Walden West

Review of Walden West
January 1998
by Steven C. Chamberlain
105 Academy Street
Manlius, NY 13104
Steve_Chamberlain@isr.syr.edu

Walden West
5744 Crooked Finger Road
Scotts Mills, OR 97375
Dr. 'Chuck' Purtymun - (503) 873-6875
Jay Hyslop - (503) 873-3545
1998 Price Index - Free

Owners: Dr. Charles Purtymun & Jay Hyslop, Members AHS

In the past I have purchased the following hostas from Walden West:

• H. 'Abiqua Blue Edger'
• H. 'Abiqua Gold Shield'
• H. 'Abiqua Hallucination'
• H. 'Allan P. McConnell'
• H. 'Birchwood Gold'
• H. 'Carder Blue'
• H. 'Crested Reef'
• H. 'Feather Boa'
• H. 'Floradora'
• H. 'Golden Guernsey'
• H. 'Hirao Splendor'
• H. Korean minor
• H. 'Little Aurora'
• H. 'Little Blue'
• H. 'Mentor Gold'
• H. 'Not So'
• H. 'Paradigm'
• H. 'Stiletto'
• H. 'Vera Verde'

I have gotten H. 'Abiqua Ariel' and H. 'Abiqua Blue Crinkles' as bonus plants with my orders. I received H. 'Abiqua Ground Cover' as a thank you gift for pointing out that one of their plants was misidentified (described below). All of the plants I have received from them are thriving in the garden and H. 'Abiqua Hallucination' is just stupendous. My order for 1998 is in the mail.

The Walden West price list is a modest, but effective, endeavor. It lists their introductions, their new introductions, and then an alphabetical listing of the other hostas they offer. This year's list has 9 pages. It includes H. 'Blue Tips', H. 'Deluxe Edition', H. 'Glacial Lake', H. 'Mountain Green', H. 'Not So', and H. 'Spacious Skies' that were not available from any other source listed in the 1997 Hosta Finder. Altogether 224 hostas are offered for sale (although 2 are already sold out for 1998). The descriptions do not include hybridizer information or registration date; however, brief, accurate descriptions of the species and cultivars are given. The font chosen for this year's price list makes it hard to pick out the hosta names, so be prepared to read it carefully. There is one photograph, a first, this year that shows Dylan H. being devoured by H. 'Spacious Skies'but he seems to be enjoying it.

Prices are very competitive for the mature plants shipped.. The most expensive hostas offered for 1998 are H. 'Deluxe Edition' and H. 'Glacial Lake', each for $150. At the other end of the price spectrum, there are 28 classic cultivars available at 3/$8.00 with further reductions in price for even larger orders of a single cultivar. Checks must accompany the order; no credit cards are accepted. Plants are shipped by mail or UPS at the buyer's discretion and arrive about the date requested. Hostas are shipped bareroot and arrive in excellent condition. All but one of the plants I have ordered have been true to form. H. 'Gaijin', however, turned out to be a very nice dwarf blue hosta, obviously not H. 'Gaijin'. I was very happy with the plant and wrote to ask if they might know what it really was. They replied by sending me H. 'Abiqua Ground Cover' as a thank you for having noticed "what the streams of experts that visited the garden during the AHS convention missed". (H. 'Gaijin' is not listed this year.) Two months later, my not H. 'Gaijin' shriveled up and died probably of a broken heart. I hope it will be reborn this spring because it is a charming dwarf plant. I like all of the Walden West introductions I have, but H. 'Abiqua Drinking Gourd', H. 'Abiqua Hallucination', and H. 'Paradigm' are in a class by themselves vigorous and distinctive.

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