Re: hosta hardiness/need your imput

>The question is always one "Are all divisions of a hostas the 
>same?

Considering all the sports that occure in hosta, the answer to this 
question has to be no.  All these sports we pick up are most likely 
the result of transposible elements jumping around.  If they jump to 
particular locations we see a major sport, such as Francee to Patriot. 
However, these transposible elements can move about in such a way that 
the effect we see is rather minor.  I think this is the problem when 
we hear people complain about Great Expectations.  Some people just 
have the wrong form of Great Expectations.

If you actually propagate hostas vegetatively rather then just grow a 
clump of host in a garden you will see that some hostas will have a 
range of minor variation.  I have about a half dozen different forms 
of Francee and several Patriots that are slightly different, and I'm 
still trying to figure out just which form of Whirlwind is the correct 
one.  Francee can produce forms that are lighter in color and the 
width of the edges can vary.  Some of these forms are quite stable.  

What I think happens in the hosta world is that a lot of people grow 
TC plants and then sell them to the public and aren't careful about 
what they sell, especially if they are selling to the mass market 
mechants.  Other people buy these off types, resell them and 
eventually we see a deterioration in the quality of the clone.  

Joe Halinar

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