Da, Da, Da tovarisch! Back in old Soviet Union I buy green and white hosta to complete collection, but KGB come and take it and leave me only green one. Now MANY choices!!!

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Thu, Jan 24, 13 at 21:51

I must say, they have some great photos of hosta on the Russian website.

I may be missing something really obvious here - humour me - I can't find any Russian names for these hostas. Do Russian collectors have to collect in English? That would certainly put a damper on my enthusiasm. And what about latin names - do they translate into the Russian alphabet?
Jan

Very interesting site!

I wonder how they'd translate a name like

WOOLY BULLY.....

I am in love with White Feather which would be no use for me to try to grow. Some dreams are made only to tempt us.

Loved your comments about the Russian website. It seems to me that this is an individual's site and not one belonging to a nursery because there are no prices. I've also visited German and Danish sites. They're very interesting.

I got Mark Zilis' Hostapedia for Christmas and the answers to your questions are in it

Mark Zilis talks about hosta naming conventions. Apparently, cultivars hybridized by a foreign hybridizer, named in their foreign language and registered with the American Hosta Society keep their foreign names. For example the German H. 'Weisse Glocke' does NOT become H. 'White Bell'. The Spanish H. 'El Ni�o' (El Nino) should remain the same. I don't know whether H. 'El Ni�o' was registered this way though. And generally if there is a mistake in spelling such as in H. 'Samual Blue', the mistake is kept. A lot of hostas from Japan contain the word "giboshi" meaning hosta. The Japanese word "ogon" means gold. I believe (and I may be wrong) many foreign hybridizers give their hostas English names because the American market for hostas is huge.

This post was edited by irawon on Fri, Jan 25, 13 at 15:10

Being Russian I feel like replying some of the questions raised in this topic. Cultivar names are not being translated. Cultivar names are sort of a brand names and as with any other kind of brand name nobody translates them. Like nobody would translate "Microsoft", for example. Russian hosta collectors are able to read English names even if some of them don't know English very well.

The homepage, linked in the 1st message, belongs to a rather big wholesale and retail company that sells hostas along with many other perennials as bare roots. They have a price list in the separate tab.

Many Russian gardeners are enthusiastic collectors of hostas. Check out the link to a forum discussion about one nice Russian hosta collector garden with pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: Russian hosta garden

Lovely pictures in that garden, Swed....thanks for adding that so we may understand more. I note a dachshund in the garden there, which is another bit of common ground between us.

Here are my two gardening helpers, Dixie and Dolly...even with their attention, the squirrels are still burying pecans in my hosta pots.

Great pics of the Russian hostas,but,even though I didn't look at all the pics,I must Take exception to one picture of Frozen Margarita The caption is wrong. The pic is not Frozen Margarita. I've had one for years,and it doesn't look like their pic. Phil

Hi Sved, so glad you joined us and corrected my error that this website was not a commercial site. I learned a little Russian at an early age but unfortunately, my parents didn't keep it up. They did teach me German though. Your English is very good. Did you learn it at school?

Thanks for sharing the link to the Russian Garden. I enjoyed the pictures and wish I could have read the Russian. My husband and I were on a Western Mediterranean cruise last fall. I kept looking for hostas and there was nary a one in sight in Spain, southern France, Italy, Montenegro. It was still quite warm at the time. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find such great pictures on your Russian website.

I'm happy that we have the love of hostas in common and I hope you come back to share some of your hosta pictures with us.

I only learned a few words in Russian, such as potatos. My father spent 5 years there as a POW. I noticed I can place Russian text into Google translate and out comes some poetry, try that.
Bernd