T

President’s Letter

Hosta Happenings N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 S P E C I A L E D I T I O N

2 0 1 7 / 2 0 1 8 C A L E N D A R A T A

G L A N C E

• Dec 3, Holiday Party @ Kerry

Perry’s home in West Chicago

• Mar, Spring Pot Luck & Garden

Tool Swap, date & loc TBD

• Late April/May, Spring Symposium

& Plant Pickup, date & loc TBD

• June 20-23, AHS 50 Year Celebra-

tion Convention, Valley Forge, PA

• July 12-14, MRHS Convention in

Peoria, IL

The Newsletter of the Northern Illinois Hosta Society

In this Issue:

President’s Letter 1

Dec. Holiday Party 3

25th Anniv Celebration 4-6

Fall in the Hosta Garden 7

Dee Brown’s Sale! 7

Plaque Rock Install 8

Officers & Directors 8

As I enter my first weeks as Presi-dent, I must thank all those people who preceded me in making and growing the Northern Illinois Hosta Society (NIHS). That includes Tom Micheletti, Laurie Skrzenta, John Van Ostrand, and Lou Horton. Also, a big thank you to Barbara King for work-ing tirelessly the past 6 years in growing the NIHS to where it is to-day.

If you did not have the opportunity to attend our 25th Anniversary Cele-bration at Cantigny Park, you missed an outstanding event. Tom Michel-etti, Founding Father of the NIHS, was our keynote speaker. We hon-ored our 5 previous NIHS presidents identified above. We also heard from Mark Zilis and Bob Solberg. Bob hybridized and presented a new hosta cultivar (h. Tom Terrific) named to honor Tom Micheletti. Attendees also received one of the new “Tom Terrific” hostas which will be a large upright gold hosta. Barba-ra King and her support team did an outstanding job in putting on this event.

As some of you may remember, I was the NIHS Membership Secretary for three years before taking a year off. I look forward to this new op-portunity to work with a talented group of individuals that are current-ly on the NIHS Board. It is my hope to continue the tradition set by the people before me.

Continued on page 2

A Cantigny Work Day on Halloween shows our

AHS National Hosta Display Garden in its fall

colors. The volunteers, bundled in their worker

costumes, are (left to right) Linda Lood, Diane

Barrowman, Nancy Huck & Barbara King. June

Vandervest took the photo. H. ‘Night Before Christmas’

P A G E 2

H O S T A H A P P E N I N G S

During my time in this position, I would like to promote getting more individuals involved working with the Board on various committees. Therefore, I am asking each of you to give sincere consideration to volunteer-ing and becoming a member of “the team”. Some of you are already volunteers at our AHS National Display Garden at Cantigny Park. We have volunteers hosting our potluck dinners in March, September and Decem-ber. Individuals volunteer at our Leaf Display and Plant Sale in June, our Bus Tour and members open their beautiful gardens for our Hosta Garden Walks each summer. A big thank you to these people. But when you look, many times you see the same people volun-teering across multiple activities over and over. What makes the Northern Illinois Hosta Society “GREAT” are the people who participate. As volunteers and a mem-

ber of “the team” we should all “enjoy” accomplish-ing our goals together. The Cantigny Park hosta garden is a prime example of that. We will be cre-ating a list of volunteer opportunities soon and pre-sent them in our “award winning” Newsletter, as well as, post them on our website. It is my hope that we will have some additional new participants in 2018.

The Holidays are right around the corner and our annual Holiday Party is set for December 3rd. This year’s host is Kerry Perry. Kerry is in West Chicago. This is a wonderful time of the year and the annual Holiday Party is especially festive and fun. Look for the Holiday Party details on Page 3. Please bring a non-perishable food donation to the party that will help some of our less fortunate neighbors enjoy their holiday season. I look forward to seeing you there. Lenny and I would like to send best wishes to you all for a happy holiday season as we look for-ward to an even better 2018.

Mike Kraus

President’s Letter continued

N O R T H E R N I L L I N O I S H O S T A S O C I E T Y

HO S T A H A P P E N I N G S

P A G E 3

Holiday Party Food & Fun Sunday Dec 3

O ur annual NIHS Holiday Party is rapidly

approaching on Sunday Dec 3. Plan to

join in the fun! Festivities will begin at 1:00 pm at

Kerry Perry’s home in West Chicago.

Do plan to come and enjoy the com-

pany of NIHS friends and a wonderful

meal in the beautiful surroundings of

the Perry home ( see photo top

right).

Excellent NIHS cooks always contrib-

ute remarkable food that never dis-

appoints. Everyone who comes

should bring either an appetizer, sal-

ad, side dish or dessert. The main

dish and tableware will be provided.

Please contact Kerry ASAP at 630-231

-3010 or kerry7000@yahoo.com to

let her know that you are coming and which dish

you will bring.

Please extend your holiday spirit by

bringing a bag of non-perishable

food for donation to the Northern

Illinois Food Pantry.

HOW TO GET THERE: Your destina-tion: 3N640 Lakeview Court, West Chicago From the intersection of IL-59 (N Nelt-nor Blvd / Pramukh Swami Maharaj Rd) and IL-64 / North Avenue, go north 0.5 mile then turn left at the stop light on-to Diversey Pkwy. St. Andrews Golf Club is on the right. Go west 0.1 mile and turn right onto Mulberry Drive. Go 0.3 mile and turn right onto Lakeview Ct. Proceed 300 feet to the last house on the left. Hope to see you there!

N O R T H E R N I L L I N O I S H O S T A S O C I E T Y

HO S T A H A P P E N I N G S

P A G E 1 7

1 9 1 8

25th Anniversary Celebration

Welcome & Program

Chairperson Barbara King, top left, welcomed the

hosta crowd along with Cantigny Director Joy

Kaminsky , middle left. Tom Micheletti , top right,

delivered the illuminating keynote program on

hostas - Back To The Beginning. Sherry Hughes,

center, Jim King, right, & Nancy Slove, left.

Pics by Ron Asselborn

P A G E 4

N O R T H E R N I L L I N O I S H O S T A S O C I E T Y

HO S T A H A P P E N I N G S

P A G E 5

25th Anniversary Celebration

Refreshments and Hosta Garden

Pics by Ron

Asselborn

N O R T H E R N I L L I N O I S H O S T A S O C I E T Y

HO S T A H A P P E N I N G S

P A G E 6

25th Anniversary Celebration

Dinner & Awards

Past NIHS Presidents Lou Horton, Barba-

ra King, John Van Ostrand, & Tom Michel-

etti were awarded lifetime memberships.

Bob Solberg & Mark Zilis toasted Tom

Micheletti’s hosta leadership and found-

ing of NIHS. Bob presented Tom and

members his new Hosta ‘Tom Terrific’.

Pics by Ron

Asselborn

N O R T H E R N I L L I N O I S H O S T A S O C I E T Y

HO S T A H A P P E N I N G S

P A G E 7

Fall in the Hosta Garden June Vandervest

Did you ever wish you had more “gold” in your Hosta garden? Wait until fall and your wish will come true without spending anything extra. Who knew that H. ‘Blue Hawaii’, H. ‘Jabulani’, H. ‘Rainforest Sunrise’, H. ‘Plantaginea’ would be-come undulating, glowing shades of gold? Even H. ‘Candy Hearts’ rivals its neighbor H. ‘Sun

Power’ in my garden. Enjoy the fall splendor while you

can. Soon it will be just a memory nestled under a

carpet of fluffy white.

Photos by June Vandervest

Long-time NIHS member

Dee Brown is retiring

from her concrete design

business. Dee has been

designing and selling

stepping stones and bird

baths for many years.

Dee is offering to sell all

of the molds and other equipment you would

need. She would love to sell the equipment to

someone who would continue providing such

concrete products in this area. Dee will make a

donation to NIHS when the equipment sells.

Call Dee at 708 974 2540 for more info.

Here is a partial

list of Dee’s sale

items:

Set of con-

crete molds

for stepping

stones and bird baths & wire ties

Electric mold shaker

8’ tall mold shelf

Stepping stones - 4 varieties

Bird baths & stands

Garden decorations

Hosta markers

Photo Albums

AHS & MRHS Newsletters back issues to

1993 - perfect condition

Dee Brown’s Hosta Stuff Sale!!

President

Michael Kraus

815-356-8569

kraus6311@comcast.net

Vice President for Program

Mark Rekoske

224-622-1171

marekoske@gmail.com

Membership Secretary

Stevie Meginness

630-363-7266

NI.hosta@gmail.com

Recording Secretary

June Vandervest

630-852-2940

junevandervest@comcast.net

NIHS Membership Secretary

84 Dunham Place

St. Charles, IL 60174

The Northern Illinois Hosta

Society is dedicated to edu-

cating the public and promot-

ing the use of hosta in the

landscape. NIHS serves the

people of Northern Illinois

and surrounding areas.

Officers & Directors

We’re on the web ! www.NorthernIllinoisHostaSociety.org

Visit us on Facebook

Treasurer

Linda Lood

847-426-9021

llood@sbcglobal.net

Hospitality Chair

Sherrie Hughes & Tony Kwiatkowski

630-893-3091

alhughes60172@yahoo.com

Newsletter Editor

Ron Asselborn

630-587-1341

rasselborn5@gmail.com

Publicity Director

Lynn Walsh

630-323-7200

lynn@walshcommunications.

com

Directors –At—Large

Gary Antonich

847-826-4769

garyantonich@aol.com

Nancy Huck

630-595-4874

nancyh43356@att.net

The official

plaque desig-

nating our

Cantigny hos-

ta garden as

an AHS Na-

tional Hosta

Display garden

was delivered

in September.

At right, Lou

Horton and

Craig Kucken-

berg guide

the stone.

Below, the

stone is

moved into

place in the

garden.

Photos by June Vandervest