Re: More unknown plants

In a message dated 6/16/00 6:43:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
lindsey@mallorn.com writes:

<< I had read that there was all kinds of variation on that variety, just
 to add to the confusion.  It sounds like a lot of nurseries started selling
 anything that was deep blue as var. elegans in the mid '70s.  
 
 What happened in Europe? >>

Hello Chris,

Having read mail on the various hosta lines in the past, I think I know the 
story on 'Elegans'.   After a bit there is only so much one can say about 
hosta so I am not current however the h. sieboldiana 'Elegans' was often 
discussed.

Apparently the true plant was a British selection and no doubt was propagated 
by division.  Some time in the past, quite a lot of past, maybe 100 years, 
the true selection was lost to the trade and replaced by an sieboldiana that 
was old enough to look the part.

A remark that I remember as I have grown many sieboldianas from seed is that 
a hosta sieboldiana is one under five years old and 'Elegans' is over five 
years old.  When you grown this species from seed you have some variability 
but all the plants are nice, the majority maturing as huge blues.

There is a hosta culture and it can be very prickly about what I think is 
true or what you think is true.   At some point the great, heavy and 
hard-going George Schmid tome is quoted and he seems to be the final word.  
(The Genus Hosta).  

I no longer belong to the hosta society as the number of hostas growing in my 
garden exceeded 125 and some are now as big as small cars.  Whichever blue 
you have it will probably mature as a very grand plant and you will have to 
move everything within four feet of it.  Oh yes, sieboldiana has white 
flowers, not very attractive, sometimes just even with the foliage.

The British viewpoint on this color difference is that the light levels in 
the UK are  different from ours,  the latitude also being different, a light 
violet coloring in the UK will be more white in the US.  The more northern 
parts of Europe have the same experience.  I recall pigmentation discussed.

This is probably more than you want to know about any hosta.  I am writing 
privately as the hosta questions more often than not start a war and I have 
had more of that than I wish.  The official list has been closed down twice 
for argumentativeness. 

Claire Peplowski
East Nassau, NY z4

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