I ended up with twice as many hostas as I paid for, all alive and well. They insisted I keep the extras. Hostas are plants for patient, mature gardeners. Iris nuts will order a hundred new varieties, grow them for one or two years, and discard those that fail to impress. A hosta grower expects to grow the plants for five or ten years before reaching any such stern judgment.
Hosta growers are generally much more interested in the esthetics of gardening.
Most iris enthusiasts have gardens that look like potato fields. For more about hostas, see Andy Marlow's Home Page . For sources of plants, see Tom's Favorite Catalogs .