Here's the back of the leaf.
Thank you for your help with this one!

I wonder if the colors are different than expected due to being grown in so much sunlight. I've had American Halo with that wide of a margin when I had one growing out in the wetlands and it had similar colors too as it was in a lot of sun there. Mount Tom is a highly underrated plant that you don't really see too often and it also comes to mind for this one.

how long has it been in the other garden ...

if its been there 20 years... then it isnt going to be any NEW plant ... eh???

of which it reminds me of northern halo .... rather than wades newer.. improved.. allegedly... version ..

ken

Thanks Ctopher and Ken...I looked at pics of AH and MT which are very similar...the blue could easily disappear with so much sun exposure, couldn't it, as happens so often? Also looked at pics of NH, Ken and the most mature plants also resembled this NOID as well as Ctophers suggestions.

Age of plant? Minimum of 8-10 years guessing, likely older...all I know is that the third party has been living there for 5-6 years and plants were there already...this one is supposed to be quite large.

As I said, challenging without pic of entire plant....where would you suggest is the best place for me to research detailed info such as vein count, etc.?

I'd like to work on it at this end also while awaiting more responses.

well..heres how i do it ...

MT was reg'd in 95.. and i swear it wasnt available until 2000's ...

AH in 1999 ... and not available.. generally until a few years later .... and i am sure unknown home owners werent paying van $250 dollars for that one division per year he allowed ...

which in my world... reviewing NH ... as a walters gardens plant from the 80's .... if you dont know.. walters is one of the largest wholesalers in the US ...

all this leads me to NH .... before any newer stuff...

but who knows... just splainin my logic , lucy...

do understand.. that your huge division.. will most likely shrink next year... it will have to regrow a massive root mass ....

ken

Actually it wouldn't likely be Northern Halo either as the original TC runs done by Walters ended up being junk that got drawstring, so they reworked it and reintroduced it as Northern Exposure. So if it is much older as Ken assumes then it could be Northern Exposure which is generally the same as American Halo (which was also introduced as a better alternative to Northern Halo). But Mount Tom and even American Halo were sold in pretty good numbers around 7 to 10 years ago and could easily be looking like this now too. The Dutch were exporting American Halo to the US at least 10 years ago so they could have shown up at a lot of nurseries without being too crazy expensive and at least two places in the US were doing tissue culture runs of Mount Tom around that time.

That leaf looks a little like Miss Tokyo to me. But that's not a common Hosta. Where did you get it from? Who is the third party?

Steve

I checked on NE and Mtokyo, Ctopher and Steve...Northern Exposure in some pics is a dead ringer for this NOID, as could be the earlier above mentioned. Miss Tokyo not sure about after viewing pics on thread from June this year...third party just a friend of a friend and not familiar with hosta but savvy enough to recognize one. Lol

Aww Charlie Brown, ya mean my HUGE division with about all of 8 prize roots ain't gonna reach 4' next year??? Bummer!

I appreciate the impressive deducing talents and knowledge, gentlemen. I sure came to the right place.

Q: sorry, repeating...where, IYO, do I find best source online for getting detailed info on Hosta, particularly vein count etc...???

Thank you,
Jo.

You can always check the hosta registry: http://www.hostaregistrar.org

But vein counts aren't much help with an ID unless the one you think it might be only has 5 or 6 vein pairs and the one you have has 12 pairs.

Here is a link that might be useful: hosta registry

This post was edited by ctopher_mi on Tue, Aug 6, 13 at 18:48

The vein count on this NOID is 9...does one count full pairs only? This would have 10 if you count the thin sliver of the outside vein as well. I figure the more info I can gather, the easier the I.D.?

Thank you for the link, that was kind of you. I'll browse and hopefully learn something!
:-)

it is usually.. at this point.. where i throw up my hands.. and declare ...:

a hundred dollar hosta.. without a name tag.. is a 5 dollar hosta ...

you will NEVER... and i mean NEVER ... ID this hosta ... with any certitude ....

first... you dont know its history.. you dont have any clue as to when it was bought ...

second ... as we have noted.. there are multiple look alikes over a given 15 year period ...

and third .... who knows...

its a fun game.. i love history ... and that is what we are dabbling in here ...

just label it : Jo's Mystery ... and be done with it ...

if you want to be near 100% sure on a name... pull out the wallet.. and buy from a reputable dealer ... and be done with it...

but if you are begging.. borrowing.. and stealing them from neighbors .... well.. you get what you paid for ... a hosta with gorgeous potential ... and that is about all ...

ken
ps: i knew there was some niggling reason i knew it wasnt NHalo.. lol ... because they all died...

Thanks, Ken....this is "a hosta with gorgeous potential"....when Tricia gets a minute she'll send me a picture of the mother plant and I'll actually have a reminder of the potential! :-)

I browsed through 1999 and 2001 registrations last night till my eyes crossed and my iPad's battery died lol. Done for now, for a bit, but not giving up. There's lots of time in winter to pursue this.

I appreciate your time and help Ken, Ctopher and Steve. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Jo.

Jo, when I opened you post and saw your picture it took my breath away. My very first thought is it looked much like the Northern Exposure I'd just planted 4 weeks ago.

Chris and Ken, I ALWAYS love when you dive into ID'ing a hosta. Your knowledge and logic is refreshing. As I am sure you have noticed from my other posts I tend to treat hostas as an exact science, and it is not. VC used to be a must for me, but how many hostas have 7-9 vp! Note that is a statement, not a ?

No one answered your ? about what veins count Jo. You count all paired veins: full, incomplete and the ones that begin at the base as one and divide into two (can't recall what they are called at the moment) are counted as two. I have found they are usually much more easily counted if you look at the underside, as your pictures show.

While knowing which hosta is which is still fun, it is just adding to my love of them. My little, apparently stable and therefore rare variegated seedling will never have a formal name, except what is in my heart.

I hope you have success with your gift.

Theresa

This post was edited by gogirlterri on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 9:06

Thank you, Theresa for the sentiment...surely, it's a treat to get inside the brains of hostaholics such as these...you never know what you are going to learn....or laugh about (with Ken, it's almost a never-fail of "laugh n learn").

I'm glad you got that reaction from viewing my pic as I did. I'm confident it'll grow just fine...leaves are firm and beeeeeauuuudiful, all 3of them lol lol lol...I'm still tee-hee-ing over Ken's "huge division" comment...anyone that deliciously sarcastic has got to have a heart of gold...they usually do.

Tech duplicate

This post was edited by josephines67 on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 11:36