hosta Kryptonite

In a message dated 7/8/02 3:33:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
barbara.barklem@virgin.net writes:

<< I think you were thinking of Eric Smith, who had a great reputation over
 here for breeding hostas and other things. He was responsible for a lot of
 H. tardiana hybrids I seem to remember. Halcyon is one of his and that seems
 to be less susceptible to slugs than most. I also have Blue Angel which
 survives quite well and a couple of others which have no names as they were 
>>

Eric Smith is the one, thank you.  He worked on keeping the blue color in 
hostas, I like those best.

I have Blue Angel, two of them.  Do they become HUGE in your garden?  The 
larger of my two is probably eight feet across ( about 2 1/2 meters )  It 
grew over everything surrounding it and I eventually moved all those plants 
to some other location.  Blue Angel has huge pointy bluish leaves (until it 
rains a lot) and continues to spread.  I suppose I should dig it up and 
divide it but it is such a daunting chore.

I used to plant them in amended soil, use mortar rubble or you could use 
lime, and take proper care of them.  It may be better to do nothing and allow 
the plant to keep to a smaller size.  This is the largest hosta I have.  
There is a Krossa Regal (also safe from slugs) planted next to it and the 
Krossa has to find a way to the light through the Blue Angel.  Both very, 
very strong plants.

Kryptonite is, I believe, not registered so may not appear in a checklist or 
whatever is used to keep hybrids recorded.  It is sold in this country in 
quite a few catalogs and has a tale with it.  Whether this is true or not, I 
couldn't say but the story goes that it arrived here in a shipment of hostas 
from Holland and was recognized as special by the buyer in Boston.  He 
propagated it and it found it's way to market.  Another story is that one of 
the American breeders claims it.  It is small to medium in size and the leaf 
is tough.  Nothing harms this plant, the leaf is or starts in spring to be 
bluish. Walked on, it recovers.  Not even deer eat it.   Every garden has a 
place for a tough little plant like this.  I got mine in a swap when it was 
still just in New England.

There are probably people on this list that know more about hostas than I.  
Since some of mine grew so large, I have not purchased any in a while.

In zone 4 New York, hostas do not emerge in spring as early as most plants, 
some in deep shade will not emerge until the end of May. That would be the 
only drawback.

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4

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