Pomona pectin does sounds like a good thing and I am glad it works for you Ken. However, pips (seeds) are free! There is no extra work to getting them, since they are automatically separated when I juice. If I had used Pomona pectin for the two batches it would have cost me at least $20 dollars extra. Besides, I rather boil the seeds to make sure they do not go around sprouting when I use my compost, the last thing I need is more citrus trees ;-) (I am not complaining, but it is a bit overwhelming) Here are my notes on the Meyers Marmalade: 2 quarts slivered rinds (yes, two quarts, you read that right - and I did the peeling and slicing by hand, I just do not like the way they come out with the food processor - it was quite a 'zenful' activity....) 2 cups pips (seeds and some membrane) from juicing lemons 8 quarts Meyers lemon juice 10 lbs sugar After pip bag is boiled with the lemon juice, the pectin extracted, pip bag removed, slivered rind and sugar added, total volume = 10 1/2 quarts. Boiled down to 7 1/2 quarts, which made 14 1/2 pints by the time the game was over. The procedure for making it is just as described above, but this time we just used juice and no pulp. We used only the pips that came from the Meyer's we juiced. The consistency was not as firm as the mixed citrus marmalade, where I had saved pips in the freezer from previous juicings. The other differences were that there was a higher proportion of sugar, but this is because Meyers lemon juice is a lot more tart and a lot less sweet than the mix I had used earlier. We liked the slivered peels a lot in the first recipe posted in this thread, so we decided to increase the proportion of peels for the second batch (Meyers) and we really like it better this way, with more of the slivered peels. Compared to commercial marmalade these (both the mixed citrus and the meyers) taste like marmalade on steroids. Maybe more of a European taste than American taste. What I am trying to say is that it might not be to everybody's liking. We love it of course, this is why we make it. The mixed citrus marmalade ended up tasting similar to the classic Seville oranges marmalade (the grapefruit gives it the needed bitterness) and the Meyer's one is really tangy and has less bitterness. They are really different, I like both. Light was not good this morning for taking pictures of the product, so I will post those later.

I"m sorry, I didn't have my camera with me. There was also a diseased Francee, which I didn't mention. I have no clue what it had. It was almost like mold on the leaf. The Forbidden Fruit was the first HVX I've seen in real life. It looked just like the pictures. It had the dark green ink bleed. The center was really light, so the HVX stood out like a sore thumb. It may not have actually have been FF. It might have been Orange Marmadade. That's what I thought it was. I've bought 6 hosta from Lowe's over the last year. Three have been mislabeled. If I am guessing correctly, they came from Tri-B nursery of Hubert, Oklahoma. They were putting out some nice varieties of hosta, like Dream Queen, Great Expectations, Paul's Glory, etc. Most of the Lowe's here are carrying the really old standards out of Seville Farms, a suburban grower. Seville Farms told me they have no clue where they get their TC's. They buy them from a broker. Ken, yes, I understand your point of view. However, as a small business person, I have to say that's the nature of the beast. Small business persons develop a market, and the bigger businesses move in with a lower per item overhead. You can't change that. 30 years ago in my business, there were bakeries, caterers, delis and butchers. Now, that's all in your local Walmart. There aren't any family shoe stores anymore as there are no family grocery stores. Still, a few of those small businesses survive. They have to be good, though. They also have to offer what the big stores can't. You can't just say, "Pay me twice as much for the same item because I'm a small business person." Another side of that coin is price and instant gratification. I ordered 2 hosta from a small business person last week. With shipping, they were about $52.00. They weren't all that exotic, either. I have to wait at least a week before they get here and they might fry in the mail truck if we have a hot day. Even if I spend $6.00 on a test strip for my $5.00 hosta, I come out way ahead. I also get a nice sized hosta with multiple eyes, which I won't get from the mail order grower. Were I growing in the ground, I would be more careful. I grow in pots, however, so a diseased hosta is not as bad for me as others. All I have to worry about is cutting scapes and disposing of the soil when I repot. bkay

Garden fanatic, look up Orange Marmalade on hostalibrary.org and then look up Forbidden Fruit. See if you can tell the difference, especially if they aren't next to each other. They are almost as similar as Minuteman and Patriot. Charlie, that might be Gold Standard, but mine is much lighter than that right now. below is my gold standard a couple of weeks ago. If you can take the photo in a larger size, so that we can see the detail of the leaves, it would be easier to tell what it is. It will probably change colors later in the season, which will help identify it, as will the flowers. If it's GS, it will turn light green in the center and then yellow later int he summer. Note the size of my photo. (This was my first time trying the black background for the photo, so they will improve, hopefully). It just a change on the camera setting. Photobucket has unlimited storage, so you don't have to make small photos. Since this thread will go away, (hopefully today) start a new message with either NOID or ID help please in the subject. Another photo will help, though. Welcome to the hosta list. We usually aren't this contentious. I see in the photo you have other hosta in pots. They do well for me in NE Dallas, so I'm sure they will do well for you. bkay

Hard for me to realize that the hosta frenzy is only a part time job. Meaning, they go dormant even if the gardener/addict does NOT go dormant. But you get a break from the stress of dealing with insurmountable odds. I think the vlimate is really changing, and do not know what will happen to the hosta or to the gardens where they are kept. If we have drought up in Canada, or Michigan and Minnesota, and the plants cannot have the water they need with the cooler temps at night, then what does that mean for the nurseries and TC labs, besides all the gardeners? I'm near the southern limit of the growing range. I am squeaking by this year because we have regular rain, unlike some years when it has weeks of dry upper 90s weather. Places further north are having less luck than I'm having, even though they are more experienced hosta gardeners than I am. I've noticed before that "ignorance is bliss" and things go very well until I know the situation. But maybe by next year, when conditions could be terrible here, I will know what I'm doing, and be ABLE to do it. I was out there this afternoon digging a new spot for the 20 daylilies that arrived here. I had to stop and come in for a snack and a drink of water, my blood sugar dropped so quickly I was shaking and weak. So hopefully by next year I'll be able to have a strong arm helping me do the grunt work and just enjoy the pure hosta growing part of it. Ah, the mosquito spray truck just went down the street. We sure do need that! They are awful this year.