I am selling my house, which is one reason I haven't been around this summer. Just too sad to be loosing years of effort to another move...
We had an offer that was going back and forth for three weeks, and they had sent us a counter that included me taking a "small division of each hosta variety", when they changed their minds and decided I couldn't touch a single hosta. So we rejected them outright and are now working with someone else.
Next summer I will be back to building beds and enjoying hostas at the new place, and I have to say I can't wait to be working for myself again and not whoever I sell this house to... Anyway, didn't want to be a downer, I am blessed in many ways!
Great to see lots of new names, hope to get to know more people around here over time.
Maybe the potential new owners were picturing some sort of devastation to the landscape, if they were not gardeners. Would it be a good idea to start potting up your hosta divisions so it is not as issue?
I'd be potting them up as well. I have all of my collection removed from my old house which just went on the market, and it still looks good with big old common ones left behind. I dug them up last summer. Mulch works well to even out the low spots where the holes were.
Grrrr!!! I think I'd be taking those pieces out and potting them up, too! Making their offer contingent on leaving all of the hostas would be something like having a person making an offer on your house that says you can't remove your art collection, or your stamp collection, or some such thing. Or...oh, those are darling children...I want them to stay with the house.
Good luck with the new negotiations!
Linda P
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne
My husband sells real estate. From experience, my guess would be if they have been negotiating for 3 weeks and let it fall thru over your hostas they weren't that serious anyway. Something would have come up to snaffoo the whole deal. People are weird...
Charla
Latitude 38.57N; Longitude -94.89W (Elev. 886 ft.)
Sorry to hear about that. I hope the next one works out better!
We also gathered up and potted or moved all of our personal hostas before we put our house on the market. In their place we put seedlings, unknowns, and common plants, then started to show the house. Unfortunately a lot of those plants, and other perennials, were stolen shortly after we moved out, but we replaced some of those to keep things looking nice while it was being shown.
Chris_W wrote:Sorry to hear about that. I hope the next one works out better!
We also gathered up and potted or moved all of our personal hostas before we put our house on the market. In their place we put seedlings, unknowns, and common plants, then started to show the house. Unfortunately a lot of those plants, and other perennials, were stolen shortly after we moved out, but we replaced some of those to keep things looking nice while it was being shown.
Good luck!
Chris
Charla
Latitude 38.57N; Longitude -94.89W (Elev. 886 ft.)
Potting them up is an excellent idea. Then they look like they are already 'packed up and ready to go'. And like Chris suggested throw some things out that are on sale and you should be good to go.
I can understand the owners wanting the landscaping to still look good...but it does sound like if they were just trying to get out of it with an excuse.
Wow Frodo! You know, that does sound incredibly lame. I can't imagine buyers rejecting a deal because of something like landscaping. It was probably a blessing in disguise that those folks dropped out.
And I'd probably start potting up pieces of the hostas too...starting with the important ones. Make a list, so you know what you've done and how many to go.
Chris, people stole your plantings???? Good grief!! Any idea who would do such a thing? That baffles me.
~PIM~
°`°º¤ø,¸¸Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life¸¸,ø¤º°`°
We have been debating selling, and I was wondering how to do up wording that I get some of each of my hostas as well....some people don't understand how much time and $$ goes into this hobby
I think that just sucks! I can understand a potential home buyer being concerned about you taking or tearing up hardscape, but plants No way I would leave any of my hosta. Trees ..yep... hosta NO
So sorry to hear about it falling through, but maybe this is best. A better offer and maybe even a higher is around the corner! Dave is right. Start filling in with mulch where you remove them and hopefully you'll have them potted up before the next serious buyer comes through!
Good luck and don't forget we are here to listen when you need to rant/rave. That's what freinds are for after all. Don't think you need to hide from us, b/c you are down next time!
Frodo, I'm so sorry it fell through . . . we've just sold our house and had it listed "Hosta collection not included in the sale." Fortunately, the people who bought it don't want landscaping to take care of (former gardener, now disabled) so it wasn't an issue, but I've been sweating the whole time it was on the market.
Great idea to start potting hostas and sticking in other things . . . as summer winds down, there will be perennials on sale at the box stores . . .
Good luck . . . I hope the perfect buyer is just around the corner.
Well...they were either trying to find a way out of the deal or they were secret hostaholics who saw an instant collection on your property. Anyway.....I agree with what many others have said.....start potting them up now and either fill in the holes with mulch or a "common" plant that you can get cheap. Then it's not an issue for the next time you negotiate with a buyer. Good luck!!
Frodo,
Charla and the others are right...these were not serious buyers...they were hedging their bet. Unfortuantely, the housing market is so soft that buyers are in control. My house has been on the market for over a year. I have now decided to auction it....
As far as the hostas go, take them NOW. Your special favorites, pot the entire plant. The others that you can half-way part w/, take a healthy chunk. But do that asap. That way, you don't have to look petty by excluding them on your listing agreement, and you can still pick and choose to let your gardens look attractive to buyers w/out them the wiser.
I ever so graciously decided that my back yard was a selling point, and I left everyting. Then I got smart and decided what the h*!!, no one apprectiated my effort anyway, so I have been removing ever since. And I am so glad. Am taking the last of the last the week prior to auction.
As long as your yard looks neat and well tended, you're in like flynn. Get those babies outtathere!!!
I'm sorry to hear your sale flopped like that. We have debated moving and we decided we would pot up all of the plants we wished to take and re-landscape prior to listing the house. We intended on filling in the gardens by adding things that ordinary people like such as... a lawn.
We eventually decided to rebuild on the same lot so I am moving hostas from the location of the new home that we intend to build next year. Prior to this though, we had a relatively inexpensive plan to create your average suburban landscape from what is really a collector's garden and not a suburban home with a yard. It inolved lots of sod, top soil and mulch.
I am sort of glad we are staying for now because my boyfriend had included several small trees in the plants to be moved to the new house.
This is a fascinating discussion for me, since we definitely want to move. I need land, and lots of it, for all the gardens floating 'round in my head.
The issue of landscaping versus taking plants has me all in a head-scratching tizzy. We're not ready to put the house on the market yet, nor have we found anything we want to buy.
So the looming issue is fall and winter weather. It's entirely conceivable -- quite probable, in fact -- that we'll end up moving in one of those seasons.
Anyone have any advice about how to deal with my plants? I've already got over 100 daylilies in pots, and I'm concerned about the fate of some of them. I overwintered hostas in pots as well, and I was lucky -- lost only two Great Expectations.
But I'm sure I'm tempting fate with every plant I do it with.
Put all your plants in pots. If winter approaches pile tons of mulch around the pots and cover the mulch with burlap. When it's time to move the burlap and mulch should come off with minor difficulty. Make sure to put a tarp below your pots first so they don't freeze to the ground!!!
At your new location put down the tarp, set pots on top and mulch with another ton of it. Put burlap on it again. That should hold them till spring. If you can mound snow on top of the whole thing.
I feel for you . I went through that last year . I moved about 500 to a property we were going to build on ....I then had a big plant sale and sold lots of divisions of the remaining 200 or so...It was sad tearing my collection apart
Well this year we decided to stay ..so I brought them all back . I'm in the process of labelling them now ( I had them mapped but some got mixed up.They took a real beating in the move ...lots of rotting.
Its a tough when you have a huge garden ,to move. Good luck with it.
I think you should take everything you want before the sale!!
Making our world beautiful , one backyard at a time.
My wife and I have talked about moving in the future and I told her "what are we going to do with the hostas?" I have to tell you, it makes me dread the day, if it ever comes.
You know, that does sound incredibly lame. I can't imagine buyers rejecting a deal because of something like landscaping. It was probably a blessing in disguise that those folks dropped out.
Anyway.....I agree with what many others have said.....start potting them up now and either fill in the holes with mulch or a "common" plant that you can get cheap. Then it's not an issue for the next time you negotiate with a buyer. 
Good luck!! 
