Article: His Habit is Growing . . .

Our gardens were featured in a front page section of the Beacon News in September 1998.   Below is the article reprinted.  It is no longer found in the archives of the newspaper web-site http://www.copleynewspapers.com.

His habit is growing From Big Rock roots, hosta hobby goes nationwide UpClose Gregory Miller, Big Rock

By Sandy Stevens, STAFF WRITER

Gregory Miller admits he's an addict.

"I'm a hostaholic," says the 39-year-old. "I have the hosta habit."

And his habit is growing.

This is a man whose yard showcases 160 varieties of hostas, a perennial plant of the lily family with trumpet-shaped leaves, and more than 60 varieties of ornamental grasses . . .

A man who has created what is arguably the world's largest web site on hostas . . .

A man who opens his Big Rock home for garden walks and sends plants throughout the country.

But he is also a man who, a decade earlier, scarcely knew a hosta from a hummingbird. "I would have said, 'What's a hosta?' 'What's a grass?' " Gregory says.

The answer to annuals The answer came nine years ago after he married his wife, Carla, and the couple -- who grew up in North Aurora -- bought a house in Aurora. "I started messing around the yard and realized how expensive annuals were," Gregory says.

Then Carla bought her husband a perennial, a hosta named "Brim Cup."

That's when the craving began.

"I asked Carla if there were others," Gregory says with a grin, looking around the multitude that grace his lawn. "They're just a neat-looking plant. I like the foliage."

He bought a book about the plants (about 3,000 varieties are now known). He discovered types unavailable at local nurseries and began ordering many through the mail. He bought more books, talked with growers on the Internet, and joined the American Hosta Society.

Avoiding weeding Five years ago, after the Millers moved to Big Rock, Gregory avoided weeding by placing ornamental grasses on the south side of the home, a home that is shared by the Miller children: Anne, 8; Marshall, 7; Shannon, 5; and Gabrielle, 3.

"When you first mention (the grasses), a lot of people say, 'Oh, the weeds,' but once you see them, you want them," he says. "Once you get a really nice, mature plant, you just stand back and gawk at it: 'Wow, look at that plant.'

"Your whole world is a grass. You walk on it; you spend hundreds of dollars fertilizing it. Why not have ornamental grasses, too -- and you don't have to weed."

Neighbors and strangers alike delight in the hostas and grasses. Gregory has helped neighbors select appropriate plants for their yards, and visitors, who spend up to two-and-a- half hours on the 5/8-acre lot, come from as far as Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri and Indiana.

Offering garden walks Gregory and Carla also offer garden walks for hosta and ornamental grass enthusiasts; the next is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 13.  "I get a lot of enjoyment out of people just coming and looking at the plants," Gregory says.

He added plants for sale at the request of visitors, many of whom were surprised at the options. He now offers buyers about 45 kinds of hostas and 30 ornamental grasses.

"People come out and say, 'I want to buy a hosta,' " Carla says.

"Or 'I want to put a grass in my garden,' " says Gregory.

It's amazing, he says, how many people expect just standard green or green with a white margin hostas. Some varieties grow high, some low and spread out; some are dwarf or miniatures. Some sport double flowers or 3-inch-long blossoms. Most are some shade of lavender but can also be powder blue, pure white (like the new "Princess Diana") or even orange-tinted like "Texas Primrose" that opens at night. "One is dark purple with a white stripe," Gregory says. "That's a flower."

The most popular hosta on the Internet is "White Christmas," which features brilliant white leaves with a small edge of green. "It just shines in your garden," Gregory says.

Word of mouth to web People hear about the plants through word of mouth, at the Big Rock Plowing Matches where Gregory has won awards in flower arranging or summer farmer's markets in Wheaton, or on his web site, www.hostas.com., which offers pictures, prices and information. "I've probably shipped to half the states this year," he says.

Sales from the business, AAA Ornamentals, enable the hobby to maintain itself, says Gregory, a computer programmer for an investment company in Oakbrook Terrace. But there's no question that, like a proselytizing Pied Piper of Plant-dom, he accompanies a visitor's tour with a running commentary.

"A lot of people think hostas are only for shade, but most do real well in this area in the morning sun" . . . "Plantaginea 'Grandiflora' (with a gardenia-like scent) is the only natural-occurring hosta that's fragrant" . . . "Note the horizontal banding on this ornamental grass" . . . "This 'Great Expectations' is pretty small, but it's 4 years old; by the time you get a full-grown plant, you've kind of lost your expectations" . . .

Extra-long tools He shows where an 18-by-48-foot greenhouse will be built this fall and mentions that some of his gardening tools come with extra-long handles, a concession to his 6-foot-5-inch height.

He points out an herb garden and sedum beds he has begun and an ornamental grass called "Rubrum," whose purple-turning-to-wheat-colored plumes bloom for three to four months. It's not a perennial, he explains, but "a worthy annual."

The work to keep the collections growing can be grueling, Gregory says. Unstable spring weather, for example, can mean rushing to cover plants at 1 or 2 a.m. But it doesn't deter him.

In fact, says Carla, she gets nervous when Gregory snakes the garden hose around a section of the lawn -- and he isn't watering. "That's how he sets out a new area," she says.

Gregory grins and shrugs. "It's the hosta habit," he says.