part of the problem with growing seed.. on the august flowering plants.. is that up here in the north.. there isnt the requisite 90 days for the seed to mature.. before they are frosted to the ground ...

so a lot of the peeps who dabble in seeds.. up here.. simply dont play with plantaginea.. and its spawn ...

of which.. she is fully fertile ... both ways....

i dont understand why you arent playing with her.. other than yours is too young...

ken

I don't have one. Mine was mislabeled and turned out to be Aphrodite. Chris doesn't have any and hasn't had any for a while. I found some this week at LOTG (don't know why I didn't look there before). They also have Royal Standard, as mine turned out to have HVX. I'm getting one (or 2) of each this fall as it's too hot to ship anything here right now.

bk

Ken, I like your reasoning, it makes sense. I give a big sigh of relief, because I would love to make as many green fragrant hosta as I can, and what I read, like what BKAy says, did not look good for the plantagineas.

I have quite a few seeds setting this season....I say "quite a few" when it's the 2nd year I've seen a hosta pod! :)
But one with many pods, is Fragrant Blue. Reckon they are fertile? I'm coveting every pod I find on a fragrant plant, when any show up.. I'm also keeping scaping plants close together, and hoping for good pollenation this year.

I want a sweetie pie seedling, in the worst way. :)

Well, 'Fragrant Blue' IS a fertile one, Mocc. Fingers crossed!

Don B.

I'll have to try some voodoo to get Fragrant Blue his fragrance back.....or hope it crossed with something wonderful like.....ohhhh, what was the bloomers nearby at the time...
Halcyon? Van Wade Blue, Lederhosen 2 plants, Queen of the Sea.....

Do you see where this is going? I had Fragrant Blue located in the BLUE HOSTA shade area. Oh groan, how short sighted of me. I shall locate FB in the GOLD HOSTA area next time, where there are lots of gold fragrant hosta!
.
I'd like to collect the fertile/nonfertile info on just the hosta which are fragrant.

Can anyone say whether having both parents fragrant will enhance fragrance in the offspring?

Mocc, I'm certainly no expert, but I will say 'not neccessarily'. The reason I say that is because I was doing some reading, and came upon a plant called 'Clean Lines'. It's a cross of 'Fried Bananas' and 'Fragrant Bouquet' that belongs to Ron Livingston.

He wrote this concerning his plant:
"With these parents one would expect fragrant flowers. Not so! But the shape of the flowers is unusual."

It's a very nice-looking plant, with big, beautiful flowers. No fragrance, though. Hm. There are pics of it in the Hosta Library.

However, maybe someone who knows better will comment on this; It's an excellent question you pose, in my opinion.

Don B.

there are other issues also ...

since they open at night.. plantaginea... that means the female parts are ready to accept pollen.. AT NIGHT... have you been out there then.. rather than dawn??? .. there is a very precise timing issue with when the .. what is it.. pistol.. is willing and able to accept pollen ... [we should all know enough about human contraception.. to know timing is of the essence.. when trying to impregnate the female... it is no different for plants .. there is a small window of opportunity .. and keep your mind out of the gutter ... crikey] ....

also... if P is a species... that means it SHOULD come true from seed.. which MIGHT mean its female parts.. might ONLY accept pollen from itself ...

BTW... being a night bloomer.. that is why they rely on the fragrance to attract the pollinators... rather that sight of the big flower ....

the one time P bloomed early enough for me to get seed mature.. i had about a hundred pure look alikes ... but i forgot about them in the garage.. and they didnt make it out into the garden ...

a lot of her seed progeny... bloom earlier .... so you can play with them ... with a little more success.. but you usually end up with greenies ... but if you grow them on long enough... and you find they are fragrant.. then you know they have that gene.. and then use those as a pollen source .. even if green.. to move the fragrance gene to other things...

the real problem.. as far as i was ever concerned.. was the record keeping needed.. to move that gene.. thru a few generations... its easy to see if a babe has streaking.. or a cool color combination ... but the scent ... takes it to a concentration/record keeping level.. that i simply never wanted to get to ...

so .. since you all are so rapt ... using fragrant blue as an example .. FB ... someone.. had to take plantaginea ... an august bloomer.. and move the stink gene to a blue plant which favors may blooming.... perhaps by freezing the pollen the year prior ..... and applying it to the blue mother ..... and then grow on the seed... long enough to find one blue babe .... that retained the fragrance gene ....

eric smith.. did sorta the same.. with his TF series.. when he made a cross with a very small late summer blooming tardiana onto a very late reblooming elegans ... if you recall .... pure freaking luck ... but what a result ...

ken

If you want to hybridize fragrant plants, look at MyHostas Database, you will see info on whether a plant has been used for pod parent (PP first) or pollen parent (PP second). It may be that you have to try a lot of seedlings, and be willing to throw out some, to get that one new one new Hosta BKay that is fragrant. When I did a quick check of the offspring, many are not fragrant. I hope you do because I love the fragrants and my growing season is too short. Sugar Snap is blooming though, and my DH is using that. He has a pod starting.

Beverly

Bev, I have Sugar Snap but it arrived in June some time and is not blooming. So, it is a fertile one, ah ha. I knew it was fragrant.

Assessing the fragrant ones for aroma or scent, that is a hard one to do. In the mornings there is a fragrance in the air which is hard to pinpoint with so many in bloom now. When it was just Moonlight Sonata blooming, I knew where to look. And that was pretty amazing. I detected that fragrance before i walked into the hosta garden. I might have to give some credit to Holly's Dazzler as well, though, since it was blooming too.

I'd appreciate anyone reporting when they detect a definite fragrance and what variety it is please. We had rain all night again, and that pretty much cancels the trail of scent in the air. We've had a good bit of rain lately. That beats up the flowers and hinders the pollinators.

I tried to go deeper into the MYHOSTAS site, but it is down for maintenance or something like that. So maybe tomorrow, if my memory hangs with me that long.

I don't think all the fragrants are mainly night blooming. It seems to me that Invincible and So Sweet are at maximum "openness" in the early afternoon. Before that, they have almost no fragrance. After that, the blooms start to wilt. Guacamole is at maximum fragrance and odor in the late afternoon.

I just went outside to make sure I was correct. It's 3:00 PM here. So Sweet and Invincible have a really light scent. So does Guacamole. Guacamole will smell much "louder" about 7:00 PM. All have wide open flowers, although Invincible's flowers are beginning to droop. I was cooking some stuff on the grill about noon and both SS and invincible were wide open and highly fragrant.

I wonder. Does maximum scent equal maximum fertility? This is the first shot at this, so I have a lot to learn.

Yes, thank you. I read what it said on the hosta library.

bk

I don't know about all that jazz,but I have never had any of my fragrant hostas here set seed. And no,ALL fragrants are NOT night blooming. My Frozen Margarita,and Fried Bananas,and Guacamole are blooming right now in the daytime. Phil

BK, there is a lot to think about.
Of course, we are fairly close to a large body of water. The breezes sort of calm down around sunset, switching from a land breeze to a sea breeze a little later, and it is during this lull in the breeze--probably at sunset--that I've noticed the MOST fragrance in my garden. However, when it's been a calm night, I could catch the scent of Moonlight Sonata in the early morning.

I also think that the hybrids may have an earlier in the day blooming than the sports or full plantaginea hosta, if they are not quite as fragrant perhaps?

It is such a fascinating topic. I'm very glad, BK, that you are getting involved in this subject. You have a critical approach to the options or the possibilities, and that is more scientific than mine, which tends to be very "blue sky" and sometimes way out. :) Keep us grounded, BK.

Just for the southern hosta growers, I link an article from those at THE HOSTA PATCH, about growing southern hostas. It has things to say about the growth of the fragrants in the south, and which other species do not grow as well. I just found it, you may already know about it. Hope you enjoy it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Article re growing hosta in the south

I don't think all the fragrants are mainly night blooming. It seems to me that Invincible and So Sweet are at maximum "openness" in the early afternoon.

==>>>> i didnt say that ...

plantiginea is night... its progeny can be night or not ...

P is the august lily ... its progeny.. not necessarily ... some are earlier.. and i think a couple later ... yeah.. i think there is a fall fragrant one ...

you have genes for each trait ... and i seem to think.. you are trying to conceptualize it all by just throwing them all under one trait called fragrance ... and that is where we .. IMHO ... are not communicating ...

every trait.. has a gene combination.. subject to mom and dads contribution ...

if P is mom.. and a species... she will tend toward look alikes ... if not completely ... so we probably dont want to bother with putting pollen onto her ....

but if you take her pollen.. to diverse dad ... then EVERY trait.. can be variable.. as to how it combines on the dna strand... how fragrant.. when it blloms.. month or hour.. etc ...

my point on when it blooms.. was specific to when it will ACCEPT POLLEN ... that period can be as short as an hour..

if it blooms in the afternoon.. and you are one of these peeps who are out at dawn.. forcing sex on your hosta... you might never get a seed .. that was my point..

the cross has to be made with viable pollen.. on a plant that is ready to accept it.. and there are precise time frames to take into account ...

ken

Wonder if anyone knows the time frames when the pollen is ripe and the stamen is acceptable (on dozens of fragrants)? Otherwise, it will take a great deal of time (and record keeping) to figure that out, as they all seem to be a little bit different in their bloom cycle.

bk