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Any ID experts care to offer some help?

hostas_for_barb
9 years ago

These next two have yet to be identified. I suspect they are pretty common but unfortunately without any real unusual characteristics. I have taken photos of them today showing the blooms in the hopes that someone else will have something similar blooming in their garden.

NOID #1 leaf 1.25" x 3.75" with 3-4 vp
mound 4" x 15.5"
purple flowers on a 16" scape
leaf flat on top and slightly shiny below

This post was edited by Hostas_for_Barb on Sat, Aug 30, 14 at 10:08

Comments (31)

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    NOID #2

    Tallest scape is 15"
    Largest leaf is 1 1/16" x 3 1/2"
    mound 6" h x 10"w
    leaf flat on top and very shiny below
    Note plants are in shallow saucer which is not visible

    Best guess: Sugar Plum Fairy or Kirishima

    If you have either one, could you post a picture

    This post was edited by Hostas_for_Barb on Sat, Aug 30, 14 at 10:13

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    first.. an old standard.. ginko craig????

    second.. non descript green hosta that flowers at the same time as GC ... and has the same leaf shape.. perhaps making me wonder if it could be a seedling of such ... if GC is fertile.. and if the first is GC ...

    ken

  • hosta_freak
    9 years ago

    Picture# 1-maybe Ginko Craig,no clue about the second one. Phil

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    No clue on #2 but GC on first...margins and leaves will broaden with age. Have two of them. You grow your hostas well, Barb! :-)

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Just got back from lurking in my friends garden and snapped a PIC of her Mount Kirishima. What do you think, might this be my NOID #2.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    MK is a green plant according to the library ...

    and its only listed as Japan...

    my interpretation ... its not common ...

    so i dont how it could have popped up in your garden ...

    besides yours looks yellow ...

    ken

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Yes, I guess mine is a little lighter but I snapped the PIC in the sunshine (I know, not the best idea) and it really is green. I believe mine came from some little country garden centre somewhere on a back road in the middle of nowhere. No label but I think it was only a couple of bucks (Canadian bucks eh!). As to how it would come to be there, who knows - maybe it is more likely some boring seedling. But my friend had one labelled in her garden and she is the closest thing I have to a Hosta expert in the area. She has several hundred but I am guessing far behind you. Americans always do things grander anyway!!! But she is a member of the local Hosta society. Oh wait, so is the lady I bought the infected striptease from. I guess that shoots down those credentials! I am rambling and I have a pick up full of wood chips waiting to be spread around my newly planted Hosta. Back to work.
    Barb

  • Steve Massachusetts
    9 years ago

    Any red in the petioles of #2? Are the backs of the leaves white or shiny green?

    Steve

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Steve, you are giving me hope! The Petioles are speckled with red for about the first 1/2" to 1". the backs of the leaves are shiny but they look a little grey I think - but definetly. What have you got?

  • don_in_colorado
    9 years ago

    "Americans do things things grander anyway"

    Except for Vanessa (Hippieindenial). 600+ and still young. She's just gettin' started. In 30 years she'll have the biggest hosta garden in North America. : )

    Don B.

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    I just ran across a picture that made me pause...in the "Hostas" book by Rosemary Barrett (2004). I took a pic of it for you...I'm second guessing myself about GC.

    Ginko Craig has slim leaves with slim white margins. As it matures the leaves widen and margin gets noticeably wider as well. I guess what I'm getting at is......I don't know how old yours is, but I'm guessing around 3, more or less? If so, the leaves are more uniform than they should be on a GC.

    I also saw some dead ringers for yours when I googled H. helenioides 'Albopicta'.

    Take a look at it, if you like and see what you think?

    Jo

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    Here is yesterday's pic of GC - a mature one. Your leaves even look longer than these.

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    Better close-up photo...

  • bkay2000
    9 years ago

    Jo, your photos are sideways again.

    bk

  • TheHostaCottage
    9 years ago

    Are you creeping me on the AHS group on Facebook, Don?
    ;)
    Vanessa

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for the pics Jo. I went to my Hostapedia and did several hours of research tonight. Mark Zilis found that Helonioides Albopicta is the same as Ginko Craig and the same as Hakama Giboshi. He also suspects that a number of other listed cultivars are the same plant, including Bunchoko, Excalibur, and Mr. Asami Improved. My NOID has a narrower leaf than all of these.

    Ginko Craig has two distinct leaf forms. The juvenile leaf is small, straight and has an even narrow white margin.

    At this point I guess I have to go with this juvenile form although I got the plant from my mother in law. She gave me the whole clump and she had had it for a number of years and now I have had it for 2 or 3 - hardly a juvenile. The first pic of Bunchoko in the Hosta Library looks a lot like it too. I guess I will never know for sure.

    Barb

  • josephines167 z5 ON Canada
    9 years ago

    Darn it! Both of them? I'm so sorry. The last is an old pic of a good close up, pre getting wise re orientation) but the first surprises me...I took the shot from the side, wall to the right. Apologies. :-( Thank you, Bkay. :-)

    Barb, it's too bad it's not a definitive ID - but you get to choose which name you think it should have :-)

  • User
    9 years ago

    May I ask if those purple flowers actually OPEN? Or do they remain closed?

    Is it stoloniferous? Either one of them, I mean.

  • User
    9 years ago

    I'm offering up another option for #1.
    How about Sugar Babe?
    Mine bloomed this year. It is a small, and it is a fragrant. It is on Don Rawson's list of DARK FLOWERED HOSTAS.

    Hmmm, we sure need to add a photo of the complete plant in bloom to the HostaLibrary, don't we.

  • User
    9 years ago

    Also, take a look at nakaiana in the HostaLibrary. I have a couple of them, one being n.Golden which is similar but not Birchwood Parky's Gold. The green form species I think is the one you could check out.

    Those tight little heads on the flower scapes remind me so much of venusta, which is tiny. But other mini and smalls have a similar look with their scapes sometimes.

    And I did submit the above picture to HL for SugarBabe but it isn't displayed yet.

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Mocc, yes purple flowers are open on both Hosta.

    I'm wondering about Sugar Plumb Fairy for the second one. Does anyone grow that and have a photo?

  • User
    9 years ago

    Do not, but I think it has possibilities for you. Is it rare? Hmmm.
    Looks a lot like your neighbor/friend's hosta, doesn't it? I'm judging by the HLibrary photos.

  • bishop5
    9 years ago

    Could #2 be Lancifolia? I've got several in my garden that are blooming now

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hi Mocc: Thanks so much for the looking you have done for me
    Nakaiana - leaves look much wider than mine
    Sugar Bebe - the mound grows much higher than mine and I have no streak - but it is a slim possibility

    I updated the stats with my first pics
    I realized I was measuring the leaf from the ground including the petiole (duh).

    Both mounds are small and especially not very high which eliminates many cultivars.

    So....
    Juvenile Ginko Craig
    Sugar PlumFairy or kirishima

    Those are my best guesses as of today (may change tomorrow LOL)

    Barb

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Bishop: It does look like the library photos I looked at. But mine is smaller. The mound is only 6" high and the leaves just barely over and inch wide. I think it is a true mini.

    Barb

  • Steve Massachusetts
    9 years ago

    1. Ginko Craig
    2. Gracillima

    Steve

  • newhostalady Z6 ON, Canada
    9 years ago

    Hi Barb. Amazing how difficult it is to identify those greenies! Sorry I can't help. I do have a message for you under my "What disease/virus is this?" thread though.

  • don_in_colorado
    9 years ago

    No, Vanessa, not long ago you mentioned on this forum you and your DH had already acquired 600+ hostas, and your pic on the "About Face" thread shows you're obviously a young woman, so...No creeping required : )

    Cheers,
    Don B.

    This post was edited by Don_in_Colorado on Sat, Aug 30, 14 at 16:02

  • hostas_for_barb
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Nice recovery Don. But I agree, 600+ Hostas puts you in a category by yourself! Go Vanessa, Go Canada!

  • don_in_colorado
    9 years ago

    Ken has 1500+. I creeped it.

    Don B.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    9 years ago

    Yeah, Ken has a LOT of hostas, but he said he hasn't bought any new ones in years, so...... so they might just be all the same ones (haha). Hey Ken how many varieties do you have?
    -Babka