Beautiful plant! Doe it keep that apple green all season?

the hell with friends.. i give them a sellers name.. and dont dig up plants ..

focus man

ken

So, it's another example of a hosta that keeps it's streaks only as an immature plant?

bk

um, doh!

I think I'm the said "friend" here.

ken - I use judgment about splitting... but I also sell hostas from my yard... and even friends pay... the "nag" is a regular on this forum and her checks are always good - I just made her wait something like three years for this one!

bkay - I think the answer is a kind-of "yes and no."

Let's exclude the oddities - streakers that seem to be pretty stable as streakers. These are few. I've had Kisuji for many years. More recently Swirls is my favorite, though Kaleidichrome and Hyuga Urijiro are also pleasing as they slowly mature for me. If we extend this group into misted and streaky misted, Korean Snow is very stable, as is Allegan Fog and London Fog. Don has a list of these, trying to weed out the unstable ones.

But most streaked hostas are less stable, and one could argue that by their nature, all streaked hostas are confused teenagers with adult bodies... they haven't decided what they want to be.

Here is the official explanation from the hosta cognescenti - current thinking. In simple terms, the margin of a hosta leaf is layer 1 and the middle tissue is layer 2. If the two layers are different colors, and if the layers mix, you will get streaking. As a general rule, those layers are trying to "stabilize" - to move their separate locations. To maintain the streaks, one has to keep removing the stabilized sections.

I wish I could really believe this in total. But too many streakers will "settle out" to all one color or another... like Blizzard will send off some eyes that are all yellow-chartreuse like the parent Sum & Substance (what most people refer to as *shudder* "reversion.") That would suggest that the whole eye has become layer 1 tissue... and then there are the all apple-green eyes... so those eyes became all layer 2 tissue? On some streakers, as they settle out, one part will get a light margin/dark center and another piece of the same plant will get dark margin/light center.

So it is complicated. What we know for sure is streaked plants are unstable... and they are usually more unstable than other variegated hostas, which are also unstable, as they are always capable of throwing us the occasional solid eye.

Is Blizzard by definition immature? I don't know if that's the right term... the leaves will get to full S&S size and the plant has gotten as large as 5' in diameter... I prefer the term "confused." The main part stays a confused Blizzard, while some of the stabilized parts become Winter Snow and I've had other parts indistinguishable from S&S.

Oddly enough, I've never gotten an all-apple green part... which I'd like as it is a different green from Vim & Vigor, the one all green sport from S&S that I've grown.

WOW! I can't wait for mine to grow up. I got mine as a very, very small tissue culture last year. I just moved it into the sun and it quickly grew a new leaf and is sending up another. It will probably bleach out like Gunther's Prize did last year. But my Gunther went from one eye last year to 5 this year.

Gesila

Really nice there, Gesila.
Makes me want to go out and paint stripes (a la DonB) on my Winter Snow.

Lot easier than understanding what I just read. :)

Did I understand correctly? Hostas by the driveway? Pick-up? On the way.

man... you show up from Florida, I'll sure give you some hostas!

I have no 'Blizzard', but had an interesting S&S streak experience. At a farm store I bought a green with white streaks plant labeled 'Sum & Substance' in a pot 2 years ago. It stabilized this year into tall clump of h. 'Sum It Up'. Bernd

I recently saw a photo of Blizzard that was growing in a woman's yard in Canada. She grows all kinds of hostas and, when I saw it, I thought I have to have that. It was huge and very nicely streaked. I still want to try it if, for no other reason, the bright color and size.

{{!gwi}}

Yeah... where is this driveway again? :P

Lol! Ken, you are a character.

Oh Jim, You asked for it. They'll be lining up in your driveway. How many ways can you divide that hosta?? Ken just got into his car.

DD

This post was edited by DonnaDelaware on Fri, Jul 11, 14 at 17:56

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the informative explanation as to why streaked hostas are unstable. I have an Ice Age Trail with some solid blue leaves. If I don't separate out the the solid blue eye, will I get another Big Daddy? Thanks. BTW, your Blizzard is lovely.

and here I thought maybe Jim was back on the forum!