I blinked a little, then responded "Define your terms." Clarification is always important.
"Today" for example... does that mean literally "today," or does it mean "if the weather won't let us work outside" or "if we have some time today..."
"we"... does that mean literally "we" - as in both of us, working in tandem and roughly equal amounts of effort and time... or does it mean a kind of global we, as in "we, between the two of us, both making efforts commensurate with our skills and focus, will get a number of things done today..."
"need to" as in "really must be done" or "really should get done" or "entropy is one of the laws of thermodynamics and if we don't get on this one of these days it will be too late..."
and "clean"... as in "get the crap out of sight in case the paramedics are called or a stranger needs to use the bathroom" or as in "a good vacuum and cleaning the kitchen and bathroom good enough for company" or "cleaning everything, whether it shows or not... yes, that means vacuuming under the bed and using the nozzle along the baseboards..."
Can anyone blame Bill Clinton for trying to clarify what the definition of "is" is?!
We finished our backgammon before we had parsed the sentence completely, then the phone rang... so I'm at the computer and have dodged the cleaning bullet for the nonce...
So I was looking at the new Hallsons sale hostas. (yup... I zigged, then zagged... you can stay with me... we'll get there eventually...)
and why, you might ask, would I, who buys hostas wholesale and sells them a little, why would I be looking at the Hallsons sale. Well... you know... there is always one more hosta I don't have that I really should have, and... oh, never mind - Sheila doesn't understand that one either.
Anyway, I saw a listing for one of the hostas I'd been planning on including in the NPOTD anyway... so it moved up to today's entry.
The hosta is 'Victory'. Oddly enough, I find the name unsettling. I tend to be uncomfortable with hosta names that inspire thoughts of war or conflict. I look for peace, or at least some form of tranquility, when I'm in my garden. (Except when I'm popping a cap in that dxxx woodchuck's xxx!)
In mythology, Cadmus (a hero, demigod, or whatever... founder of Thebes) killed a dragon, but in the process so upset the dragon's patron, Ares, the god of war, that he incurred a lifetime of bad karma. Thus a "Cadmean victory" is one where winning may indeed cost one more than losing would have.
For years I've used my own definition for "victory" - Victory means the self-delusion that one has lost less than the other party.
So I was ambivalent about putting 'Victory' in a prominent place in my garden. I ended up putting in two... and have become quite impressed with it. It seems like there are a lot of upright or semi-upright, green-with-yellow-margins hostas. 'Sagae', of course... and lots of sports... and 'Leading Lady'... and 'Mount Everest'... and and and. So what makes 'Victory' stand out?
Two things. One, the green center tends toward the lighter end of the spectrum than most of its competitors. But more strikingly, the leaves of 'Victory' have an exceptionally elegant tapered look and are extremely large. Though my plants have not formed particularly "full" clumps, the leaves they do have are quite dramatic. I measured several this morning at 10 1/2" across and over 13" long. I find I will have to move a pathway and relocate some other hostas just to avoid moving this plant that so strikingly anchors one end of a bed.
Hosta Registry - http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... ty=Victory
MyHostas - http://myhostas.be/db/hostas/Victory
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/v/victory.html
Only one I know of, besides streaked plants. I bought Victory and Unchained Melody the same year. Unchained melody is a Hybrid giant that looks alot like Victory in an immature state, but is a less upright plant upon maturity. I was so positive when both came out that they were the same plant, but I was wrong. Unchained Melody here has larger leaves. Both have ridiculously tall scapes.
