Flying Frog Farm’s 2013 Hosta Catalog Flying Frog Farm            owner:  Marsha Ansevics                       house:  515-961-3585 5148 155th Avenue            website:  www.flyingfrogfarms.com         cell:  515-208-9002 Indianola, Iowa 50125     email:marsha@flyingfrogfarms.com    SEASON :April 13-Sept.1                                                        (a quick call to my cell phone is best!)                               (closed July 4th)    2013 HOURS (we designed this strange schedule in 2012 and it has worked well for us – hope it isn’t       too confusing) 10 am –5 pm Wednesday thru Sunday (April 13 thru June 30)                                      10am – 5 pm Thursday  thru Sunday  (  July 5 thru September 1)                                                                                                                                                                                                                       WE’RE GROWING 1000 DIFFERENT KINDS OF HOSTA AND THEY ARE ALL DESCRIBED HERE!!   IT’S SUCH A TOUGH JOB LOOKING AT ALL THIS BEAUTY EACH DAY- - - BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT!!  Ha!     LOCATION:  Our gardens are on twenty wooded acres approximately 10 miles south of Des Moines  (east onto Summerset Road off of Highway 65/69---Summerset Road is about 4 miles north of Indianola)  There are 3 blue county signs to lead you to our gate once you are on Summerset Road.  We are on a   very long dead end road---a large colorful sign at the gate greets you during business hours. OUR GARDENS:  Our hostas are all field grown and that makes for some nice root systems!!  We have a  sizeable sales area with hundreds of plants potted and ready to go.  It’s too busy many times to dig, but if  we can we will.  A call ahead to give us time to start digging is great if you know several that you are wanting.  Come walk through the nearly three acres of shadehouses and display beds!!  Don’t feel you have to stop and clean up for us- - come in gardening clothes!  I’ll bet you’ll find us working!!  We’ll try to greet you, but we sometimes are off in the ‘back 80’, so wander and enjoy the beds or sales area and we’ll say ‘hi’ as soon as we see you!!       You’ll also find a nice selection of shade companion plants in our sales area to intersperse with your hostas.  The deck surrounding the gift shop has benches and chairs for you to relax on.  The gift shop will be filled with new and vintage items---many are garden themed.  Cool garden art, bird houses, jewelry and home décor items as well as a few very useful tools that we use on the farm and offer for sale. GROUPS:  Please call my cell (515-208-9002) if you’d like to bring a large group out to the farm.  We’d love to have you!   Red Hat Groups—garden clubs—clubs of all kinds!  We need a pretty specific time as I usually have extra help available and parking needs to be a consideration.  I still have “visions” of the two huge tour buses and the man hauling a tractor and the twenty or so cars that were already parked one pretty afternoon!  Ha!  We made it all happen!  Again this year we are asking $1 per person for the bus tours. You don’t need to call ahead if there will be a car full of people---it’s just that I’d like to be free to speak with the larger groups and answer questions and that takes a little preplanning. FARMER’S MARKET:  Bruno will be at the Downtown Market from 7-12 on Saturdays (May-July) Please call to place an order that you’d like him to bring to market—a day or two notice is great!! GIFT CERTIFICATES:  Call for a gift certificate at any time or pick one up when you are at the farm. They are available in any dollar amount.  We mailorder throughout the U.S..  Personal checks and credit cards are welcome. RECYCLING POTS:  We continue to ask for plastic pots that are larger than 4 inches and up to the size that accommodates a small shrub.  Trays and hanging pots are not very useful to us—sorry!  These help us to continue to keep our prices low for you and helps out the earth a little too!  Thanks! WEEKEND SPECIALS:  Customers have sooooo enjoyed the sale flyers and the coupons you can use on return visits on any day that we plan to continue these so there will be plenty of bargains to be had!!  Refreshments will be served every weekend in April and May(if you can’t find me I’ll be cutting brownies inside—ha!)  As far as refreshments at other times????  It will have to be a surprise!!  Hope to see you! ONE FINAL THOUGHT:    If you live reasonably close by and would like to help us out during the season, I would be happy to “gift you” hostas in return.  Give me a call if this sounds interesting to you!  Potting up hostas and labeling them and tending the display beds and growing areas to keep them neat in appearance are the usual jobs.  It can be a couple of hours or a half day---whatever your schedule allows.