Upright Blues with great color......Blue Hawaii and Krossa Regal. Decent growth. Or Queen of the Seas....all need some time to get big, but QOTS has grown well for me.

Paul

Blue Hawaii pic below

Gentle Giant (if you can find it) checks all the boxes you ordered (Vigorous, Blue, and BIG)
Cheers
James

oOOHH, Paul, that Blue Hawaii is attractive. I think mine likes it here, judging by the way it has grown since I got it last year. It has a unique color way, and it stays blue green after our heat and humidity work on hostas. It has heavy substance so I believe that gives it an advantage over some more cool-climate oriented.

Here is a recent shot. I was rearranging things today, and wound up with Blue Hawaii located in a pivotal spot. YOUR picture above is outstanding.

For me, that's Blue Angel. I split this one in two pieces and both have gotten this big within 2 years.

I also have a very big Elegans in too much sun if you like the corrugated look:

Just bought Queen of the Seas and Komodo dragon, looking forward to seeing thm grow up soon!
Amy

Wow, that Blue Hawaii is stunning Paul, I will be looking for one. Does is get as large as Blue Angel?

My suggestions would be Blue Angel, Elegans or Regal Splendor. The Regal Splendor is a very nice vase shape but not quite as blue. All three have grown quite well for me and are fairly common.

Blue Angel

Elegans

Regal Splendor

With that much sun, the blue coloring will probably fade by early July. I have several hosta in my east-facing garden and the blues become a dark green by mid summer.

But for a big, fast blue, I like Blue Mammoth.

For fast growing, Empress Wu is great....

Blue Angel. This had 4-5 eyes when I split it from an older plant 4 years ago.

tj

fastest growing, huge hosta, preferably blue....

...Blue Angel (beautiful, TJ)

...Also check out Gentle Giant, avail. at Sebright and Land of the Giants, I believe.

Don B.

Thanks, Don. Sooooo, did you order a Blue Angel this year?

I forgot about the post linked below.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Just like noses, everybody has one.

I'm pretty new to hosta keeping but one in the new group I got this spring from Hallson is Blue Angel. I hadn't looked at it in a couple of days and when I saw it yesterday I thought I had been caught in a time warp and must have been forwarded by a couple of weeks. Holy time lapse photography, Batman! Unbelievable how large it already is.

BTWâ¦..it is potted and is in 90% dappled shade.

Gentle Giant is NOT a fast grower. I've had it for 3 years and it's still not even past a 1 gallon size.

Fast growing and sun tolerant and ground hogging, Blue Angle would be my recommendations. Grows really fast for me. Color will be dark green by mid summer. Probably true for most of blues getting too much sun

Empress Wu is super fast for me. I planted one with 3 eyes last summer. This year it has 12 eyes already!

LOL I actually got one last year, TJ. A pic from last September.

Don B.

Wow you guys, awesome!!!
I really like the way Gentle Giant is cupped upwards...I will call LOTG and see if they might have a double plant I could get. Maybe a trip over there would be in order! Sounds like fun.

I do have Elegans, quite a few, in fact. Do you think they could take that much sun without burning? I guess I wouldn't mind if they lost their blue, same with Blue Angel.

That Blue Hawaii is a gorgeous blue...does anyone have a pic of Blue Mammoth?

Thank you for your help! Mary

I was just trying to do something different because I already have Sum & Sub somewhere else, etc...

Mary, please do not spend money on Gentle Giant unless you somehow get past your "impatient gardener" syndrome.

I'm not kidding, it's SLOW!!!!

I have mine planted on the east side of my house, so it gets sun till about 3pm. This pic was taken last May 28. Gentle Giant is right in the center of all those Patriots. See it there? Small, right? It's a 3rd year plant. 3 years and it's not even 1 gallon size yet and it was a decent size 1-eye plant when I got it.

And by the end of May, you can see that there's hardly any blue left.

Thanks for that beautiful pic, Theresa! Your yard is looking awesome. I will hold off on the Gentle Giant then, since for this particular application, I do want something sort of fast so that the garden will be grounded a bit. Perhaps "Gentle" really means "slow"!

Everyone is suggesting Blue Angel, but for some reason I'm not enamored with that one (forgive me!)....maybe there is something not so blue, that gets really huge and is very special?

Titanic? Niagra? Komodo Dragon? I am considering Empress WU & the Blue Hawaii. If I wanted to save $, I could probably use an Elegans in one of the locations, but I've got a lot of it so don't feel like it will make my new area feel new.

Do you think Empress Wu would stay blue enough?

Here is a link that might be useful:

Mary,
Empress Wu is dark green and is super super fast for me. My blue Hawaii is a nice blue and vase shaped (if this is what you are looking for). It is not a fast grower for me (actually kind of slow in my garden).

You probably can't go wrong with any of the recommendations.

Vivian

Melissa...sorry I called you Theresa for some reason, not sure why I did that! Your garden photo is beautiful!

WOW, Vivian...from 3 to 12 eyes in a season, that's incredible. I'm really going to look at that one, I think. Saw a one-eyed Empress WU plant for $9 yesterday, but I have trouble buying just 1 eye at a time.

I am leaning towards WU or Blue Mammoth now, I will let you all know and thank you so much! Mary

It's ok Mary! lol.

A thought for you.... Some have reported Wu may not be great in a lot of sun. I personally don't have mine in more than a couple hours of sun. I guess I would just have a contingency plan for it if it ends up burning too easily.

I have a bit of news about my Empress Wu. It has one eye, and today I saw one scape forming on it. So it blooms probably late May here, into June perhaps. I took a picture, but don't have it available yet for the computer.

Okay now, how about Blue Umbrellas?

heh, heh

We are a bunch of enablers, aren't we?

Now for a deep, dark green ... there's Potomac Pride ... or is that Paradigm?

_~

dave *master enabler*

Oh YEAAAAAH, Dave BLUE UMBRELLAS!

DARK green, Potomac Pride is a hoot! Good picks!

Don B.

Jerry, Blue Hawaii isn't the fastest grower, but it ain't the slowest, either. Paul's pic tells no lies, it's a great shade of blue, and grows into a beautiful form. It's been known to approach 30 inches tall, so it'll hold it's own with other biggies. Get one. When you can. Get one.

Don B.

P.S. Currently, my BH are just a lot of really big pips, but I'll post pics when it leafs out. The plant itself is probably 5 or 6 years old this year, so I'm expecting something nice.

This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Fri, May 9, 14 at 1:47

Gentle Giant is slow for me too. The above plant is in it's 3rd year (size 9 shoe for comparison). Also looks like the leaf size will keep it from getting REALLY big. . .but the pictures I have seen of full size specimens look big!

Mine was eaten to the ground one year by deer 2X! So that might be why it is so small
:(

My American Yeti is in it's first year and already the size of Gentle Giant!!!

Forgot to add. Elegans is my largest plant, and one of the best I've seen in my garden. Almost 4 feet tall and 7 feet across. It takes almost a full day of sun in my region (pacific northwest). I don't notice the sun making it any less blue. In fact after a hot summer day I am amazed at how blue it looks in the evening!

I plant most of my giants in full sun. Some end up burning by July/August. . .but they come back BIGGER every year! I find the blues tolerate sun here very well. . .unfortunately Empress Wu seems to burn a bit for me on the edges :( Still. . .I am hoping it's full sun position eventually make it get so big to the point where it can tolerate a full day of sun. The bigger they get the more sun they seem to take in my experience. Right now I have it shaded under a large beach umbrella.

This post was edited by tonypumpkin on Sun, Jun 8, 14 at 22:21

Don need to post your Blue Hawaii?

Tony, good to see someone else is an umbrella fan.Tried a yellow one yet? Especially a translucent one. Kicks the colors way up a notch or two.

I would also go with Blue Hawaii

Here is mine.

Now THAT is a BLUE Hawaii. Perfect plant.

Lupin, what else do you have to show this spring that grows fast and may (or may not) be blue? I'd love to see any others growing so nicely.

Believe it or not Moccasinlanding that plant was even moved this year.

another good grower for me has been Captain Kirk

11 Eyes last year this year 32. Couldn't believe it as I was counting them.

This post was edited by lupinguy on Mon, Jun 9, 14 at 19:06

here's my Blue Hawaii enjoying some late afternoon sun

Blue Hawaii, taken today.

Don B.

OMG.....

Don, I thought you got it last summer.....a short while before I got mine. What you feeding that boy? It could stand toe to toe with Empress Wu for leaf size. Thanks for the update

Gary, excellent picture with light through the leaves. Like looking at sea water

Is that a fuschia flower?

Thanks Mocc LOL...Actually, I got it in 2012. Still, I'm happy with the growth. An Aspen branch came down a week ago and knocked out two eyes. That's why it looks a little thin at about 4-5 o' clock. : )

Don B.

I am on the hunt for some nice Blue Hawaii!!! Glad to see this post continued...

I did get a bunch of NOID blues from a hybridizer, they look a lot like Blue Hawaii, only more corrugate. He wasn't familiar with Blue Hawaii, so I'm pretty sure it isn't that... Still, they are big and beautiful...I will try to post a pic.

Mocc, Yes it is. I like to add a splash of color every so often.

Mary the most corrugated blue I can think of just now is Clear Fork River Valley. It has the round leaf too. BUT I did not think it was a giant. Looks rather M/L at most to me although mine is not mature.

I think it would work very well in any garden setting. Potted or in the ground.

Here is mine with this year's crop of seed pods. It is a great hosta.