central Alabama Hosta Society
stopped
conducting hosta sales. Hostas on the Hill Gardens and Nursery is
located at
her Leeds, Alabama, home. She had grown the hostas offered for sale by
the
Society the previous three years. Judy is a member of the American
Hosta
Growers Association; she currently serves as President of the Central
Alabama
Hosta Society and as Director of the Dixie Regional Hosta Society.
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Now
Treasurer of the American Hosta Society, Judy was
bookkeeper for a central Alabama company for six years. She was then an
executive assistant at South Trust Bank (no longer in existence due to
its
purchase by Wachovia and then Wells Fargo) in Birmingham from 1994
until her
retirement in 2004. |
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Marcia Sully
Recording Secretary |
Marcia
Sully, a retired
educator with thirty-three years of service, has always had a passion
for
gardening. Her interest in hostas intensified when she joined the
Western New
York Hosta Society. Her enthusiasm increased in proportion to the size
of her
gardens in Eden, New York, and hostas now dominate the landscape.
Her
efforts led to her gardens being selected as part of the Buffalo
National
Garden Festival Open Garden Walk during the month of July for the past
three
years, as well as being listed in the Open Garden Directory published
yearly by
her hosta society. Marcia’s latest endeavors involve growing seedlings
and
registering some of her hostas. |
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Marcia
is a member of the American Hosta Society,
as well as a number of local garden clubs and plant societies. She
currently
serves as Secretary on the board of directors of the Western New York
Hosta
Society, and is a contributor to their newsletters. As a representative
on the
Great Lakes Regional Hosta Society board of directors, she actively
participates in the planning of the Region Four Hosta College in Piqua,
Ohio,
each year. Marcia attends AHS Conventions on a regular basis and has
been one
of the editors, as well as an author, for the AHS Online
Journal since
its inception. She looks forward to her new role as the AHS Recording
Secretary.
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Gregg Peterson
Vice
President Judging & Exhibitions |
Gregg
Peterson’s interest in
the “friendship plant” began in 1999 with the purchase of several
non-descript
hostas to fill a shady corner of his yard. The hosta “bug” bit, and he
and his
wife, Amy, have since had over 1100 different varieties at their home
in
Roseville, Minnesota, then 250 varieties at a home on Bainbridge Island
in
Washington State, and now, approximately 530 different cultivars at
their
current home in Oakdale, Minnesota. The one hosta Gregg credits for
starting
his addiction is Hosta montana ‘Aureomarginata’,
and he still loves
spotting a clump in a tour garden. H. ‘Striptease’
and its family of
sports are also favorites. Recently, he has developed a special
affinity for
the “minis” and enjoys incorporating them into container
gardens.
For
over two years, Gregg was a Master Gardener in
Kitsap County, Washington, and for more than eight years he has
occupied that
role in Ramsey County, Minnesota. He worked for over six years at a
local
retail nursery in the Twin Cities, serving as the “hosta guy” in the
perennials
area, helping gardeners with their hosta and shade companion plant
selections
and questions
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Gregg
is the current President of the Minnesota
Hosta Society and is finishing the final year of his second two-year
term,
having previously served as Vice President. He joined the Society
literally
days after missing the 2000 AHS convention, hosted by MHS!! Gregg is
also a
member of the Midwest Regional Hosta Society and the American Hosta
Society,
where he serves as a Master Judge for AHS Convention Hosta Shows, along
with
being a Judge’s Clinic instructor.
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Cindy Deutekom
Vice
President Genus Hosta |
Cindy
Deutekom, from
Blackstock, Ontario, has had quite a journey into the hosta world. Like
many,
her mother had that green and white one that came up beautifully in the
spring
and before long was just a series of holes. She kept resisting
her
mother’s offers of a clump, complete with slugs! Since her mother loved
hostas,
Cindy began buying them for her for Mother’s Day and birthdays.
Finally, it hit
her, “Hey, they can be beautiful!” She was hooked.
Cindy
and her family moved to an acre property in the summer of 1998, with a
blank
slate for gardens. So began her online search for hostas. A few years
later,
Goldenbrook Hostas, a home-based business, was started. In the early
years, it
was part-time, as Cindy worked full-time as a Business Analyst for
E.D.S.
Goldenbrook has grown from selling 50 hostas at the bottom of the
driveway to
over 2,000 a year! |
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Cindy
joined the
Ontario Hosta Society in the summer of 1999 and began learning more
about
hostas. In 2007, a position became available on the Executive Committee
as
Hosta Adoption Program Coordinator. Cindy was honored to become vice
president
in 2009 and then president in 2010. Her term as president has been
‘exciting,
challenging, and rewarding all at the same time.’
Cindy looks forward to bringing her love for
hostas and the experience of serving on a board to the American Hosta
Society.
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Reldon Ramsey
Editor,
Online
Journal |
Reldon
Ramsey discovered the diversity of hostas
for the first time in the Spring of 2002, as he collected perennials
for a
memorial butterfly garden for his wife, who had died of cancer the
previous
November. He purchased a few for a shady spot and kept finding more
varieties.
Soon, hostas had become a full-blown addiction. Next, he found online
forums
devoted to hosta and then hosta clubs, joining the Shady Choice Hosta
Society
in 2002 and the Russ O’Harra Hosta Society in 2003. Reldon attended the
2003
Winter Scientific Meeting, followed that summer by his first
convention, the
Midwest Regional in St. Louis. At every hosta event, Reldon had the
opportunity
to meet more online hosta forum friends.
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In
2011, Reldon became Editor of Hosta
Horizons, the Russ O’Harra Hosta Society’s newsletter and
sent out his
first issue. A few weeks later, while attending the Winter Scientific
Meeting
he was asked by Tom Micheletti to become the Editor of the AHS
eNewsletter,
which had just sent out its first electronic issue. Reldon agreed and
has
continued editing both newsletters and writing for the ROHS
newsletter along with pursuing his interest in hybridizing.
Reldon
is currently a member of the Russ O’Harra Hosta Society, Harshbarger
Hosta
Society, Midwest Regional Hosta Society, and the American Hosta
Society. He is
honored to become Editor of the Online Journal and
pleased that he can
contribute to the American Hosta Society that has given him so much. |
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