Just returned from a must-do small shopping trip to Wally's. Haven't been in there for 6 days, purposely avoiding the almost door busting last minute hordes. Anyway, I sucked it up and barged in, - got what I wanted but with puglvr1 in mind I quickly detoured to the Christmas tree light sets area. A hedtic scene is all I can say. Must have been 50 or so shoppers gathered there, milling around the 20' long triple shelves, , putting boxes of both clear and multi colored old-fashioned, heat-emitting sets of both C7 and C9 bulbs in their carts. Every shelf had a big white sign with black ketters " 50 % OFF ! " One lady had two sets in her hands and asked a salesgal if she could have 55 % off if she bought two sets. Sales person had to call over a manager, " Yeah, that's OK ! ", was his reply. Immediately I saw two other shoppers pick up two sets. They, as we all know, are great for protecting young mango trees on those cold nights we are sure to get,..and soon. Hope puglvr1 got her's as I'm sure the same scene was repeated in Home Depot and Lowes! ( smile )

I like Praying Hands, and have had it in my garden since the first year it was widely available. However, I see one compelling reason why it should not be HOTY. Like it or loath it, this variety is definitely a novelty hosta, completely unlike other varieties. While I find it an interesting variety, and worthy of a place in the garden, I certainly would not like to see a large number of new varieties with the same growth habit and leaf form. Can you imagine a whole bed of different varieties, all with the closed, twisted, pointed leaves? I believe the HOTY should be a more typical representative of the genus as a whole--clearly recognizable as a hosta, even by novice growers. I work with a local hosta seller every spring, and the typical reaction ratio to Praying Hands seems to be about 40 percent "Yuck!" and about 60 percent "Oh, neat!" More people want it for the name than for the plant itself, and many have heard the name and are disappointed upon seeing the plant for the first time. A 'yuck factor' of 40 percent seems too high for a HOTY. This same logic would eliminate White Feather as a contender for HOTY. This variety sells hand over fist, but it's decidedly not a typical hosta, being rather a novelty plant with a lot of pot appeal in the spring. Add to that the fact that it turns mostly plain green and rather boring later in the year, and you have a variety that isn't going to do much to promote hostas in general, and make no mistake, promoting hostas in general is one of the main purposes of having a HOTY. Orange Marmalade might be a good choice. My only hesitation with this variety is that it hasn't been around long enough to really judge the mature plant. Of course that's going to be a problem with most of the newer varieties. Personally, I would like to see some of the older, classic varieties considered for HOTY. For example, Montana Aureomarginata would make a wonderful HOTY. Spilt Milk, while not having been around long enough to be considered a true classic, is a very unique yet mainstream variety. I'm a bit confused by the comparison of Aristocrat and First Frost--in my garden they are very different. First Frost is of Halcyon lineage, as are El Nino and Sleeping Beauty, and there are minor differences between these three varieties. Aristocrat is a Hadspen Blue sport, and it has a much wider light edge, an overlay of colors between the edge color and the center color, and a different growth habit, being more horizontal in habit. It also has a more rounded leaf than any of the Halcyon offspring. Although not a very fast grower, Aristocrat is one of the standouts in my garden, enough so that I picked up a second one this year. It was nice to see a mini finally make HOTY, and Blue Mouse Ears was a good choice. It might make sense to have a whole new category of HOTY for minis and small varieties, since they are gaining in popularity by leaps and bounds. The American Hosta Society now has a separate popularity poll for minis, so perhaps it's time to give the little ones separate recognition for HOTY as well. There are plenty of worthy varieties out there, with many more being introduced each year.

I got to try Pickering last month when I visited the fruit and spice park....was pretty impressed, nice flavor even if the fruit was somewhat un-attractive/dull. Tree was quite small but very productive. I personally didn't detect the coconut overtones that its claimed to have but nevertheless thought it was a good mango.

Had the pleasure of a guest from this forum to my house today. Lycheeluva and I did an extensive walk thru the yard checking for new developments.....especially on the lychee front. It looks like the rest of the mangoes that have not bloomed, are almost all beginning to push their annual buds. Yes, even the miraculous Chou Anon is going to now bloom. There's no point in deliniating any further between the next to bloom. The late varieties such as Keitt, Neelum, Kent and even Valencia Pride haven't begun pushing bloom as of yet, but they will be shortly. I am also awaiting bloom on a couple of mango seedlings that I have never had fruit from. Mangoes survived the freeze very well here and we should have a very heavy crop (barring any more ridiculous Arctic oscillations). As trees set their crops I'll post pictures.