Every year,
mid-March signals the beginning of a new year for our gardens. It is also the time when
some 350 people
gather in Piqua, Ohio, to attend Hosta College. This
year marked a special milestone - the 20th anniversary of Hosta College.
I
traveled to
Piqua accompanied by my husband, Michael, along with longtime friend and
mentor,
Clarence Owens. It
is always an
adventure to travel with Clarence, as his expertise in botany, zoology,
and
entomology come to life as he spots wildlife, plants, and, of course,
road
kill, which is probably our favorite topic of discussion.
As we arrived in
Piqua, we had to make a side trip. You
see, Piqua is also home to A.M. Leonard, a horticultural tool and
supply
company. Any
gardener is bound to become
‘like a kid in a candy store’ in this place. Order
ahead and you can just pick up your
supplies, or stop in and place your order at the counter. Is it a coincidence that
Hosta College is in
the same town?
Friday evening
at 6:00 p.m. marked the beginning of Hosta College. Registration
for the event has become
effortless, as attendees picked up their badges, a special 20th
anniversary gift bag, and received their gift hosta within a matter of
minutes.
The
whole process has been significantly
streamlined over the years. This
year’s
gift hosta was Hosta ‘Linda Blue’,
named for Linda Blue Taubert, an active member of the Miami Valley
Hosta
Society, who passed away in 2006. Vending
opened with a bang, as attendees
flocked to the vendors to get the best selections of plants and garden
accessories. The
bookstore also opened
Friday evening offering discounted gardening books, stationary, society
clothing, and Hosta College souvenirs.
Friday evening
was an excellent opportunity to say “Hi” once again to all the friends
everyone
has made over the years and a chance to meet new people who will
hopefully come
back next year. Through
the generosity
of the Great Lakes Hosta Society, refreshments were available for those
who
needed a snack or beverage to get them ready for the big event of the
evening,
the rare and unusual plant auction, which helps fund regional
activities
throughout the year.
Saturday
activities began early at Hosta College. Classes
started promptly at 8:30 a.m.,
challenging us older folks who hated 7:00 a.m. classes back in college.
Now that
we’re older, getting to class at 8:30
a.m. is almost as hard. There
were six
class periods along with lunch, packed into about 7 ½ hours. This year I took a variety
of classes: Rock
Gardening, Dragonfly vs. Damselfly, Rare Plants and Where to Find Them,
Drip
Irrigation and Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener. All were superb.
The Saturday
evening banquet keynote speaker was Sandy Wilkins, who explained how
Hosta
College became a concept in her mind and how she, with others made it a
reality. Sandy has
been tagged “The
Mother Of Hosta College” for having a vision and then successfully
implementing
a plan to make Hosta College become not just a reality, but a hugely
successful
annual affair. Sandy’s
talk was
meticulous, informative, enthusiastic, and entertaining. She thanked the original
members who worked on
the concept that eventually became Hosta College. Of
the original members on the committee,
Clarence Owens and Marcia Niswonger stood for an appreciative crowd.
We
learned from Sandy that the first Hosta College was held in 1993, in
a
Dayton, Ohio, Comfort Inn and had sixty-eight “students.” In 1993 there were just
five teachers and all
classes were held in one large room. In
the early years, students were given a “diploma.” By
the second year, students were given a
choice of classes. Fifteen
classes were
available and each student could choose three classes to attend from
the total.
In an effort to
find a place large enough to accommodate a growing demand, Marcia
Niswonger
found a school in Piqua, Ohio. In
1995,
Hosta College came to the Upper Valley Career Center and those of us
who have
attended for years consider this building “our college.” (When I saw all the up-scale
renovations and
“coffee areas” this year, I was a bit concerned that the college was
getting
prissy, but then I walked through the automotive area and saw the
disemboweled
trucks and tractors, while smelling the oil. It
is still a “working persons” college. They
love to get their hands dirty as much as
we do!).
|
![](images/HC01.jpg) |
Tom
& Becki Micheletti, Cindy Tomashek, Mona Keehn, Mary
Schwartzbauer, Marcia Sully |
|
![](images/HC02.jpg) |
Door Prizes |
|
![](images/HC03.jpg) |
Bob Sinke
& Sandy Wilkins |
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![](images/HC04.jpg) |
Hypertufa
Mushroom class |
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![](images/HC05.jpg) |
Marcia
Niswonger, Clarence Owens, Sandy Wilkins |
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![](images/HC07.jpg) |
Mark Hanner
- Decorating a Hosta Tile |
|
By 1996, there
were 150 attendees at Hosta College. Vending
and a seedling contest were added, a first, “First Look” if you will! The following year “Park A
Plant” was added
and gave people a chance to store their treasures in a secure location
for a
nominal donation. This
was a great idea
and probably encouraged more sales at vending. Two
lunch periods were also added in 1997, to
meet the needs of the expanding success of the event. There
were just too many people to be seated
in the dining area at one time.
As time passed,
our “mentors” aged. 1999
was the last
year Herb and Dorothy Benedict attended Hosta College. In 2000, the “millennial”
year, the first gift
hosta, H. ‘Great Lakes Gold’, was
given to each student. Hosta
is “the
friendship plant” and so organizers envisioned the idea of a gift hosta
to
honor everyone who attends. That
tradition has continued.
In
2013, almost
four hundred students attended Hosta College, with seventy classes to
choose
from and over fifty knowledgeable teachers graciously volunteering
their time
and energy. Although
attendance has
declined from a high of around five hundred attendees in the “middle
years”
(there were years when people were turned away due to space
limitations), Hosta
College is still going strong and shows no sign of additional decline. Here’s to twenty more years
of Hosta College! |