Friday, July 21, 2017

Linda Hostetler's Garden - Just beautiful!


After touring Tammy Schmitt's garden as part of the 2017 Garden Bloggers' Fling, we headed to Linda Hostetler's garden, arriving along with the 3 other buses of camera-ready bloggers.  The crowded venue and mix of sun and shade had me struggling to capture the beauty of the place.

I never managed a good photo of the front of the property.  Most of my shots focused on plant vignettes.

There were a lot of Japanese maples in this garden, all beautiful

The maples in this area of the front garden were placed in full sun at mid-day, something I could never do in my own garden.  The face plaque shown on the right was sited at the middle front of the bed shown on the left.

This large bed occupied the middle of a lawn area

Another good-looking Japanese maple, surrounded by other colorful foliage and flowers, with the house just visible in the background

There were nice patches of shade along the margins of the front garden, like this one

and this more formal section


Heading back along the side of the house brought us to a patio.  My immediate focus was the stream and the pond it flowed into.

I loved the fullness of the planting around this stream

The stream fed into this pond, which was an integral part of the patio on the side of the house

And here's one of the pond's resident amphibians

The area next to the pond was also densely planted

A wider view of the area surrounding the pond, caught as I was on my way back to the bus at the end of our visit

Although I didn't get a good photo of the patio itself, I snapped a few close-ups of the features surrounding it, including a Japanese maple under-planted with Japanese forest grass, a cute table topper featuring frogs, and bunnies guarding a conifer


Beyond the pond and the patio was a good-sized shed, complete with adornments of its own.

3 sides of the shed are shown here


My only clear shot of the house was this one from the back.



Beyond the wide gravel area behind the house was a huge backyard, already chock full of bloggers when I made it to this point.

A wood arbor marked the entrance to the back garden

This stacked stone wall with its own seating area was just to the left as I walked through the arbor, if I remember correctly

This is the far end of the wall and seating area shown in the prior photo

Another colorful planting scheme, accompanied by equally colorful ornaments

This spiral flagstone circle was much larger than the segment captured in this photo.  Edged by lawn, it created an area for the eye to rest in what was otherwise a densely planted garden.

Shady areas lined the area along the fence on one side of the property and we once again encountered a stream


Cobalt blue features appeared throughout the back garden.  They stood out against all the lush green but also contributed to the tranquility of the space.

Blue arbors marked transition points in the garden and blue umbrellas and furniture provided places to sit and enjoy the view.  There was also a blue birdcage, occupied by a spiky agave. 


But the centerpiece of the back garden, at least in my opinion, was another pond.  There was a gazebo within easy viewing distance but I didn't get a photo of that either.

View looking across the pond, which had a small wood bridge crossing the stream that fed it

I didn't have a chance to look for more frogs here


At about this point in my rounds of the garden, the call rang out to head back to the buses for a trip to the Stone Tower Winery and lunch.  I managed a few more shots as I hurried to catch up.

This plant combination stood just beyond the bridge over the stream leading to the pond

And this seating area was tucked into a corner


I enjoyed this garden tremendously.  To wrap up, here are just a few close-ups of some of the stunning plants I saw:

Clockwise from the upper left: Cercis canadensis 'Rising Sun', Curcuma alismatifolia (I think), Filipendula?, yellow and burgundy Hemerocallis, Hydrangea, Asiatic lily, and Iris ensata?  (Other than the daylilies, these plants don't generally grow in my area so some of my IDs are guesses.)


I've covered only about a third of the gardens I saw during the Fling.  I plan to cover the rest but my remaining posts are likely to be strung out over a longer period.  In the meantime, if you're interested, check out the posts of other Flingers, the links to which can be found here.

Best wishes for a great weekend!


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

22 comments:

  1. I've really been looking forward to other bloggers' posts about Linda's garden, so thanks for obliging me by posting so quickly on it. There were so many things about her garden that appealed to me, I think it was my favorite. That Curcuma was the subject of much discussion amongst the PNW bloggers, all hoping it might be hardy here (it isn't). I didn't get good photos of her front garden either. I loved those tulip-shaped pots, like the one in the center of the stone spiral. There was a larger, similar-shaped one up in the beds somewhere.

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    1. This was one of the gardens I didn't think we had sufficient time to explore. The fact that all the buses converged on the venue at the same time, increasing the density of camera-toting bloggers, also complicated the picture-taking process. I loved that pot too - it's not a style I've seen before.

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  2. I took 142 photos in Linda's garden...ugh. My snapping finger and my editing fingers need to work better together, one not creating more work for the other. Thanks for the reminder of the beauty that awaits me once I dive in...

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    1. I clocked 88 photos in this garden, more than any other venue I think,but many weren't very impressive. Given the inability to step back from certain scenes without getting in someone else's way and time constraints, I also resorted to snapping without adequate framing.

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  3. Wow! This garden is a jewel! the borders, the pond, the variety of plants: sheer perfection! Some gardens have everything!

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  4. Wow! Two ponds that has to be one big garden.

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    1. I had no idea just how deep this garden was when we first stepped into it. The brief referenced a 16x24' pond, which had to be the one in the back area. The smaller pond near the patio wasn't mentioned. I never heard just how large the lot actually is but, with twisting paths, lots of trees to break up sight-lines, a profusion of seating areas, and a stream that I think spanned much of the garden, it felt really big!

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  5. What fun it is nosing round gardens and this is a lovely one with great planting. I had to do a double take when I saw the Curcuma.

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    1. Technically, Curcuma is perennial in my own area but it probably has to be dug up and stored during the winter months in Virginia, where this garden was located. I occasionally see the plants/rhizomes offered for sale here but it needs more water than is practical for most gardeners to provide.

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  6. In this garden I appreciate that there are several welcoming spots to sit and enjoy the garden. Pity it was so crowded though. I love the photo of the frog, and the little statue lying by the pond. Must be such fun, to join the garden bloggers fling.

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    1. This was my first Fling but I hope to attend next year's event too, which will be held in Austin, Texas. Maybe you should consider a trip to the US, Sue!

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  7. Wish you had had more time in this gorgeous woodland garden.

    Interesting seeing how big and floppy an Echeveria (?the photo with the colorful metal slat spheres) grows in a humid climate.

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    1. I think that's Echeveria 'Afterglow'. I have in a pot in my own garden. It's about as big but the leaves are indeed wider. Of course, mine also stays outside year round and I expect the one in the photograph has to be moved inside if they want to over-winter it.

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  8. Kris, I admire your industrious in writing up the Fling posts. I'm having trouble finding time to concentrate. You've done an amazing job describing Linda's garden. It was one of my favorites and like you, I would have enjoyed more time to explore here.

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    1. I've been trying to get through my photos while I can still connect the dots, Susie, but I suspect my Fling posts are going to slow down a bit from here on out. Summer is usually the down-time in gardens here but I've begun pushing the envelope (again).

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  9. Looks like an amazing garden, full of great plants exuberantly planted and a bit of whimsy here and there too. Love the agave in the cage!

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    1. I laughed out loud when I saw the caged agave, Peter, although that was a pretty big cage for a relatively small agave. Maybe he bit an earlier visitor?

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  10. It looks like such a refreshing garden - not sure how that works with busloads of bloggers ;-) but all those water features and seating areas are lovely. Do you know how much space was actually available there?

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    1. It felt like a really big garden, Amy, but I couldn't find anything in the description or on-line identifying its size in square feet.

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  11. One of my favorites from the fling, but like everyone else for the reasons you outlined, I had trouble getting good pictures. I'd say you did quite well. It looks like you caught me in picture #3 stalking the shots while everyone was still in the back :).

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    1. I couldn't remember if I snapped that photo when we first got off the bus or after I circled around the house for another look at the front (which was before I realized there was a huge back area yet to explore!).

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