Pic of the Day--Guacamole

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Hank Zumach
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Pic of the Day--Guacamole

Post by Hank Zumach »

Hi All--First of all..............today we are going to be talking about a highly emotional subject that some of us have very strong opinions about. As regular readers of the POTD know after reading yesterday's postings about....yes..we discussed...how can I say this without offending?...squash casserole. The charges and counter charges that were hurled back and forth about covered dishes nearly brought the Forum to a standstill. So, please, if you don't feel comfortable about calmly discussing chip dips and Mexican condiments, maybe you should just click out of this message now, because today's Pic of the Day, in the spirit of completness and defense of the right of Freedom of the Press, is going to be about...yes...I'm going to say it loud and proud: GUACAMOLE :eek: :o :eek: And I'm going to discuss it just as I had written it before yesterday's whole, sordid affair. So here it is, exactly as I think it should be described:

Guacamole is an excellent variety. It has attractive foliage that does well in varying light conditions, has an excellent growth rate, fragrant flowers and is usually free from slug damage. This particular Guacamole has been growing in a spot that gets as much as 6 hours of sun, mostly in the afternoon and it suffers very little, if any, burning . I have another Guacamole growing in shade that is not quite as large as this one. Starting as a multi-eyed division in 2000, in 2001 it was 41x23, and then went 53x27, 61x29, 57x26, 64x31 and seems to have leveled off since it was 63x29 last year. Since Zilis lists it at 54x24 (up to 64x31) the plant has apparently reached its full size.

Registry - http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... =Guacamole
MyHostas - http://www.myhostas.be/db/hostas/Guacamole
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/g/guacamole.html

The photos are from 2002, 2004, and 2006.
Guacamole Blvd 6-26-06c.jpg
Guacamole blvd 7-2-04c.JPG
Guacamole boulevard 6-24-02c.jpg
Hank
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Tkzone7
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Post by Tkzone7 »

Soooo pretty! This is always one of my favorites!

And I just want to thank you for all the info you give, it helps sort everything out!
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renaldo75
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Post by renaldo75 »

Hank - thanks for having the will to continue the POTD after the sordidness of the whole Squash Casserole/covered dish set-to Jim & I had. :???: :oops: I couldn't stop laughing as I read your opening paragraph. :wink:

And as always your pics & info are excellent. :P I think Guacamole is one that has several variations on the market due to tissue culture. The margins on the ones that I have are usually not much darker than the centers. In fact several years ago the margin wasn't even noticeable at 1st glance. And I've read descriptions of Guacamole as having a yellow-green center. Not sure how accurate that is, but the centers of mine are fresh-out-of-the-pea-pod pea-green. All of mine get about as much afternoon sun as yours. I'll see if I can find a pic of the one that is in the sunniest location.
GO HAWKEYES!!!

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Jamie
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Re: Pic of the Day--Guacamole

Post by Jamie »

Hank Zumach wrote:Hi All--First of all..............today we are going to be talking about a highly emotional subject that some of us have very strong opinions about. As regular readers of the POTD know after reading yesterday's postings about....yes..we discussed...how can I say this without offending?...squash casserole. The charges and counter charges that were hurled back and forth about covered dishes nearly brought the Forum to a standstill. So, please, if you don't feel comfortable about calmly discussing chip dips and Mexican condiments, maybe you should just click out of this message now, because today's Pic of the Day, in the spirit of completness and defense of the right of Freedom of the Press, is going to be about...yes...I'm going to say it loud and proud:
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

SC must be a Iowa thing :lol: ... But Hank in that post you asked us to comment or add picture, but I see you didn't want us to in this one :-? :lol: :lol:

All joking aside I can't comment much more on this one then what you've posted.. Seems to be a great looker here that has a faster growth rate :wink:
Hank Zumach
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Post by Hank Zumach »

Renaldo--For color comparison, here is my other Guacamole from a much shadier spot.
Guacamole vinca bank 6-26-06c 025.jpg
Hank
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newtohosta-no more
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Post by newtohosta-no more »

Great pics! Love the plant, hate the dish.....and that's all I'm going to say about the matter. :lol:
~JOAN~
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LucyGoose
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Post by LucyGoose »

:lol: :lol: :lol: Too funny Hank!! It really must be an Iowa thing! :wink:

I love Guacamole.... I have 2.....I don't think I have any picture's. :hmm:

Joan, you doen't eat Guacamole? Oh man, I make a pig out of myself... :lol:

Thanks for the POD! :D
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renaldo75
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Post by renaldo75 »

Thanks, Hank - unfortunately I can't see any of your Guacamole pics. :???: [Still haven't ever gotten my jpeg problem here resolved. It was once for about a week, but....] Once in a while I can see your pics on here. Usually I have to take a look at them on Hostapix before I comment over here. But apparently there is a Gmail/Hostapix receiving problem now & I'm not getting all of the emails being sent. :x [I sent an email to Carol Brashear but haven't ever heard back from her. Not sure if that is an email related problem or if she was at Hosta College over the weekend.] I get a few - but not yours today. Don't think I got your Dick Ward email either.

I will see if I can add the pic of my Guacamole I mentioned. I tried it earlier & when I hit submit I lost Hallson's. :roll: So I'll give it another shot.
As you can see the margins on this one are very light - but I'm glad it looked this good since it was one of the ones that turned to mush after a frost in early spring in 2005
As you can see the margins on this one are very light - but I'm glad it looked this good since it was one of the ones that turned to mush after a frost in early spring in 2005
7-30-05guacamole-b.jpg (50.69 KiB) Viewed 4764 times
GO HAWKEYES!!!

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thy
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Post by thy »

:lol: :lol: Hank, no problem

I love Guacamole :D

And have a great California Baja recipie for it :D

But now I need to whisper..... after 6 years of co living in the garden I asked Guacamole to leave last year.
It gladly did with some friends - hoping to bee understood and treasured.

It complained of my lack of patience with the special gloss, told me I had to wait to late July for it to perform, and I have to admit, I didn't have the patience - it did grow fast, had scented flowers, no slug problem- but didn't want to please me with the colors and gloss.
Think it will be happy somewhere else :)

Hope I remember to find a SQ recipee in summertime- never tried that before :wink:

Pia
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thy
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Post by thy »

Worked fine Reldon- but that Guacamole sure do not look like mine did :o
Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
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LucyGoose
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Post by LucyGoose »

Nice picture Reldon!! :D

Pia, you got rid of it? Well, now that I realize that I need more space, I think I will sharing my extra one for more space for the potted ones.....Hey Elaine, you reading this?? :lol: If you are, ask me for a Guacamole..... :wink:
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jgh
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Post by jgh »

Wow... I did this long reply this afternoon, then kept getting a "server down" message... oh well, I guess I'll try again!
-------------------------
Aren?t food-based hosta names just the BEST!!!

I love Guacamole... both the hosta and the dip. (in Guatemala they drop the last vowel and call it "wok ah MOLE" and make it very simply with just the juacate and lime juice and onion and salt, pepper, and oregano... no sharp spices... recipe available on request)

Most of you already know the heritage, but the family is so large that it bears repeating.

Fragrant Bouquet was registered by Paul Aden in 1982, a hybrid of Fascination and Fragrant Summer. There is plantaginea in the heritage as is evidenced by the large white or near-white fragrant flowers. In those years, when tc was rare, it would take a while for a hosta to "catch on." FB was selected "Hosta of the Year" in 1998.

Frankly, I was surprised. I just wasn't enamored of the apple green and cream color scheme... and FB didn't grow as fast as I'd like and the leaves didn't have great substance. (By '97, I was already agitating for the vastly superior June to be HOTY and was miffed when anything else was selected. I had to live through 97, Patriot; '99, Paul's Glory; 2000 Sagae; finally, in 2001, June got selected and I was able to end my personal boycott of the HOTY label.)

So FB became common in the trade, but its sport Guacamole (Solberg, 1994) also rapidly gained recognition. G was widely tc'd, so it was immediately popular. I am not the only one who finds the color combination of G more appealing than its parent. I also found G to be a more rapid grower and a larger overall plant than FB. G was selected HOTY in 2002.

G. also was the first hosta I know of to result in an all-to-common trend of naming and selling not-true-to-type culls from tissue culture. They got a lot of all green and all yellow sports when they tc'd it. Normally, you cull all those and throw them away, but Bob Solberg found that these were fast growing plants with the same good fragrant flowers, so he registered Fried Bananas in 1994 and Fried Green Tomatoes in 1995. I can't fault the registration in this case... both plants are garden-worthy and valuable additions to my garden. (But can we really say the same of Green Lama???)

G also resulted in a wider-margined sport named Avocado... (shshhh - don't tell G I said this...which I might even like even a little better than G)

The only bad rap on Guacamole is that it doesn't emerge fully colored. Its color develops as the season progresses. Since I like subtle colorations, I think this just adds to G's interest - see the early to mid-season picture attached - but there is no denying that some people prefer the bright center to appear on emergence or early in the season.

Enter Stained Glass (Hansen, 1999)... much brighter than its parent. Very popular, as attested by its position in the Hallson poll... and its selection as HOTY in 2006.

So by any account, G is part of a pretty impressive family. Not only the 3 outright HOTY, but also So Sweet, HOTY in 1996 is a FB x seedling hybrid. All easy to grow, vigorous, attractive, and having excellent fragrant flowers.

There is another whole crop of sports from this family popping up with similar characteristics. Miss Saigon is a FB sport, green-with-cream margin. Fragrant Dream is also from FB with a similar description, margin going from yellow to almost white. Fragrant King is out of FGT, but with a creamy white margin. Fragrant Surprise is a Sweetie sport... but Sweetie had FB as one of its parents, so we'll add both of them to the family tree as well. Frozen Margarita comes out of FB, with greenish-yellow leaves and a white margin.

I?m sure there are more that I?m missing? please add to the list.

If I could only have one family of hostas, it would be a Sophie?s Choice between the Halcyon-June-Touch Of Class-First Frost-ETC family and the FB family. If I had limited space, it would go to the first. If I had lots of space, and needed more sun tolerance, I?d go with the latter. Thankfully, I?ll never have to choose! (and don?t ask me to get rid of the whole collection of August Moon sports? just too painful to think about!)
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renaldo75
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Post by renaldo75 »

Jim - Now don't get me something started by dissing Green Lama!! :x :wink: I discovered its subtle charms a couple of years ago when mine looked especially nice & had a soft 'irridescent' velveteen look to it. [I know that makes no sense but that's what it looked like.] Last fall I relocated my 2 Island Charms to a new bed near Old Glory & Green Lama was positioned in a prominent spot near them at the east end of the bed. Can't wait to see what that looks like this spring!!

I think you forgot Holy Mole which is Hans Hansen's version of Avocado - they look like the same plant to me anyway.
GO HAWKEYES!!!

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jgh
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Post by jgh »

thanks, Reldon... I probably missed several, but that one was nagging away at the edge of my damaged memory...

I haven't grown Holy Mole yet... have it on order for the spring... and it is available this year in wholesale from Walters at a very reasonable price, so I expect there will be a lot of them in nurseries this year and next.
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Post by Buckeye »

And soon to be showing up at a hosta seller near you: Cathedral Windows. It is, I believe, a tetraploid sport of Stained Glass. I saw a few forced for the Cleveland Flower & Garden show last month. Very impressive!
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jgh
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Post by jgh »

Very interesting... I'd somehow missed this one. I see that it is a Hans Hansen 2005 registration... also PP.

I guess I'll never understand all the ins and outs of hosta marketing. I know that Marco Fransen has a close relationship with the Naylor Boyz, so their stuff gets intermingled in wholesaling... and Naylor also seemed to have a relationship with Barry Sligh and the Kiwi hostas. And Bob Solberg and Mark Zilis are friends and their stuff goes back and forth.

But here is a potentially big-deal hosta. And Hans' own company, Shady Oaks, doesn't have it in wholesale. Nobody I know has tc available. Yet Tony Avent at Plant Delights has it in retail size... he must have an arrangement with Hans. And then there is some place in Missouri that is also advertising it in their retail catalog this year.

I guess I'll have to attend a couple of conventions to start to understand all this!
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renaldo75
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Post by renaldo75 »

Interesting that Shady Oaks doesn't have Cathedral Windows in TC at the moment. Hans & Tony do seem to share hostas - or at least Hans' newer intros always end up in Tony's catalog 1st. Then they get to the masses a little later after the buzz & exclusivity have worn off a bit. [And Tony's stock has dwindled.] So I would be willing to bet that Shady Oaks has it in TC - it's just not in the catalog for this year. At the very least, they've had it in TC & Tony has all the plants growing in his pots. :wink:

Jim - I don't think going to the conventions is gonna get you into the inner circle. :wink: But you'll still have a good time. :P
GO HAWKEYES!!!

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Hank Zumach
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Post by Hank Zumach »

JGH & Renaldo--Thanks for all the excellent information. I personally don't have that much interest in the genetic background of varieties but I know that many hostaholics do.
Hank
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sugar
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Post by sugar »

Guacamole is a fantastic plant. One of my favourites. I have a lot of slugs on them though...
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Re: Pic of the Day--Guacamole

Post by redcrx »

Guacamole during the 2014 season.

I have had this plant since 2009. I didn't really like it at first. I only bought it to add to a collection of Fragrant Bouquet sports. I say I didn't like it because as a small plant it is rather dull but when it gets big it is really enjoyable. As a full size plant it stands out in a group.
Guacamole - July 23, 2014
Guacamole - July 23, 2014
Guacamole - August 11, 2014
Guacamole - August 11, 2014
Guacamole - August 11, 2014
Guacamole - August 11, 2014
Guacamole - September 4, 2014
Guacamole - September 4, 2014
Ed McHugh, Sicklerville NJ
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