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paula_b_gardener5bon

Pineapple Upside Down Cake photos please.

Hi,

I have had this hosta for about five years and it seems to be growing well, but I looked up the size info today and it is supposed to be 50" across! Mine isn't anywhere near that large,

Does anyone have a PUD that size? If so, can you post a pic so I can see what it looks like.

I would appreciate it very much,
Thanks,
Paula

Comments (28)

  • User
    10 years ago

    Okay, I'll have to post separately, they are not on Flickr.
    This one was taken after the yella umbrella went up on June 4. It bronzed the greenish yellow color down a bit. I'll post the shot taken June 3 before I got the yella umbrella, and you may can tell the color was altered by the umbrella. I like the effect, but someone looking at leaves to estimate colors, they need to be aware of what happened.

  • User
    10 years ago

    Paula, here is the June 3d shot.

  • tepelus
    10 years ago

    Mine hasn't done squat since I got it. Now Pineapple Punch, that thing has shot off.

    Karen

  • idiothe
    10 years ago

    Registrations are so funny (odd funny, not ha-ha funny)... Mark Zillis - a man who never visits a garden without his tape measure - registered Pineapple Upsidedown Cake as a diameter of 66"!!! And 20" high.

    I've seen a lot of PUC... and grown one for maybe 15 years - and I've never seen one that tall or that wide. Now, to be fair, PUC can kind of colonized... it doesn't make a solid crown so much and a spreading crown. I think most of us grow it as a kind-of fountain look - it would lose that if you left it undivided long enough and let it spread. The leaves would start to interweave...

    Interestingly, Mark registered Pineapple Juice (the all yellow sport from PUC - wouldn't want to have to throw away all the yellow culls from tc of PUC... - as 30" x 12. To me this is a much more accurate description of both plants.

    Walters registered Pineapple Punch, the green centered - yellow margined reverse of PUC as 24" x 12"... pretty silly as PP has lots more chlorophyll and grows a lot faster than any of the others in the family.

    Paula - you'd be better off thinking of it as 30" diameter... forget that wierd colony thing Mark must have been growing - or perhaps it should have been 66 cm and got screwed up... that would be a lot closer to reality than 66"

    Somebody who is going to see Mark - make a note to ask about this... it is curious...

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    That was what I was thinking, that the measurement does not seem accurate. I have never seen a PUC that large before, and as I said, I have been growing mine for five years and although it is healthy, it is nowhere near 50"!
    {{gwi:1045946}}

  • beverlymnz4
    10 years ago

    I did see a PUC nearly 7 feet across on the Midwest Hosta Convention Tours in Maddison 2 years ago. Note, I did not take a picture of it. If mine got that large I would divide it. To me it looses something. It is kind of cool though, to have something that large.

    BTW, mine seems to burn out mid summer. I'm hoping this year, its 3rd in its location, maybe 4th, will be the year it looks good most of the summer.

    Beverly

  • coll_123
    10 years ago

    Mine at three years old is still very small, with small leaves. In 2009 I saw this one at a local nursery in it's display area. I was there earlier this Spring and it looked like it was still about the same size- I estimate 3 feet or so. Mine looks nothing like this at this point!

  • Eleven
    10 years ago

    Beverly, mine burns every summer. I keep moving it to less and less light. It's gonna be in the dark someday at this rate. Here it was at its worst in 2011.

  • Eleven
    10 years ago

    It was moved for the pic in 2011, so here it is in August 2012 in the new location. The centers still bleached to parchment early in the summer. Sorry for the dirt, I stopped taking pics of it at that point and don't have anything better. I moved it into deeper shade a couple weeks ago, so we'll see what happens this year!

  • coll_123
    10 years ago

    Hey, Eleven, you gave me PUC when I started the new bed after we lost that big tree in the hail storm in 2010. Is that my baby's mama? Lol...I actually think its really rather pretty when it goes parchment color but it's a fine line I know, because then it can start to fry. I really do like PUC and don't have anything else with that kind of fountain form in my garden. I am going to rearrange things up in that bed soon and bring PUC forward, I think.

  • paul_in_mn
    10 years ago

    This one's growing in a lot of shade.

    Paul

  • Eleven
    10 years ago

    Colleen, that is exactly where your plant came from! I hope yours looks better =) I'd really like mine to look like Paula's, so I'm trying it near a shady corner. If this fails, have a pedestal pot that I'll use to put in as much shade as possible!!

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    10 years ago

    I cut mine in 1/2 about every 3 years to keep it looser looking. It is in a 2.5 gal bowl, and about 30" wide. In morning light shade here. The leaves that get more sun continue to lighten to parchment color thru the Summer.

    Here it is today.

    -Babka

    {{gwi:1047307}}

  • ogrefcf
    10 years ago

    Here's mine. 3 years old I think and a bit over 2'

  • User
    10 years ago

    It is a matter of preference whether you like the parchment color some hosta fade to. I'd rather the parchment than a burnt up leaf.

    My Curly Fries does that. Orange Marmalade does that. A few other with yellow middles do that. I haven't observed PUC doing it but it was new late last fall. Am I correct in saying that First Mate fades to the parchment as well? Seems I recall that.

    Curly Fries is already beginning its color change. Always makes me think of MacD's rippled fries. It is about 3 feet from where PUC is located too. I pulled it out to take the picture. I've had these two since 2011, it is not a fast grower apparently.

  • brandys_garden
    10 years ago

    Mine is in it's 2nd year (with me) I got it as a TC starter.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    10 years ago

    I'm not seeing the characteristic green edges on a few of the the photos begin posted here. My PUD develops them rather soon after unfurling, and they remain dark even though the centers get lighter.

    -Babka

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Hmmm, characteristic green edging?? Mine doesn't have that, and never has, but it certainly looks like PUD in all other respects. There aren't (I believe) too many hostas that you could mistake for PUD.
    I bought it from a reputable grower, too. Do you think I should mention it to them (the grower)?

  • brandys_garden
    10 years ago

    Babka, it has the green edges... Don't worry. It is named correctly. That's not a good pic because it's all light. But I'll take one later on that shows off it's green edges just for you.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    10 years ago

    Here's the quoted paragraph from Zilis' Hosta Handbook copyright 2000
    *********************
    'Pineapple Upsidedown Cake' : (1999r, M. Zilis & R. Solberg; 'Pineapple Poll 'sport) developed at my nursery (Q&ZN); leaves all-green in spring changing to an attractive combination of gold centers and rippled green margins.

    other similar types:
    H. laevigata, 'Permanent Wave', 'Sea Octopus', H. sieboldii angustifolia

    ***************************

    As IdiotHe pointed out above the all yellow sport was registered as Pineapple Juice (2003).

    So Yes, if your PUD doesn't have green edges, then it is something else. I certainly would talk to the grower.

    -Babka

  • brandys_garden
    10 years ago

    There Babka, hopefully you can see it does in fact have green edges... It is a juevenile still and it will change and get more pronounced as it gets older and matures. Leave it alone! Geesh.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    10 years ago

    I was responding to Paula _b_gardner who asked the question.

    -Babka

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Tomorrow, when it is daylight i am going to have to go outside and check for green edges. The wonderful photo that Coll posted shows a magnificent looking PUD, the leaves on mine don't even look close to those. After five years, I would expect to see a better, more mature plant.

  • idiothe
    10 years ago

    sorry... I typed this a couple hours ago, forgot to hit the post button...

    This is a very sporting hosta. I've got a Pineapple Juice - the name they give the yellow version that lacks the green margin... it was stable for about 5 years and now a good section of it is dark green with a yellow edge... in other words, a sport that looks pretty much identical to Pineapple Punch... or maybe like Pineapple Ripple. The difference, based on their registrations, is that PP is dark green centered and PR is medium green... I'll have to compare some greens one of these days.

    Anyway, these all come originally from a wavy lanced green one called Pineapple Poll. It is registered as a cross between sieboldianna and lancifolia. I sure don't see any big round blue in it, but it shares a lot of characteristics with good old lancifolia.

    So... if you have one with no margins, I think you can change the label to Pineapple Juice. (I opposed this for so long, but in fact I think that is exactly what is happening in the tissue culture labs. They clone PUC... then instead of throwing away the all-yellow culls, they rename them.

    Sometimes the plants go out to growers as small tcs with iffy margins... I know I had at least one PUC tc that went all yellow.

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the info, I guess I just gained a new hosta (but lost one at the same time).
    So the Pineapple Juice will grow to the same size as Pineapple Upside Down Cake?

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the info, I guess I just gained a new hosta (but lost one at the same time).
    So the Pineapple Juice will grow to the same size as Pineapple Upside Down Cake?

  • idiothe
    10 years ago

    Yup... I was surprised at how good a growth rate mine had... in a dark location and a yellow - it still filled out in good time...

  • paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Key phrase being 'in good time'