Here’s to the readers of CatRutgers4art! You all inspire me, you really do, e.g., Karen D, who brings memory and gardening together in a comment that sent me out to collect and photograph the leaves below: “My mother called them funkia, and it was years before I knew other people called them hostas. I love them and had what seemed like thousands of them at my little cottage in Highland. I remember my hands aching after cutting the stems off after the flowers bloomed. Ciao bella!”

They are beautiful, and they love to grow and grow and grow. Here are other things I know about the funkia: they like the shade; I have seven varieties, and all the leaves and flowers look different and they blossom at different times; if you cut the flower stalks after they fade, some of them will bloom a second time; the leaves are spectacular and great for flower arrangements; when they get too big, which they will, you can separate the plants and share them with your friends. And they, like all the growing creatures that grace our environment, can be transformed into “art.” Love, Cat

Catherine Rutgers © 2013