Green Hill Hostas New Hostas Wholesale and Retail GREEN HILL FARM, INC. Bob and Nancy Solberg P.O. Box 16306, Chapel Hill, NC 27516 email: greenhill@mindspring.com fax: 919-383-4533 http://www.HostaHosta.com

When I talk about the nursery here at Green Hill Farm, I frequently speak in terms of us and we. People just as frequently seem perplexed. "Who are "we"?", they ask.

We, of course are a corporation, but most importantly a team. Over the years, through a myriad of complicated twists of fate and divine intervention, Green Hill Farm has become the family business of Bob and Nancy Solberg. Going into the hosta business was my brainchild over 20 years ago when I was searching for a plant to grow in a small nursery setting. Since then I have held several positions in the American Hosta Society including Hosta Journal Editor and Vice President for the Genus Hosta. I helped found and am currently Executive Secretary of the American Hosta Growers Association, www.HostaGrowers.org. For Green Hill Farm, I am the idea guy, in charge of hybridizing, introducing, and marketing new hostas.

Many of you have met my wife, Nancy at our vending table at the Hosta College, the AHS National Convention or the several regional meetings that we attend annually. She has become an indispensable business partner and is primarily responsible for our retail mail-order division, our vending operations, club plants, and all our shipping. Mike Chapman, our Nursery Manager, is now in charge of nursery production and maintenance, and a little bit of everything else. We are delighted to have Roger Barr as our new webmaster and you can see his fine work. Then, there are all the part-timers in the summer, some more permanent than others.

Green Hill Hostas is the newest division of Green Hill Farm, our internet connection to our hosta customers. I began Green Hill Farm, Inc. in 1981 as a wholesale hosta nursery selling mostly to local garden centers. In those days it was those small blue hostas like 'Blue Cadet' and 'Serendipity' that I could offer exclusively along with the standard 'Undulata's and 'Fortunei's that got me market share.

Soon I was selling hostas retail from my garden four Saturdays each spring and establishing a good hosta reference collection. Then in 1986 with the introduction of 'September Sun', I began the retail mail-order part of the business. In 1992 I moved the nursery to its present location on Green Hill Drive as more space was needed for expansion. It was there that the wholesale mail-order business was born and has now become a large part of what we do.

Currently, we still supply local garden centers with 60-70 hosta cultivars each spring. We ship new hosta introductions to collectors, nurseries and hosta clubs throughout the United States and around the world. Our retail and wholesale catalogues feature some of the newest and best hostas available, often exclusively. The nursery is also now open for local retail sales for six consecutive Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays beginning the middle of April each year and ending with our annual Memorial Day Open House.

Please visit our site regularly. We will try to keep you up to date with hosta news, gardening tips, our up to date catalogues and hosta specials. Also, visitors are always welcome at the nursery but please call first if you plan to come on a day other than our regular retail sale dates. We would love to see you but as you can see, we stay pretty busy.