Tobacco Road has been on my list for a while. Where did you get yours from?

Terri

I got mine from Garden Breeze through the Hosta Library Auctions. At the time, I thought I was at the First Look Auctions, did not know the difference. But all the ones I got at that time seem to be doing fine. I could list them now, but I've got to get out to the garden and bag up debris before it rains. It has been a great day in the garden, and is 70F right now.....lovely!

Nice, it's 70F here right now as well!

Don B.

Garden Breeze is fresh out of Tobacco Road right now. This one's been on my list too and I saw that she had it about a month ago on the auction but unfortunately that was the last one. Haven't seen it anywhere else. It's a very sad state of affairs :(

Sorry Moc,

I forgot to take a picture of mine last year. It was in its first year. I believe that I recall that it was golder than the plant in your picture, but there was a light green edge on the leaves. But I'm relying on memory here and it's not as good as it used to be. I do remember being pleasantly surprised at how good it looked. I promise I'll take one next year.

Steve

I'm cheating here, I know you've seen this, Mocc, but here's a pic from Olga P's website...Need this hosta, too...What a beauty, how does she do it over and over again!

Don B.

The whole plant...

If anyone hasn't seen her website, just Google 'The Hosta Lady', look around, and be amazed.

Don B.

Wow, Don, is that Tobacco Road? You know, I read that Bob Solberg named it for her....pretty good name, I think.

The one I'm looking for by her is Viva Las Vegas, not in a rush to get it, just think it would be a grand addition. Let's hope my Tobacco Road does something spectacular this year! Love the Olga hosta!

That is a seriously gorgeous hosta! Who wouldn't want one???

Yup, upon seeing it for the first time, Mr. Solberg said the leaves reminded him of a tobacco plant. What a great hosta.

Don B.

My wee babe Tobacco Road has a lot of growing to do before it gets that lovely.

Only one of my Olga hosta has pipped so far, Old Faithful--and it adds size to its leaves every morning. This was a couple of days ago, biggest one in the garden to date.

The hosta finder says New Hampshire has it. It's not listed on their site.

bk

Now I have a dilemma.
I heard from GardenBreeze that the plant I received was NOT Tobacco Road as I thought. Amazing that she still had my email addy, too, because she sent a refund for this plant which I won in February 2012.

Let me see if I can get this straight. GBreeze got her stock from ShadyOaksNursery TissueCultures. As it turns out, almost half of them were not true to name. It happened to other nurseries, same issue. While most of the UNTRUE Tobacco Roads stayed in the nursery, a few were already sold...and it looks like I got one of those.

So now I am set to do some research on the family tree of Tobacco Road, to see what hosta could have been the UNTRUE TC product in my possession.

For the time being, I'm calling it Hosta 'Vincent Twin' since it is not true Tobacco Road. I am reminded of the movie TWINS with Arnold Schwarztenegger as Julius Benedict, and Danny DeVito as Vincent Benedict, fraternal twins which resulted from a sperm cocktail definitely NOT IDENTICAL.

Even though it is not Tobacco Road, I think it looks rather sweet, and will continue growing it as Vincent Twin.

And I hope to find the OTHER ""Twin"" sooner or later.

Mocc, I'm sorry to hear your plant is not 'Tobacco Road' as you previously thought; However, I think 'Vincent Twin' is the greatest name ever, and I may have hurt myself from laughing so hard LOL.

Don B.

I got Tobacco Road from Jim's Hostas four years ago; what with 2 years of drought and searing heat it didn't do a lot of growing, but last year it was showing signs of maturing a little, so maybe this year it will look like something. If it made it. None of the hostas here are up yet. Not even Montana or my little species that usually comes up in February. This week might bring some of them out tho, it's supposted to be warming up. Fingers crossed!

Sandy

Unfortunately, it seems Tobacco Road is tricky to TC successfully. I received liners from Shady Oaks last year and there was no variegation to be seen. I would be caution about buying this one sight unseen.

Thank you, Josh. I suppose I'll have to strike Tobacco Road off my list, since there are NO nurseries locally who sell hosta....unless you count box stores and finding TR there would be a real miracle.

Oh well, so many hosta, so little time! Onward!

Well, Tobacco Road is doing very nicely as far as growth this year, but not a trace of variegation. Just a big gold hosta. Disappointed in that. I might try again from another grower in the fall, hoping I get the true variety this time.

Sandy

Sandy, my UN-Tobacco Road, or Vincent Twin, looks just like it did last year. Yellow. No variegation either. It is not TR, but I think there are many others like him out there in hostaland.

I'd love to see another one besides Olga's pristine giant.

Sandy, would you post a picture of yours? I'll show you mine if you show me yours? I've avoided more pictures posted since it can muddy the ID process but in this thread perhaps we can keep it under control.

Do you like the name VINCENT TWIN? Does it give an Id to what would otherwise be a NOID? Is it really a TC sport of Tobacco Road? Poor thing. It needs a good name.

Here is my so-called Tobacco Road. (that is Goodness Gracious in the background if anybody wants to know). Not a bit of variegation.

Nicotine Alley? Gold Dollar? Trinidad? Oronoko?

Sandy

Here is my tc failure sport Vincent Twin

Nothing like your hosta, Sandy. Mine is a very smooth leaf, no prominent veins. However. the leaf is longer than wide and about the same shape as your plant. I'm not throwing it out, I want to see what happens with it.

Could it be like Guacamole? My Guac had almost no edge until it was a few years old.

By the way, New Hampshire is supposed to have it. for $19.00

bk

Got mine from Jim's hosta as a little tc. I'm still waiting for variegation. It's 4 years now, how long do you think I'll have to wait? I won't toss it, it's a beautiful hosta even if it isn't variegated.

Sandy

Here's mine, second year in the garden, and I think it's starting to color. The color variation might have been more noticable earlier in the year though, does that sound likely? It gets a lot of sun....

NH hostas doesn't have it.

Jagd, thank you for the picture. Yours has a similar leaf to Mosswitch's plant. Mine is slightly more plain....but that "melted" flat look is common with my blue hosta leaves too, so it may be a response to high humidity.

Keep us in mind when the plant does something different. Like Joshs said, it is a tricky one to tissue culture.

Yours is starting to look 'true to type', Jagd. Looks like it's getting those nice mid-leaf strips of slightly darker green variegation throughout.

Very nice!
Don B.

Here's a picture of mine, Moc. It's about 4 years old now. The variegation becomes more pronounced as the season progresses.

Leaf closeup.

Ooops....just looking for the receipt and found I got mine only two years ago, and from NH Hostas.

Thanks, HostaTakeover, mine was from 2012 also. It was just a TC failure that the nursery ended up not selling....although mine was shipped before they knew about it. So that is another healthy plant I have which is not what I bought it to be.

Life gets complicated sometimes.

Tobacco Road can be found here:
http://www.bobscottnursery.com/hostas.html

Lisa, I never heard anyone with experience buying from Bob Scott Nursery. I think that is the one I looked at and could not decide to order from there.

Can anyone give a rating on this nursery? I think it is in Oklahoma.

Thanks for bringing it up, Lisa. I kept forgetting where I put the website info to mention it here.