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The Kevin Vaughn Award is given to the person entering the best sport overall as chosen by the AHS Judges. This Award was presented for the first time in 2001 by Jim Wilkins, then President of the American Hosta Society.

Kevin Vaughn

Kevin’s interest in plants started at a very early age having hybridized iris at age ten! When he was age twelve, a woman named Frances Williams and her daughter visited Kevin; with them they brought along a trunk full of hosta, among which was Hosta ‘Frances Williams’. Thus, Kevin started down the road as a hosta hybridizer. Kevin received his Ph.D. in botany from the University of Miami of Ohio. He did his thesis on the genetics of hosta variegation. In so doing, he was one of the first members of the AHS to actually study hosta scientifically. Kevin also served on the AHS advisory board for 6 years, plus 10 years as scientific chair; serving on the classification and nomenclature committee and as a science editor of The Hosta Journal. All together Kevin spent over 12 years on the board in one capacity or another. He has spoken on hostas around the world. All this is to say nothing of the many hostas he has hybridized. Finally in 1999 Kevin received the Alex J. Summers Distinguished Service Award, the highest award of the American Hosta Society.

Besides Hosta ‘Frances Williams’ in that first group that Kevin used for hybridizing was also a plant of H. ‘Beatrice’, which ended up being the basis for his whole breeding program. From ‘Beatrice’ Kevin got a seedling he labeled 73-2. From ‘Frances Williams’ he got a plant he called ‘Polly Bishop’. When Kevin was working on his Ph.D. at Miami of Ohio, one of the first things he did was take 73-2 and cross it with ‘Frances Williams’. It gave streaked seedlings with incredibly hearty substance.

Kevin brought the first of these plants home from Miami of Ohio and planted them at his family’s house. The next summer Bill Lachman, Eleanor Lachman, and the Seavers all came for a visit. They were shocked that he was getting variegated plants with heavy substance. On the spot, Kevin named one of the plants for Bill Lachman, and one for Mildred Seaver. A sister in that group was ‘Breeders Choice’, which he chose as his Summers Award Hosta. Another sister seedling in that group was a plant that Kevin really didn’t care too much about. However, Mildred admired it and Kevin gave it to her. A year later, Mildred came to him with a potted plant in her hand and said, “What do you think of this?” Kevin said, “Oh, it’s beautiful Mildred, it’s the best thing you’ve ever done”. She said, “it’s yours”. She named it ‘Christmas Tree’. From ‘Breeder’s Choice’, Kevin also has hybridized ‘Sunshine Glory’, and ‘Little Doll’.

Each year "First Look" presents awards
to the winners in the Seedling Sport Competition.

First Look

Named for regional hybridizing greats who have led the way in giving the world exciting new hostas, these awards are meant to encourage the devleopment of still more newer and better hostas in the years ahead. Our awards are named for William and Eleanor Lachman, Mildred Seaver, Kevin Vaughn, and Frances Williams. Each award includes a trophy, ribbon, and a cash stipend pf $300, which is intended to offset the cost of attending the meeting. The trophies are sponsered by the local societies of AHS Region One and the cash awards by various groups.



FIRST LOOK welcomes the sponsorship of The Quebec Society
for Hosta and Hemerocallis for the Kevin Vaughn Award.

The following is an excerpt from their website...

"For two years running we have had the Judges and the attendees focus on the same plant to choose for their respective Sport Category awards. There seemed to be little question about what the star attraction at First Look 2 was. Mike Koller's 'Sum and Substance' sport was clearly the talk of the meeting. When it came to the Judges' decision, they lined up the Best of Class winners for another look and settled down to their final discussion. When all was said and done, they awarded the Kevin Vaughn Award to Mike's plant. The others were never really in it. The attendees agreed wholeheartedly, giving it the Frances Williams Award too in what can only be called a landslide vote. Over 70% of the attendees cast their votes for it.

So, what do we know about it? Well, really not that much when it comes down to it. It is destined to remain something of a mystery plant, we think. Mike and his wife Dawn operate a small but rapidly growing nursery on Long Island, NY, which is devoted mainly to hosta, but also features a selection of grasses. Long Island may have the best gardening climate in the East, so it's no surprise that Kollers' display gardens contain huge and beautifully grown plants of all kinds. On a trip to their house for a 2001 Tri-State Hosta Society meeting, he debuted this fantastic sport of his. Everyone kept going back for second, third and even fourth looks. It truly was an amazing sight. Mike had to repeat the story of his finding it over and over again until everyone had heard it.

He found it attached to an ordinary 'Sum and Substance' growing in a pot at a Home Depot (the huge home improvement store chain) and grabbed it and headed for the register. Separated off on its own, it grew pretty well, going from one division of slightly smaller size to the plant that won our Sport Awards in one season. In its first year, all the leaves had a center with a wide band of white around it, but now in its second year, sections are developing a solid-white slow-growing center. The plant, which Mike has yet to name, holds as much fascination for those who appreciate the beauty of hostas as for those interested in the scientific side of the genus.

We wish Mike well with future sales of his double Award winner, and look forward ourselves to someday having a piece to call our own. It's great for the First Look Awards Program to have someone like Mike win these awards, because it shows they are not the sole province of long-term experienced hybridizers. Mike has never done any hybridizing, he simply spotted this one in a garden department of a store and had the presence of mind to buy it and bring it home to grow on. In the Seedling and Sport Competition, it's the plants that compete, not the entrants, so any plant can win regardless of whose it may be. Congratulations on your win, Mike."