Re: [hostapix] Fw: Understanding


Bill Meyer's recent post in its last paragraph refers to the origin of sieboldiana 'Elegans'.  I have always understood it to be a hybrid raised in about 1910 by Georg Arends in Wuppertal, thought to have been tokudama and sieboldiana. Are we now to amend this 'fact'?  I do not have references in literature to back this up.  I would, of course, agree that the 'line' has been infiltrated with seedlings so that plants offered for sale show widely different mature characteristics.I suppose that somewhere there may be pieces of the original plant. What do you think?
 
Roger Bowden.
 
Hi Roger,
       You've got me there. I had it in my head that 'Elegans' was originally a cross involving sieboldiana and fortunei, which would be something different. I went to Schmid's "The Genus Hosta" to do my homework and found that you are right. The original cross made by Arends was sieboldiana x sieboldiana var. fortunei. The latter plant is today called 'Tokudama'. Arends named this plant fortunei 'Robusta'. It was renamed sieboldiana 'Elegans' by Hylander in 1954. Schmid mentions in his book that in the course of his research into this plant he located a 'Robusta' that was "received directly from Arends and growing at the Staudensichtungsgarten, Weihenstephen near Freising, Bavaria, Germany". This would then be the original to compare others to.  I have no doubt that if studies were made, many different plants would be found bearing  name 'Elegans' and for this reason caution those describing sports of sieboldiana 'Elegans' as being from the same plant. It is highly likely that many of the sieboldiana sports s
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