Mark Zilis has been working with hostas for over thirty years. He is an owner of Q & Z Nursery in Rochelle, Illinois. His tissue culture lab and breeding program have turned out many new hosta cultivars.

In addition to his nursery work, Mark is a leading author and authority on the species, Hosta. He has visited hundreds of hosta gardens around the world and has visited areas of Japan, Korea and China to see the plants growing in the wild.

Note: In case you were wondering what a guy does after 30 years of studying hostas and photographing them around the world...here is Mark taking more pictures in a garden at the 2011 American Hosta Society Convention in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. BTW- Mark is one of those guys who has a picture in the attic that is aging while he stays young looking.

His first book, The Hosta Handbook (ISBN 0-9679440-0-7) published in 2000 is a vital resource for anyone seriously interested in these plants. It is a small format book that is easy to carry with you into the garden.

In 2009, he released The Hostapedia, (ISBN 978-0-9679440-1-2) the most complete work on the plant ever. It includes descriptions of about 7,000 hostas which have been named and the about 4,000 of those that have been officially registered with the American Hosta Society. This is a huge book that you will want to keep in your library and not have to carry around too much.

To help you wade through all the thousands of hostas discussed in this book, we at PGC have compiled a listing of "Mark Zilis' Outstanding Hosts".

Comments from Mr. PGC: Throughout history, many people have made lasting contributions to the world of plants. In these pages, we hope to pay tribute to some of them. Our concentration will be primarily on those who have introduced plants to the gardening world, those who have helped spread the word about gardening and those who have made significant contributions to landscaping and landscaping design around the world.

This list will be constantly growing as we add new names. If you have someone who you think should be on the list, please send us an Email.