Get your hostas and help Heifer International

"Hosta Happening" will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29 at Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery Inc., 11618 McConnell Road, Woodstock. The event which benefits Heifer International is sponsored by Rich Eyre, Susan Eyre and Margaret Eyre, the 91-year-old "Hosta Queen." For information, call (815) 338-7442 or e-mail coniflora@richsfoxwillowpines.com.

The event features several hundred varieties of hostas $5 and up for sale to benefit Heifer International. Heifer International is an international charity that leads hungry people to self-reliance through sharing farm animals. The recipients of the animals must pass on the first female offspring to another family in need.

Rich Eyre worked with this organization in the Peace Corps 41 years ago in Bolivia and he can give testimony to its positive effects in those communities. Rich and Susan Eyre served six years on the board of trustees of the Heifer Foundation. Heifer International has provided food and income producing animals to more than 8 million impoverished families in 135 countries in the last 65 years. Heifer International staff and volunteers will be available to answer any questions about the charity on the day of the sale. Refreshments will be served.

In "Hosta Leaf Identification" from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tom Michiletti, president of the American Hosta Society, will be available to identify your unknown hosta leaves.

There will be a "Get Your Hosta Groove On" presentation by Mary Beth Vanous of Q&Z Nursery Rochelle at 1 p.m.

"The Hostapedia: An Encyclopedia of Hostas,"a new book on hostas, will be for sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This 1,125-page new book hot off the press describes every hosta that author Mark Zilis has encountered over the past 30 years. There are 1,897 photos of hostas as well as many unusual collector's plants and hosta oddities. It is the most definitive work on hostas in print and a must for every collector, nurseryman and gardener.