The Colorado State Extension document on pickled peppers (revised 3/08 so quite recent) does have a recipe for pickled peppers in oil which uses vinegar, not lemon juice, at a ratio of 5 cups of vinegar to 1 of water and 3/4 cup of oil. So there is a safe-tested recipe available for Hot Peppers Marinated in Oil which uses vinegar. Having made peppers marinated in oil I wouldn't do it again. It's very messy (requiring even more care than usual to assure there's no oil under the seal) calls for a longer processing time (which affects texture) and doesn't hold up on the shelf as long (oil can turn rancid). Just my 2 cents, but if I want oil in the marinade, I'll pour off the pickling solution after opening the jar and add some. I would not be sure the original recipe as posted is unsafe, though the processing time is short. It's either untested or perhaps tested but from a reputable source we don't recognize. The whole issue is we don't know one way or the other, especially without attribution. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Making Pickled Peppers at Home

To add onto what Bernd started... Lets start by saying...when you purchase a plant..any plant. daylily, tomato, hosta...whatever... judge the plant by its ROOTS! The root system is the foundation for the plant. A root system determines how quickly the plant will thrive, if planted and treated properly. This year I purchased tissue cultures with the root mass of of mature divisions(1 or 2 mature eyes with mature leaves, you spoke of this). You see the leaves die every year, but the root mass will remain... Its true that there is still the crown and number of eyes there to make a difference in the actual size of the leaf mound, BUT leaf/foliage size will fool you. You see... if you go to lowe's, walmart, home depot... and look at their hostas... you might think they look better than buying a division... but what they are, are tissue cultures... bought from a lab..by a nursery...grown and fertilized for a couple seasons... then shipped to the retailer.. and sold to you... they are massively commercial..full of disease and chemical fertilizer... we've all bought them...knowing better... When you fertilize... you have macro and micro nutrients... micronutrients you need not worry about much... most are already in the soil in good enough amount, that if you aren't having severe growing issues, you might not ever take a soil test and even worry about them...you can also check with your local extension office and have them direct you to an agent in your area who could tell you about micronutrients in your native soil.. Macronutrients on the other hand are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, N, K and P... when you see ratings on fertilizer... 10-10-10 for example... each number in the same order is the percentage of each in that bag... so per lb...10-10-10 garden fertilizer is .1lb N, .1lb P and .1lb K....Or you'll see it on the back of many fertilizers in percentages... Miracle Gro for example lists theirs on the back in percentages ....which translates the same way... Plants fertilized in Nitrogen heavy fertilizers... for example... all purpose Miracle Gro... will look amazing on the surface... since Nitrogen promotes foliage growth... but if you grow it big with Nitrogen one year... then lay off the next year... It probably won't be that big... making you think that its getting smaller... but really the root mass is the same...you were just boosting the foliage the year before...Phosphorus more helps grow better root masses... and Potassium is more for budding....Which is why a balanced fertilizer is most always in order... Fertilizers with heavy amounts of phosphorus may be banned in your area due to the amount of phosphorus in the ground and ground water... personally I like 10-10-10 and an occasional dose of Miracle Gro Tomato formula which is 20-20-20... but you have to be gentle with it... So what I'm saying... you buy a fertilized tissue culture... then plant it... and don't fertilize it... next year its gonna look smaller... cause it just didn't have the root mass to begin with.. it was pumped full of Nitrogen to look pretty...you can do the same thing... but some of us have more of an appreciation for a 4 foot tall 10 foot wide naturally grown mound of SnS.... than a 4.5 foot tall 11 foot wide chemically fertilized mound of SnS... Kinda like the difference in buying something or making something yourself...I say this and I fertilize with the best of them lol.... There's nothing wrong with buying tissue cultures....but I prefer to buy mature divisions..generally from a certain couple places... they always have excellent root mass, a couple eyes and generally will produce a few more eyes the next season if planted properly... and by five seasons you have a mature hosta..with most moderate or faster growing cultivars... But this can be iffy... if you are buying from a retailer who just sends you one eye with a small root mass... thats really no better than an average tissue culture. The thing about tissue culture is that you can buy them from the labs just like the nurseries.. and get them for as cheap as 2 bucks a piece sometimes... if you buy them small enough and buy a large enough tray. The ones I purchased this season were 3 for 15 bucks.. and like I said... they had the root mass of some of the divisions I bought this year. When this was stated "The early tissue culture batches of T-Rex produced many plants that are very slow growers. Originator stock or a piece from a mature plant will grow at a good rate, but most of the tc plants will take a long time to mature." This is way... seriously deep in the hobby knowledge... I know a lot about growing plants.. but I am far out of the circle of the hosta socity and convention scene to provide any inside knowledge like that... Originator stock is refering to the original plants that were grown, from division only, and registered as the cultivar.... When a new variety is discovered... it has to be grown for awhile.... divided.. and grown... and tested and timed and watched and watched... then if it fits the bill.. it will get registered as a cultivar... cultivated variety...Then at this point it becomes supremely valuable to many.. because its tissue cultures are so valuable many times... labs pay big money to the founder of this new variety for rights to TC... then many are so interested, they watch the growth habits of the tissue cultures to see if they line up with the original cultivar... Unfortunately in this business.. many plants are being sold out there that do not have all the original registered characteristics of a cultivar... this is due sometimes to a loss of them through tissue culture... and sometimes plants aren't properly labeled in nurseries... and everything else you can imagine.... we are humans and things are broadly commercial... so the integrity of the cultivar is always lost somewhat... theres several different looks to June for example... But since tissue culture spreads out the cultivar around the world quicker than division... I'd say most of the divisions you buy are from TCs grown to maturity.. so like I said.. your a bit away from the originator stock... Plants that are trademarked, I think, technically aren't supposed to be propagated for the purpose of profit without the trademark holders consent... Give your plants time to start making mature leaves... I know you've talked about pots, and you live in texas, I cannot comment because I just put mine in the ground and live in Kentucky.... But I think it would do you better in the long run to have yours in the ground... if you want to get serious... start planning out some shade strategies like planting trees and shrubs or purchasing shade cloth and building a patio area or something covered in shade cloth just to put some hostas in the ground...I really think the roots are happier in the ground... Bernd mentioned buying hostas in pots with several eyes already... I think you are like me... Hostas just aren't popular popular, in Texas or Kentucky... there's no hosta scene here... We have lots of daylily fanatics here.. several daylily conventions and festivals...there's like 20 daylily farms and growers, cultivators or whatnot with 50 miles... theres just not a hosta scene... we've got one farm in the state and its like 2.5 hours away! So your stuck like me... ordering mature divisions... check out Naylor Creek Nursery online and Hallson's Gardens online... I had great experiences with them this year! And now to finally talk about the color change...lets do some definitions.... albescent having leaves that become whiter as the season progresses; i.e., H. �Gold Standard�. lutescent having leaves that begin the season darker and become lighter or more yellow as the season progresses; not the result of bleaching due to poor nutrition or too much sun. viridescent having leaves which begin the season lighter colored and become more green as the season advances. These are the terms to describe the color change in hosta foliage... you'll see the whole hosta look one way in the spring... then by summer you'll have the first flush of leaves already changed.... and you'll see the new growth coming out of the ground looking like the first flush of growth did in the spring. For example the margins on fortunei albomarginata emerge gold... then by summer they are all white... undulata albomarginata on the other hand has margins that emerge white and stay white all season... Leaf size or maturity is kindly relevant to this.. since the leaves are small when they emerge... and with time they get bigger and obtain their color change. But some of the color change will be due to the amount of light they are getting... June for example will stay closer to white centered all year if kept in deep shade... but if put in the light a bit more it will soon go the green/yellow route.... You'll have to get the inside information on Paul Aden from one of our more savvy hosta fanatics... I'm sure you could google his name and get a bio if you wanted... Hope this makes sense and wasn't too boring... I was bored and got carried away! John Check out HostaDirect.com for a great great database of hostas...I don't buy from there but I really like their database! Just for giggles... here are some more useful links http://www.hostalibrary.org/ http://www.perennialnursery.com/ http://www.naylorcreek.com/

I believe in "MO BETTER." Like Jo, if one is good, the MO is BETTER. With plantaginea, I have 8. Sagae has 2 in one pot, I want to see a big plant quicker. Royal Standard, about 3, because I love it and it is fertile So Sweet 2 Frozen Margarita 2 Grape Fizz 2 Honeybells 2 Whirlwind 2 August Moon 2 Midas Touch 2 Invincible Spirit 2 Victory 2 planted in one pot Paradise Island 2 in one pot, looking gorgeous still Goodness, I could go on, but it is my policy to get the 2nd of its kind from a different source for several reasons....one being it is beautiful hosta....another being it is a way to check the growth habit which might be different if from a different tissue culture. I especially like to try for OS (originator stock) if available, and compare it to TC (tissue cultures). I have 2 Fortunei Hyacinthinas because they look so different. One is the light version, the other is apparently the darker version. As I discover the duplicate is the same as my original and it is healthy, I am sometimes planting them in the same pot--but that goes against my cautious nature, since if they are mixed I have no way of knowing with which plant a virus originates. Heck, I am only now beginning to merge hosta from various nurseries in the same row. Before, I had them isolated in "classrooms" which helped me identify each cultivar (because I knew what I purchased from them). As I discover some hosta (especially a fragrant one) produce large amounts of seedpods, I tend to get a duplicate of it.

Ahh... I will tell you how I learned that from her--I did a telephone consultation with her! Somewhere on GW I did a little review of my call with her and I could try to find the link but basically here is the part that relates, I think, to your question: My kitchen cabinets are creamy off-white painted. The main rooms in my house are a light warm-gray color. I believe she would call it almost a green-grey but to me it just looks light grey. :-) So because of those two factors, the trim throughout the house is a warmer white, maybe even an off-white. I was using Sherwin Williams colors but if you want I can check the color names I used. So my bathrooms have standard white toilets, sinks, and tiles, and one of them has white beadboard. The off-white creamy trim throughout the rest of the house would have looked "off" in the bathrooms against all that pure white. Yes, I know the toilets are not the exact same white as the sinks are not the exact same white as the tiles, but they're all pretty darn close. So for the bathroom trim Maria told me to go with a different Sherwin Williams color, I forgot which one but it was definitely a brighter, more "white" white than the trim for the rest of the house. There's no doubt that was the right decision. The creamy off-white trim would have looked terrible had it been taken through into the bathrooms. I do remember the color she specified for my bathroom walls: it's Sherwin Williams Tidewater. Look that up on google images--it's nice against pure white. It would be nice against a creamy off-white too, but anyway. I have to say I totally recommend Maria Killam and I love her blog. I wish I'd found her before I redid the kitchen because I probably wouldn't have ended up with the creamy cabinets, for this reason -- they limit the ability to have pure white trim throughout the main living areas. Anyway. That's my very long explanation for saying you should have the bathrooms "internally consistent" and I hope it made sense and was of some bit of use to you! I did conclude my "report" about my call with her by saying I would recommend her consultation service, so if you're willing to invest $500, she can definitely give you some ideas and specific color names.