Wilmington garden will be featured on hosta tour

Marilyn Romenesko’s garden had intrigued me for over a year.

On regular walks through her neighborhood in North Wilmington with my friend, Patti, I often slowed to observe the ever–changing scene.

The colorful, meticulously maintained borders obviously reflected a plant lover’s creative spirit, and I noted the unmistakable touch of the collector in her hosta selections.

Here was a garden that begged to be explored and I got my chance earlier this summer when Marilyn and her husband, Dan, welcomed me to their Shipley Heights property. It turns out, mine was a sneak preview of one of the featured private gardens on the American Hosta Society’s 2018 tour.

The Romeneskos will host visitors from around the country next June when the Society celebrates its 50th anniversary convention in Philadelphia. From first glance, it’s clear they’ve got this covered.

Marilyn and Dan not only grow and display beautiful hostas, but a wide range of enviable companion plants as well. From the curb to the side yard, around the back and up the other side, the beds flow in a continuous loop, leaving islands of lawn front and back, grassy ponds that reflect her prodigious collection.

By Dan’s estimate, about 1,800 plants reside in their one-third acre, including 550 hostas representing 309 varieties, all labeled for the tour.

Marilyn’s landscape bespeaks the hand of an expert. As a child growing up in Wisconsin she helped in her grandmother’s garden. A degree in horticulture from the University of Wisconsin led to numerous jobs in the field, including a 15-year tenure at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society where she managed their public landscapes program.

“I used to live in Zone 4 in Wisconsin. Delaware is 7A, which was one of the factors for coming here, but I had to relearn horticulture for the East Coast,” she says. “I took a bunch of courses at Longwood and developed an appreciation of trees and shrubs that do well here.”

When they bought the property in 2000, Marilyn remembers, “There wasn’t much here except for dead trees and half-dead junipers along the patio. We took out honey locusts and removed four big trees and then put in about 25 additional trees.

"I knew I was going to want a lot of plants so I started with a four-foot perimeter garden, and pretty soon it became an eight-foot garden and in some places a 20-foot garden.” 

Walking with Marilyn from front yard to back, I marvel at her many deft touches. A stately Kentucky coffee (Gymnocladus) tree anchors the front garden, and shrubs like Cotinus ‘Golden Ascot’ provide unique foliage as contrast, especially since she has trained a lovely purple clematis up through its branches.

Under a spreading redbud (Cercis ‘Rising Sun’) she placed an enormous "Empress Wu" hosta surrounded by peach-colored coralbells whose leaves play off the emerging foliage of the tree. Chartreuse plants lend a unifying theme to the garden and she has found innumerable plants with its distinctive color, including the Japanese grass, Hakone "All Gold," a gold-leaved oregano and the difficult to grow "Golden Honey" oakleaf hydrangea.

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Hostas appear everywhere but never do they crowd each other.

“I like to see the whole shape of the plant – it’s expressive,” says Marilyn, who often displays particularly striking specimens with plenty of room to spread out or among companions that don’t overwhelm.

She also groups like varieties together – all the corrugated and cupped-leaf varieties are together in one bed, for example. A side bed features patriotic-themed hostas with names like "Rocket’s Red Glare," "Revolution," "Independence," "Patriot’s Fire" and "Loyalist."

Numerous containers house the tiniest miniature to much larger plants.

“You can elevate them in pots and slugs aren’t an issue,” she says, adding that it’s also an effective technique to combat aggressive, competitive tree roots. Sunny beds are also no deterrent, as Marilyn discovered she could plant sun-sensitive hostas in bright locations by using the surrounding shrubs and perennials to shade them.

As an aficionado, Marilyn appreciates how versatile hostas are.

“They’re great for shade and come in so many colors, patterns, sizes and are relatively easy to grow.  It amazes me how one genus has so much variety,” she says.

Her obsession, she remembers, was sparked by a variety known as "Great Expectations."

“It’s gorgeous, has three colors, and is slug-resistant,” she says.

Other favorites include "Blue Umbrella" for how beautifully it holds the water, "Marilyn Monroe" with white undersides to its leaves, "Tattoo" with its unique patterned leaves, and "Dan’s Darling," a seedling of an open pollinated variety that she named for her husband because of its unique coloring.

Her knowledge expanded considerably about 10 years ago when she joined the Delaware Valley Hosta Society, for which she is now vice president of programming. She acquired many of the newer, more unusual hostas from their “First Look” program where the latest developments in hosta breeding and hybridizing are showcased.

With fellow member Connie Parsons she designed the National Hosta Display Garden at the Barnes Arboretum in Merion, Pennsylvania, an impressive 300-foot border intended to showcase suitable varieties for home gardeners as well as provide study plants for local horticulture students. 

She is also active in the American Hosta Society and has “umpteen blue ribbons” from the Philadelphia Flower Show, according to husband, Dan.

Since retiring in 2013 Marilyn volunteers at Longwood Gardens, but still deadheads, waters and “creates" about two to three hours (Dan believe it’s more like six to eight hours) per day in the garden.

It’s time well spent and next year’s American Hosta Society convention attendees will assuredly agree.

Moira Sheridan is a Wilmington freelance writer and gardener. She is a graduate of the University of Delaware’s Master Gardener program. Reach her at missmasher9@gmail.com.
 

Marilyn’s Hosta Growing Tips

• Grow in pots to defeat slug damage.

• Mulch potted hostas with pea gravel to prevent dirt from splashing on leaves when watering.

• Loosen the soil around the perimeter of in-ground plants from time to time to prevent compaction.

• Plant shade-loving hostas underneath trees or in sunny beds where they’ll be shaded by foliage of shrubs and perennials for most of the day.

• Choose varieties like ‘June Spirit’ and ‘Venetian Star’ that are resistant to slug damage.

• Don’t crowd plants, but allow room for hostas to “express” themselves so that stems and leaves are visible.