08/04/2023 Thank you, mossinajar, for posting your photograph, nine years ago, on your Mutant Avocado seedling. The image provided a link to this webpage when I did a Google search this morning. And thank you very much, gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9), for your very interesting article into the research into this mutation, particularly that which showed that seeds from immaturely harvested fruit would produce this unusual growth at a much higher rate than those harvested later. Thank you also, to all of the other folk that have sent pictures and comments over the years to this page. From time to time, over many years, I have planted avocado stones, indoors, here in London in the UK, but this is the first time, a few days ago, that I had ever seen such a strange growth coming out of an avocado stone. I wondered at first if it was a parasitic growth, maybe some kind of orchid, as the creamy-white growths, to me, did not seem like leaves, but reminded me of a leafless purple orchid that I found, many, many years ago, growing out of the rockery at our family home in Scotland. Our avocado stone had been bought from a local supermarket, and had come from a perfectly normal looking, delicious avocado. Recently their avocados have been coming from Columbia, but I couldn’t swear that this one did, as it was a few weeks ago that I planted the stone, but it would have been from a Central or South American country. Here are three photos that I have taken today, of our little avocado anomaly, alongside ‘cousins’ who have developed conventional growth.

Thank you so much Milo, it is Red Bartsia (Odontites serotina) and is not native but was fairly recently introduced into the exact area I found it. This also explains why I had never noticed it before. Thanks for putting me on the right track. For interest, this is the article that verified it for me. It's very localized (for now). Here is a link that might be useful: Invading Red Bartsia

Glad this got bumped. I saw Dan Hinkley last year too and have had the same goal for my large border since his great talk. Its a little tough in a sunny bed to put Hosta. I tried a couple last year that didn't work. I since found that the plantaginea (sp?) types are supposed to tolerate sun the best. I was being bad at the PlantDelights.com web site this past weekend and I did a search for rodgersia. All the search came up with is a plant that had "rodgersia"-type racemes. But it has 1' leaves!!! It does take part-sun. I am going to try it on the least sunny part of my sunny border, even though it sounds like it might be happier in the woodland. Will see. It is called Peltoboykinia watanabe. I never heard of it, but I'm usually game for something new. They didn't give a common name, but the picture looks very similar to the biennial angelica gigas above. Hope its not a biennial. Back to Hosta for sunny gardens, I am also going to try 'Stained Glass' that claims to be sun-tolerant. I already have 'Guacamole' in a less sunny part of another border. I might move or divide some of that into more sun too. Inula sounds familiar... I think that was once on my list as a candidate but may be too borderline for here. Last year I put a canna in a pot in the sun border. It worked great. A few years ago in another garden I added an Angels Trumpet in a pot, the leaves weren't huge, but big enough and blue enough, they really held things together well. Hope I can find one this year.

Avocados are not "same hole" trees like stone fruits. Think of them as the "SUV's of the garden", lol! Even more "compact" avocados are only relatively compact (as opposed to ginormous non-compact avocado varieties). They need their own space. A slope is ideal, as they don't like to sit in standing water, but DO need lots of water, even more than citrus. Backfilling a hole just creates a "bathtub" effect in clay soil. The current line of thinking with trees is NOT to amend the hole, but to top dress with compost and other soil amendments. With clay you would want to plant on a mound to help facilitate drainage. You're going to want to monitor your soil moisture about 18" down to make sure you're not creating a water logged environment. I would try to move the the Reed, but warning - avocados do not at all like their roots disturbed, so this very well may spell the demise of the Reed, as may also upset the Gem. Always leave their fallen leaves underneath as this is something the feeder roots like and actually require. Drip emitters are fine, just make sure they do give a good soaking, and the well should be dug out to at least the drip line (edge of the canopy) where the feeder roots reside, just make sure that you're not creating too wet an environment for them. Drip emitters come in varying gph outputs, so you can get a very large volume of water to a tree with drip emitters. I have two per avocado, and have actually had to dial them down a bit. And your trees are still pretty young to bear fruit, not to worry. It can take up to 5 years for an avocado to become established enough to bear fruit. I have a Lamb Haas that is full of fruit in it's second year with me, which was shocking. All my other avos are still barren. Who suggested to you to plant these two trees in the same hole, anyway? Patty S.