Welcome to the Delaware Valley Hosta Society (DVHS) web site. If this is your first visit to our site, we hope that it will encourage you to join with us in exploring the world of Hostas. If you are already a member of DVHS, then hopefully this will serve as a valuable reference point on our activities throughout the year.

DVHS has been in existence for over 25 years and is the home of the very first group dedicated solely to the genus Hosta in the United States. Since then the organization has expanded greatly and chapters of the society are to be found across the US. Our mission is to promote the cultivation and understanding of this incredible plant. As you probably know, Hostas come in many different sizes: miniature, small, medium, large and very large. They also come in an impressive range of leaf colors: various shades of blue, gold, and green and many wonderful combinations of these colors. Hostas are vigorous without being invasive, easily divided and shared with friends, and impressive plants for the shady border.

DVHS meets at least four times a year to enable our members to share their experiences with growing Hosta with one another. The agenda for our spring meeting, typically held in March or April, features a speaker on Hosta and a plant sale of some of the latest and best Hosta being introduced to the marketplace. Our two summer meetings each include a tour of an outstanding Hosta garden in our area and an auction of Hosta from our members' gardens. This is an excellent opportunity to see how others use Hosta in their own yards and to observe mature specimens of different varieties of Hosta you might not have encountered elsewhere. The auction also offers you an opportunity to acquire specimens of Hosta at reasonable prices that you might never see at your local nursery as well as the opportunity to buy Hostas that are no longer readily available through mail order sources. The fall meeting centers on a slide show presentation by an expert in the field of Hosta and allows us to conduct any Society business that needs attention. Of course, each of these meetings also provides you with a venue for meeting like-minded Hosta-enthusiasts and sharing garden experiences.

In addition to our local activities, the national association, the American Hosta Society (www.hosta.org ), holds a conference each year during the peak Hosta season in June which lasts for three days and includes the world's foremost authorities on this genus as speakers as well as bus tours of numerous private and public Hosta gardens near each conferences site. These conferences are sponsored by a different local chapter of the Society each year, providing you with the opportunity to see the best Hosta gardens in the US. In the last 25 years, two of these conferences were sponsored by our chapter and we proudly believe that the very best Hosta gardens anywhere belong to members of our very own chapter. For the truly dedicated Hosta lover there is also an additional conference called First Look where the latest developments in Hosta breeding and hybridizing are showcased. This is sponsored by Division 1 of the national association, of which we are also a member. As a result this is usually within driving distance for most of our local members.

Finally, I want to bring to your attention an invaluable source of information on Hostas, the Hosta Library web site at www.hostalibrary.org. Here you can find photos and information on nearly every registered Hosta in existence.

So welcome to our corner of the world of Hosta. We hope to see you at our next meeting. Visitors are always welcome. If you are not a member, but would like to join, membership is currently only $10 annually--a real bargain.

Wayne Guymon

Board Member and Past President,

Delaware Valley Hosta Society