Re: sprout color

Ben:

>I would appreciate if you could look at the sprout color i.e the 
>color of the first 2 inches or budscales from some H. Fortunei. They 
>seem to come basically in two colors dark purple like in Patriot and 
>pale lilac like in Gold Standard.

I have two Patriot plants that are pink-red, but one is quickly 
growing out of it.  Have not observered this in Gold Standard.
According to Jay Hyslop of Waldenwest Hostas this is not unusual in 
the Fortunei group of hybrids.  I suspect that hostas have an 
inhibitor gene that prevents the formation of anthocyanidins in the 
leaves.  What we are seeing is probably a temporary turning off of the 
inhibitor gene, probably a temperature interaction.  When I did my 
thesis on carrot genetics I found many inhibitor genes for 
anthocyanidin systhesis in the roots and many of these were 
temperature sensitive - low temperatures seemed to turn off the 
inhibitors.  Also, all the inhibitors I found were dominant 
complememtary genes.

For those who know Jay, I've been trying to get him to use email for 
several years now.  I built him a computer a few years ago and put in 
a 33.6K modem and I swear I had it working when I gave him the 
computer.  Anyway, he finally figured out he needs to use email and 
get his catalog on the web, so I told him I would install the Juno 
free email and free web.  Right!  Juno installed, but it wouldn't 
recognize the modem.  I figured I would just as well upgrade him to a 
56K modem.  Took me almost two weeks to figure out what the problem 
was!  After that is was all downhill, except now to get Jay to use 
email and join this robin.  For those who might like to send Jay a 
friendly note to encourage him to join this robin, his email address 
is waldenwest@juno.com and I'm helping him set up a web page at 
www.hostas.homestead.com, but right now it is just blank.  

Joe Halinar

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