Page 37 - C:\Users\barry\OneDrive\Documents\Flip PDF\2022 Online Hosta Journal v53 Final File\
P. 37
So, You’re Going to be part of
a Garden Tour!
Jeannine Churchill Apple Valley, Minnesota
Whether you’ve volunteered your garden as a to consider moving some into
stop on a tour or been cajoled into it, the first time pots to really show them off.
you hang up the phone and realize you’ll have a
yard full of people you’ve never met or never 3. Order your garden supplies JEANNINE CHURCHILL
invited to your home can be a frightening early so you are sure to have
experience. Prior to joining the Minnesota Hosta the mulch and other supplies
Society (MHS) in 2014, I thought garden tours you will want once you can get
were activities you might do on a trip to Europe. into the garden in the spring.
When I received the call in early 2016 asking if I’d That may not be a problem for people farther
be on their June MHS garden tour, I was south than those of us in Minnesota, but we
shocked. However, I agreed that if my garden learned our lesson in the weeks leading up to the
friend and neighbor, Jeanne, agreed to be part of 2022 AHS Convention Tour. We had hard frost
a two-garden stop, the tour participants would be well into May and the Convention Tour was slated
welcome. for June 10 and 11. Some of my favorite hostas
hadn’t even poked above ground by Memorial
We expected a 54-passenger tour bus, plus Day!
perhaps a couple cars carrying tour organizers
who would be in our gardens for perhaps 45 4. Garden professionals: If you regularly hire
minutes. Little did we know, the way the route professionals to care for your lawn, trees, shrubs,
planning worked out, we would also be the or landscaping, get your tour on their schedules
catered lunch stop. We had 2 weeks advance early so you don’t find them expecting to work the
notice for that! day before or day of the tour.
So, here are some of the lessons we learned 5. Ask your friends to help you. In the weeks
from that first tour and tours in 2017, 2018, 2019, before the AHS Convention Tour, the three
and 2022, the AHS Convention Tour! These are friends who helped weed, move plants, and plant
by no means all-inclusive; we’re still learning! color pots were lifesavers, as were the friends
who volunteered to be garden hosts the days of
1. Get a three-ring binder in a distinctive color so the tours.
everyone in your household knows that is THE
TOUR BOOK. Set it up with several sections and 6. Let the neighbors know what to expect. What
add some pocket pages for loose notes you are the dates and hours of the tour? Will people
make for yourself, receipts that you may be able be driving their own cars, and, if so, where will
to turn in to the tour organizer, etc. they park? Will you be needing a section in front
of your house clear for the buses? Neighbors will
2. Start making plant labels. Your tour guests will be far more accommodating and helpful to the
want to know the names of your special hostas strangers in the neighborhood if you’ve kept them
so they can add them to a list of plants they want in the loop, especially if they might have a high
to add to their gardens. While you work on the school graduation party or other event on or near
labels, pull out your pictures from the previous the same date. Of course, inviting the neighbors
summer to see if any of your plants will need to have their own tour is always a good way to
special care prior to the tour. This is a good time make sure they look kindly on your other tours.
The Online Hosta Journal | 37
