Niiiiice. Good thing you jumped on that one, Mocc. Naylor Creek is sold out and they claim it won't be available again 'for a few years.'

Don B.

Oh, Don, you took the bait quickly. Apparently you already looked at it, and I'm sorry it is no longer available. It has some great streaks on its shiny leaves.

To me it has the shape of Fragrant Fire, big shoe sole shaped leaves so characteristic of the plantaginea clan. I'm hoping it grows as nicely as the larger fragrant plants.

It's not new, but I do have 'Sweet Standard' coming from Sebright Gardens in a couple of weeks. : )

Don B.

P.S. LOL Yeah, I took your bait right quick. It's snowing today, so I'm just hangin' around inside today. Nothing like the 75 degrees it was yesterday.

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Sun, Apr 13, 14 at 15:44

you might be the only one to find out if it gives seed...

since most of them bloom in mid to late august.. most of us up north.. dont have the 90 odd days for seed to ripen.. to find out ...

it will be you to find out.. which way fragrance goes... do you make it momma or daddy ... and if momma.. will anything you put on her.. actually get past the plantiginea genes to look different ...

look at your pic.. do you see it favors a green edge???? .... that ought to tell us something.. lol.. not sure what ... lol

ken

That's super looking!

Plantaginea supposedly rarely has pods. I tried to put pollen of red stemmed hostas on Avocado and Guacamole, no takers. Both had flowers, but no pods at all. It is not easy. To get streaked or variegated offspring off 'The Sweetest Thing', you have to use it as a momma. Bernd

Bernd, I'll heed your experience. I had one or two very large pods on Avocado last year. Had none on Guacamole, since I lost my mature plants to some virus early in the spring, and the replacement did not produce anything.

I know Stargate is supposedly sterile, don't know if that means pollen too? Even Olga got only ONE fertile seed from plantaginea when she hybridized Old Faithful, so it is a difficult thing to produce new fragrant crosses. And Old Faithful is a plain green.

We'll see if a longer growing season, with higher humidity, might have a positive effect on fertility. Ignorance is bliss.

Nice hosta, Mocc.

My fragrants did not set any seed last summer. I even did some hand polinating. Then, I found out that So Sweet is is almost sterile per Grenfell. But the crosses I tried to make on Guacamole and Invincible didn't take either. The last seeds I had were from Key West which set seed around July 4, while I was out of town.

It may get too dry here. It's not any hotter than Mobile, but it is less humid. We are and have always been pretty dry here in July, August and September. I was just playing to see what happened anyway. I didn't intend to take up hybridizing as a hobby.

bk

Plantaginea supposedly rarely has pods.

==>>>thats in your experience berdy ... in your z5 .... i am thinking it might be much different to our southern friends ....

the bees are really lazy in the extreme heat of august.... so it can be done ... not to mention.. many of such are night bloomers... not even relying on bees.. but night creatures... [the progeny of P arent necessarily all night bloomers]

dont forget.. whatever.. the pollinator.. you have to get to the just opened flower to do your sexing .... the flower itself is only receptive for a rather short time...

if it opened at 6pm the night before.. and you are out in the morning.. you lost ... etc ...

at the old house.. i dont recall why .. one year.. ALL my plantiginea.. set pods.. and they all matured ... so i harvested .. and grew them all over the winter .. OP ... and all i ended up with ... was P look alikes [and someone suggested.. as a species.. they selfed.. as that is part of the definition of a species] ... and then i forgot them in the garage for a few months.. since i had other garden things to do.. and they all died.. lol,

the problem with hybridizing for flowers... is that it might take a year or to.. for them to flower.. and that a lot of invested time... in stuff you end up culling ... i seem to recall talking with some expert.. and the P genes are so strong.. its rather rare to get anything directly from her.. so you would be better off using progeny.. that already have a weakened gene pool ... but boy.. that as along time ago ... i am giving ideas for you to research.. rather than quoting gospel ....

i have never seen a pod on a streaked P type ... and i used to have a lot of them ... but again.. that might be the MI z5 thing ...

this may well be a place.. where moc or bkay or babs... could change the world.. with their extensive growing season ....

i wonder what geo schmid would say on the subject.. anyone recall from the hosta library link to his species articles ..?????

boy.. this was a ramble.. but i dont feel like retyping it ... hope you all can make heads or tails out of it ... lol

ken

Uh oh, when your rambling is making sense to me, It either means I understand Ken-speak......OR .....I'm getting hosta-smarter! LOL

Hybridizing...hmmm...well, I'll just keep on with reading, processing the information and understanding first!

Good ramble Ken.

Ken, I thank you for voicing your musings. The more they leap fresh from the tip of your brain pan, the better it communicates to me. I hear ya.

A lot of things happen by chance, and wouldn't it be great if our southerly climate provides the magic elixir to make Mama plantaginea shimmy and shake!

Change the world indeed! Now wouldn't that be a charmer!

Well, my dear, that is not a far stretch at all. :-)

Oops, I just realized Don planted a subliminal thought in my head, or was it Jo, about Alttara Scheer's Shimmy Shake hosta....let's see who sells THAT one, and my order is also delayed....wouldn't that be a SIGN?

You folks bring out the hosta in me.

or

I love it when you talk hosta.

bwaaahahahaha

Ken, I thank you for voicing your musings.

==>> yes.. i like this better than incoherent rambling ...

one brings to mind a highly educated hosta maven .. one sitting around pondering the existential qualities of a plant ....

the other.. some homeless person vending hosta on a street corner .. while drooling on him or herself... [speaking of which.. where is hillbilly ... lol]

ken

sorry billy for the gratuitous mention... lol...

Hillbilly may have given the forum up for Lent.