Hosta Alley is not a business but the personal residence of Gayle
and Phil Alley. Like so many other hosta folks, we are obsessed
with finding a variety of plants that will complement our hostas
and flourish in our shady environment. We own 150 acres of old
growth timber here in Pleasant Hill, Missouri that is perfectly
suited to growing hostas, ferns, heucheras, and other shade tolerant
plants.
The story begins in 1983 when Phil purchased the property and
brought with him a few Hosta ventricosa. At that time, for all he
knew, H. ventricosa was the only hosta. Then, fast forward a bit to
1999 when Phil and Gayle were married. Gayle brought with her
H. ventricosa 'Aureomarginata' and 'Halcyon' which added a pleasant
contrast to the many dark green H. ventricosa. We did not have a
real garden per se, but had these hostas scattered around our humble
one-room shack. During this period, the construction of our home-built
timber frame house progressed. By 2004 we were out of the “shack”
and living in our ever-evolving home. We spread divisions of our hostas around the perimeter of the house and we finally became aware that the hosta genus came in many more varieties than just our old stand-bys. During the years 2004, 5 & 6 we bought every hosta that our local WalMart, Home Depot or Ace Hardware had to offer. Not much in the way of variety there, but we became proficient at recognizing a H. 'Patriot' or 'Frances Williams' before we even got out of our car. The rest is probably a typical story. We broadened our vendor sources and added hosta after hosta to our collection. The next thing we knew, we had over 1000 varieties and we still have no idea when we'll stop.