Sometimes it is a very hard decision on what to do to a sick beloved bulb. I have learned to put aside my feelings and then decide on the situation. When I have bulbs like this, I first check the center... the HEART of the bulb. If it has a rot that has damaged the center, then it is time to cut it up and try to just produce bulblets out of the mother bulb. Or treat the center rot and let the mother bulbs produce bulblets on it's own. This is what I did to my beloved Papilio I. I just let her be and she has produced at least 15 bulblets. Papilio I is gone now but I have a potful of bulblets in it's memory. If the center is ok, then I would clean it up really good and plant it. If the basal plate is thick, I REJUVINATE the bulb. Slice off the basal plate leaving like just 1/2 inch of it. This would take away the old roots but give the bulb a better chance to produce MORE and NEW roots. Thick basal plates get too tough that it hinders root growth. Places where old roots emerged usually won't produce new roots anymore. New roots will emerge from other points in the basal plate. Rejuvinating bulbs is done by commercial growers to older bulbs when they are already slackening in their performance. I then paint all of the cuts/wounds with Captan paste, let dry for 2-3 days and plant like you will with a newly purchased bulb. The decision is yours "daddy". Whatever action you take on your "baby" always remember this...It has lived a good life with a purpose. To teach you and give you knowledge. Learn from it... Good luck!

Well, thank you, Sally. My son looks like his father, but the other two look like Daddy and are tall like Daddy. Their goal was always to be as tall as grandad. Mary, his bride of 1 1/2 years, takes very good care of Daddy. Mary told me that she always thought it was "funny" when old people married. But then she met Daddy. Isn't that sweet?

Rhys is a lovely name. Really looking forward to seeing some pictures! Just an observation... on the US pond forum, they have a 'conversations' link which enables then to discuss things that are NOT pond related. I am surprised that Spike has never sign-posted this link when telling us off for wandering off topic. Sue... any chance you could ask Spike to give us a conversations link too? It would be awful if Phil posted pics then had the post deleted.

When you said "here's mine" did you mean your posted pic is of Big Daddy? I just checked the hosta library and you may be right. Big Daddy had some cupped leaves and more corrugation than mine appears to have. But then I just checked the measurements of the leaves and the vein pairs and they more closely match Big Daddy.