Review of Cooks Nursery and Eagle Bay Hosta Gardens
March 1998
by Steven C. Chamberlain
105 Academy Street, Manlius, NY 13104
Steve_Chamberlain@isr.syr.edu
Cooks Nursery and Eagle Bay Hosta Gardens
10749 Bennett Road
Dunkirk, NY 14048
Phone: (716) 366-8844 or (716) 792-7581
1998 Hosta List - $2
Special List 1998 - SASE
Owner: Ran Lydell, Member AHS
In the past I have purchased the following hostas from Cooks Nursery:
All of these are happily growing in my garden. My order this year is stalled because the plant I really, really want is in very short supply!
The 1998 hosta price list comes in two pieces. The 1998 Hosta List looks like a catalog and has 18 pages of hosta listings. It is an interestingly designed, multicolor document with a page and a half of hosta photographs in color. It gives detailed descriptions of each species and cultivar, including who introduced each cultivar. The Special List is another 5 pages of hostas of limited availability and must be requested separately. It has another 10 color photographs of hostas. The 1998 Hosta List contains 176 entries in an alphabetical listing. Especially noteworthy are the offerings of Ran Lydell's own introductions: H. 'Arctic Rim', H. 'Lunar Orbit', H. 'Polished Jade', H. 'Sassy', H. 'Striker', and H. 'Tea Biscuit'. The catalog clearly states whether the plant is tissue cultured or field-grown originator's stock and how many divisions the plants offered will have (usually 2). The Special List offers mature field grown plants of some relatively hard to get cultivars as well as originator's stock on some now normally only available as tissue cultured plants. It also lists unique offerings of H. 'Arch Duke', H. 'Goblin', H. 'Academy Fire', H. 'Academy Muse', H. 'North Point', H. 'Regalia', H. 'Rapture', H. 'Gold Glory'. Note that the 1998 Hosta Finder does not include the Special List in its coverage. (Proofreading is not a strong point in producing these catalogs and price lists; however, as Ran states "anyway, it is my catalog, and I can do what I want, with it!!")
Prices are very reasonable for the 2- or 3-division plants of desirable cultivars. The most expensive hosta in the 1998 Hosta List is $95 for a 2-division plant of originator's stock of H. 'Tea Biscuit'. There are numerous old standbys available in multidivision plants for $4.00 with even lower prices for quantity purchases. On the Special List, H. 'Arch Duke' is $300 and H. 'Gold Glory' looks sort of like it is $200,000 because of a typo, but is really $200. Originator's stock of H. 'Peridot' is $22.00. Payment must accompany order and credit cards are not accepted.
Hostas are shipped bare root and arrive at the time requested. Those I received were is great shape and made the transition to the garden effortlessly. All the hostas I have received from Cooks Nursery have been true to form so far as I can tell.
I must point out that three of Ran Lydell's introductions are among my favorite hostas. H. 'Arctic Rim', H. 'Lunar Orbit', and H. 'Peridot' have all formed nice large clumps quickly. In part this is because the plants I received were multidivision originator's stock, but it is also because these cultivars are particularly vigorous. H. 'Arch Duke' is an absolutely fabulous plant and I can hardly wait until the tissue culture plants are available and the price comes down a bit!
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