The winner in today's garden is . . . .

Each day when we walk in the garden, we find something that surprises and, usually, delights.  Sometimes it's not so pleasant, like today when I discovered that a little green cutworm had nearly defoliated one of our smaller cardinal flowers (yikes--never had that happen before!). But usually it is something new that is blooming or a whiff of a fragrant flower.

The winner in the delightful surprise category today is Hosta 'Guacamole.'  I bent down to pull a weed and a wonderful fragrance greeted me. Here is the plant. 

'Guacamole' is a sport of 'Fragrant Bouquet,' another of my favorite hostas. But 'Guacamole' is in full glory today. I like the foliage but I'm also wild about the flowers. They are not only fragrant but beautiful--very large and snowy white.

With most hostas, I consider the bloom mostly a nuisance and cut back the flower scapes so that the energy can go to the plant, rather than flower production. But Guacamole's flowers are worth the investment. It's blooms are mostly clustered as mini-bouquets at the end of the scapes, not distributed along the length of a tall stalk, as is the case for many hostas. I would cut these scapes only to enjoy them in a vase.

If you have 'Guacamole' in your garden, go whiff for yourself!