2025 Reader Garden Award Runner-Up:
Congratulations to Lonna Engel from Williamsport, PA
In 2016 Lonna decided to plant a single garden bed that showcased a variety of hostas. But she couldn’t stop with just one planting: Now Lonna has a collection with more than 900 hosta cultivars, including specimens as small as a dime to those as large as 7 feet across and in almost every color and variation imaginable, including a new ‘Bloodline’ hosta, whose leaves remain burgundy until midsummer, when they turn green.
The Painted Leaf Hosta Garden
She calls her garden the Painted Leaf Hosta Garden and has woven other shade perennials through the collection into a beautiful tapestry. Visiting the garden much like the experience in a museum: The longer you stand and look at a plant, the more details you notice.
The crystal chandeliers hanging in the tree above add a romantic, peaceful feel to the garden and dance in the breeze and catch and reflect light. She hangs these homemade ornaments in spring and takes them down in the winter.
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Lonna’s hosta tips
Lonna says that the best fertilizer for hostas is water: If a plant gets too dry, it’ll stunt its growth and burn the foliage. In fact, when Lonna tires of a hosta in the garden, she floats it in her pond, where it provides cover for the koi, who push it around the pond. The plants seem to thrive as floating water plants.
With 14 acres of neighboring woods, deer could be a real problem on her 1⁄3-acre property. In addition to running fishing line between the garden and the woods, Lonna mixes 1 cup of ammonia into 1 gallon of water and sprays it around the perimeter and over plants monthly. She theorizes that the ammonia odor keeps the deer from being able to smell predators, making the area too risky to enter.
Thanks to Jung Seed for providing a $100 runner-up gift certificate prize to Lonna!
Enter for a chance to be one of next year’s winners
For details on entry guidelines for submitting your garden in the 2026 Garden Gate Reader Garden Award, click here.
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