H. 'Wolverine'

This was supposed to be Hosta 'Avocado'. Well this surely looks more like 'Wolverine' to me..... yet another example of incorrectly labelled bare dry root perennials from your friends @ Costco. This was early April 2009.

The annual crapshoot that is the purchase of bare root bagged Hosta from Costco was supposed to give us 4 'Avocado' in one package. As they started to unfurl their leaves it became evident that yet again we have another example of contents not matching the label. Best guess at this point is that we in fact have 2 different cultivars in the package, with quite possibly 2 of those being as labeled, the other 2 are definitely not. Of those latter 2 it seems the larger one probably is 'Wolverine', the other one is a little too small yet to make that call, but could well be the same.

By the time 2011 rolls around its starting to become evident this is in fact a fairly vigorous grower. It's early May 2011 and it has been transplanted into a 2-gallon nursery pot to allow it some room for root growth. Though it's only in its 3rd year and perhaps a bit premature to make the call, it sure looks as if it's HVX free, and that's a very good thing to see.

As the season went on in 2011 there was evidence the plant was adjusting its root system to the new and different potting mix being used. In addition, because of the extremely wet spring there was an issue with a bit of botrytis -a necrotrophic fungus- that lead to the plant looking a bit unsightly for a while, as were several other cultivars with similar growth habits that somewhat impede air flow around the leaves, such as 'Sea Octopus' and 'Ray of Hope'. As you can see here on the 15th of July 2011 quite a few of the early, outer leaves are drying out, but there is plenty of new growth, to the point where I felt quite comfortable dividing it, to now give me 4 divisions. Each of those divisions is showing good growth, with plenty of new offsets being evident.