The 2023 MRHS Convention, Hosta dreamin’, was held July 13-15 in Rochester, MN. Hosted by the Shades of Green Hosta Society of Southeast Minnesota, this three-day extravaganza featured a kickoff picnic at Camp Creek Farm, garden tours, an AHS accredited Hosta Show, a Rod Kuenster Hosta Seed Growers Seedling Show, interesting speakers, a live auction, a raffle, excellent vendors, great food, and evening hostatality for meeting and visiting with friends. One of the educational sessions was “Jumping Worms: Biology, Impacts, and Control of a New Soil Invader” presented by Bradley M. Herick, MS, who is the ecologist and research program manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. He handed out a superb, condensed jumping worm fact sheet that can be seen by clicking here. The Earthworm Sampling photo below shows a method he presented for determining what earthworms are in your garden. To think I used to dig for my fishing worms… If you have jumping worms, don’t use them for fishing as this can introduce them to an uninfected area.
The leaf show highlight for us was seeing one of our inactive NWHS members, Kelly Butterfield, win Leaf Best of Class and Leaf Best of Seedling (last two pictures below). Congratulations Kelly! We hope you become active again and let us see these award-winning hostas in your garden.
