06/25/2026
Shady Choice Hosta Society Caravan (kind of) to Ames, IA
By Gary and Marty Hicks
During the early morning of June 13th three vehicles departed various places in Nebraska heading east to Ames, Iowa to view the gardens of Kris and Tom Jurik, 5658 195th St, with an unexpected visit to their neighbor, Tom Kenney, 243 Dave Cir. We also went to Steenhoek Environmental (hosta nursery), 3892 N 500th Ave, and Lincoln View Farm (hosta nursery), 1071 X Ave, Boone, IA, with a non-scheduled stop at Holub Greenhouses, 22085 58th Ave, Ames.
One of the vehicles consisted of Randy (driver) and Chris Brosher and Gary and Marty Hicks leaving from Plattsmouth. The second vehicle consisted of John Miller (driver), Engracia Jimenez, Sue Adkins and Wanda Wollberg leaving from Omaha. The third vehicle consisted of Katie Novak (driver) and Joni Renshaw leaving from Tekamah.
The group was scheduled to meet up at Kris and Tom Jurik’s at 10:00 am. Our van left Plattsmouth at 6:00 am heading east on I-80 for Steenhoek Environmental, which is a compost recycling company run by Wendy Steenhoek and her husband. Their hosta business belongs to Wendy’s mother, Donna Nelson. We wanted to be there by the time they opened for business, which is 9:00 am. In pictures accompanying this story are one of the tables of hostas as well as pictures of tree branches, piles mulch and compose.
Once they removed the rope that corded off the hosta table, we started checking out all the different varieties they have. I ended up buying H. ‘Colored Hulk’, H. ‘Sister Act’, H. ‘Hudson Bay’, H. ‘June Spirit’, and H. ‘Lakeside Dragonfly’. I’m not sure how many hostas Chris Broshar purchased. I bought H. ‘June Spirit’ to go with my H. ‘June’ and H. ‘June Fever’. Since I have a H. ‘June’ sport, although not named June, I am thinking of collecting all of the June sports. My sport, that I registered last year, is named H. ‘Mrs Cleaver’. I hope everyone remembers the tv show “Leave it to Beaver” where the mother’s name was June Cleaver.
About the time we left Steenhoek Environmental, Joni Renshaw and Katie Novak arrived and started looking at the hostas. I noticed when we met up at Holub Greenhouses, Ames, that they had quite a few hostas in the back of their car.
At about 9:45, with all the hostas in the van, Randy, Chris, Marty and I left Steenhoek for 5658 195th St to meet with Kris and Tom Jurik. John Miller, Engracia Jimenez, Sue Adkins, and Wonda Wollberg were already in the driveway waiting for us and Joni Renshaw and Katie Novak. The hosta gardens are absolutely beautiful and are spread over an acre or more. The iris and daylily garden is in a sunny patch that is surrounded by shade trees where many more hostas can be seen. I’m sure if the irises and daylilies were in bloom, they too would be beautiful. The peony garden, located on the South Skunk River basin, is spread over several acres. With all that fertile river basin it is no wonder why the peonies do so well. In the middle of May, Kris had wrapped up hosting a viewing of her peonies, and her display of irises and day lilies will be happening in late June but when were there, it was time for the hostas to be in the spotlight.
As we were walking around, I asked Tom Jurik how many varieties of hostas they had. He said somewhere around 1,400 hostas. And, after walking the entire garden, I certainly can believe there are that many and maybe more. In an email I received from Tom, he said they have 1,350 peonies, 400 bearded irises, 250 beardless irises, 400 lilies, 200 hellebores, and they are down to 50 daylilies, but they use to have a lot more. Like many gardens, theirs is situated on a hill, with lots of rock walls, paths covered with mulch, some with large flat stones, and some with pebbles. Hostas and lots of companion plants were tucked into every spot they would fit. What I noticed was that every plant, whether it be a hosta, coral bell, fern, or any other kind of companion, was healthy looking with thick leaves and large clumps. In a sunny patch in the middle of the all the shade covering hundreds of hostas, was the awarding winning daylilies and irises of all kinds and colors. During the celebration of the blooms of the daylilies and irises, which is mid-May, hundreds of people come to view the beautiful colors and unusual blooms. In addition to visitors, there are vendors who come to sell their daylilies and irises. Tom said they use liquid Miracle Grow as fertilizer.
After spending more than an hour viewing the gardens, Kris and Tom asked if we would want to view another garden. We, of course, said absolutely. Real gardeners never tire of viewing other’s gardens. They said they have a neighbor, Tom Kenney, 243 Dave Cir, who has some lovely gardens. They said that Tom’s wife, who was actually the gardener, had passed away from breast cancer 6 years and ever since he had tried to keep the gardens looking like they did when his wife maintained them. Up until that time, he had done very little in the gardens. I will say that we were all impressed by how great the gardens looked. There were 2 coy ponds, one very large, as well as bridge over a dry riverbed and a structure that provided shade for the hostas. There are pictures of glass panes on each end of the structure. He also had a fairly large greenhouse, that looked like it was the home of a cat whose “cat house” was built in front of the entrance so the cat had the run to the greenhouse.
After we finished touring Tom Kenney’s gardens, we headed for the Holub Greenhouses, 22085 580th Ave, Ames. They had a lot of potted flower arrangements in hanging baskets, pots and lots of beautiful annuals of the latest in magazines. They did not have very many hostas and what they did have did not look healthy and were very expensive.
Next, lunch! John Miller found a restaurant that was on the way to the next place we were going, Lincoln View Farm, 1071 X Ave, Boone IA. The restaurant John found was called Cornbread BBQ. It took a few minutes to get a table for 8 so we had some popcorn that they offered to customers. It was good but salty. I guess that was so you would drink more beer—or whatever you had to drink.
Once we were seated there was conversation at the table about only one menu item where cornbread mentioned. Sue Adkins figured with the name Cornbread, they would maybe have samples of cornbread or more things dealing with cornbread. My sandwich, which was called 3 Little Pigs consisted of ham, brisket, and pork. It was a lot of meat but tasted good. A couple of people got BBQ Burnt Ends that were really burnt. The biggest complaint was a side dish that said it was cucumbers and tomatoes in light vinegar. It ended up being pickled—not light vinegar. Marty had a breaded pork cutlet sandwich with bleu cheese aioli sauce. She said it was good, especially the aioli sauce.
Jonie Renshaw and Katie Novak did not go to lunch with us because they had to get back to Tekemah for an open house.
After lunch, we headed to Lincoln View Farm, 1071 X Ave, Boone IA. It’s a family-run multipurpose business, run by Robert and Nancy Briggs, with a nice hosta garden and an area to display things other than hostas for sale. Their gardens were part of the Midwest Convention in 2023. Since we had not notified them prior to going there, they did not have very many hostas potted for sale or many items in the antique shop. I am sorry to say that I did not get any pictures of Lincoln View Farm but John Miller did and allowed me to use them as part of this posting. He got a picture a tree trunk that had been carved into a sitting large dog. As we were leaving, Nancy dug up a clump of H. ‘School Mouse’ and gave to people as a “thanks for coming” present. From a Facebook posting, I gather they host flea markets during the summer. From there, we all headed home. We arrived Plattsmouth 4:30 or 5:00, tired but thankful we had taken part in this caravan. Some think we should do it in May next year so we can view 1,350 peonies in bloom.
