H. 'Wylde Green Cream'

While this particular variety may not have been on my 'Most Wanted' list, I was most pleased to receive it as part of my Secret Trade in August 2007.

The batch of 8 varieties I was blessed with in this trade looked a little battered and tattered, this one being one of the worst. That would be primarily because the lady who grew them had been hit with 2 hail storms within the month prior to shipping. No big deal though, it's fairly late in the season, I'm seeing early signs of senescence all over and as long as these get a decent chance to establish their roots for the winter I don't really care.

In retrospect those were not early signs of senescence I was seeing, they were signs of the presence of foliar nematodes, unwelcome guests that hitched a ride on this plant and at least another 3, quite possibly more, of the batch of 8 I received early August 2007. That whole sordid affair is detailed a bit more on another page and some fairly drastic steps were taken. While the short horizon is mid August 2008 to see how we did with the elimination procedure, the long term outcome is at least a couple of years away.

No, it's not the same size as last year, but after the bleaching it received in the fall of '07 it was nice to see it come back up again in '08. No sign yet of a developing scape, but that doesn't matter this year, I'm happy it seems to be doing well and is not showing any signs of returning nematodes.

Though not readily visible in this shot, by the middle of August it is actually putting out a new offset. And there is no sign yet of the return of nematodes, which is all great to see.

It was a bit disappointing in 2009 to only see one shoot come up, but, it was nice and fat, and it actually flowered as well, something we haven't seen it do up until now.

About a month later -we can just barely see them in this picture below- and there are actually seedpods growing by early July, so, it's fertile.