Could it be a stress response to being potbound? You are such a pro at container culture that I'm sure you would know if they were really packed in there too tightly, but it does sound like one of those "ripen seeds before I die!" instincts an unhappy plant has.

UK,
I've never seen a "blind eye". Any pics of it.

As for pips going right to scapes, I've had that happen with a plant that did not flower the year before. In that case it was a fasciated scape. I've also seen plants that just sent up one scape and nothing else. That's just the genes going crazy. It happens sometimes, but it's rare.

Steve

I think I read somewhere that when a hosta makes a second flush and those eyes want to make a flower...IF they are interrupted by dormancy, they merely resume their cycle when they come up in Spring. "interrupted" can happen with heat dormancy as well as freezes. I get the phenomenon here every once in a while. We don't get really hot and we don't freeze, so I am at a loss to explain except for the fact that hostas are amazing.

-Babka

Amazing what you just said, Babka! That might be an explanation for Blue Mouse Ears sending a flowers cape way ahead of its leaves last year. I had purchased my first bagged hosta last year. One BME produced the usual leaves First, the second one the flowers cape! It was unusual and surprising to see a thick "stalk" appear.

Amazing alright!

When I was doing my musing about hosta adapting to a warmer planet (overall climate change), I mused that they were survivors, and would do whatever it took to evolve into a plant adapted to the new conditions.

It makes sense to me (but then I'm willing to follow all alternatives) that the hosta genes are trying all their options now, and whatever works they will incorporate into their future. Indeed yes, they are amazing plants. While they are not sentient beings, they do have a survival strategy. Some multiply by rhizomes yet they still send up flower scapes and bloom at their chosen time. I think perhaps they are messing around with the dormancy period too, which is in hotter climates they go heat dormant. Could that one day be their NEW DORMANCY choice? In the way of nature, evolution takes time, and we won't be around to know the outcome. But I'll put my money on the hosta surviving, even in a changing climate.