I don't have it, Mocc. Next season? Oh, you betcha! Thanks for the info. I looked it up on the hosta library and found wonderful pictures of 'Mariachi'. ; )

If you say 'WOW' about a hosta regarding it's fragrance, I'll pay attention. That's quite a scape it's got there in the above pic. Very nice-looking hosta. Do you find it especially similar to 'Paradise Sunshine'? (Don't have that, either).

Don B.

Well, Don, I had not thought to compare it to Paradise Sunshine. I think Mariachi has a leaf shape similar to Fragrant Fire, you know, the big loose shoe sole kind of leaf.

I always think of Paradise Sunshine as having a rounder kind of leaf, like shown in this August 2013 shot.

However, in another picture, I'm seeing some leaves which might look sort of like shoe soles. Sorry this is sort of bad, needed to clean my lens I guess, sort of fogged over with the humidity. But here is the open blooms, and a few leaves in July 2013 look sort of like soles. However, Mariachi is a year (at least) younger than my P'Sunshine, and it has always had this smooth silky look to its leaves. Truly a plantaginea mama look to me.

Is there a significant difference in fragrance among fragrant hostas - or is it more a difference in strength of fragrance? ie could you identify a particular hosta by its fragrance?

And how many times can you use the word 'fragrance' in a single post lol?
Jan

I'm not an authority on scent variations, but it seems to me that it is a matter of strength. However, some seems to be more persistent, discernable morning and evening, and at times during the day as well.

Of course, we had a wet summer for the most part, and I think that diminished the early-blooming fragrance, cleaning it from the air and maybe washing away the pollen or other source of fragrance. This week, we had a drier time, and I am noticing a dependable fragrance that I can follow straight to Mariachi, although there are a couple other smaller flowered fragrant hosta blooming too.

It reminds me of jasmine, actually. And my jasmine is not in bloom.

Oh my! I gotta' have that one, Mocc. Looked it up--Mariachi is sposed to be the reverse sport of Guacamole so it should be a reliable bloomer for us 'up nort' folks. And the Q&Z--Mark Zilis--site says that it blooms 'throughout August'...

Curious that yours, Mocc, is blooming just now. Makes me wonder if the Zilis info is wrong? But you would think that it should bloom when Guacamole blooms, wouldn't ya? Or is it something about being relocated to your zone? Or that, since it 'originated' in a TC lab at who knows what time of the year (artificial world)...that it takes a few 'real world' seasonal cycles to settle into what it is internally programmed to do?

Anyway, it's a lovely hosta...I'm a sucker for that color combo...perfect companion for Guacamole. Don, you really need 2-3 of them to make exclamation points in your sea of Guacs! Hey, maybe you'll get lucky & one or two of your Guacs will do a bit of sporting!

Yeah, I like 'em both quite a bit. Thanks for the great pics, Mocc ol' pal.

Ci Lantro, Mocc has hostas thriving in what was thought to be a hosta zone-of-death. Mocc has gardens with hostas thriving side-by-side with palm trees and TROPICAL FRUIT. There are the UDSA Zones, and there is 'Mocc Zone'. Show 'em what else we 'can't' do, Mocc. ; )

I love it.

Cheers!
Don B.

gEE, thanks, Don. One way or another, I want to grow hosta bad.....and I mean grow them GOOD, real bad!

There are others doing a more informed way of growing and just 450 miles separates Paula/ILoveToGrow from me, and I know she is on top of things technically. Palm trees love hosta. They can grow quite a ways further north than here, you know. It might look familiar to those who visit Charleston with their old colonial gardens. I bet there are "friendship lilies" and "Old August lilies" in some of the Battery gardens.
And if Missylin sticks with us, we might hear how the hosta fare in zone 9b.

I've noticed that PDN hosta descriptions rate some for zone 9, without specifying 9a or 9b.

You make me smile though, I am zoned out here most of the time, when I try to think like a hosta! If I were a hosta, what would I want....Oh yeah, I'd love to be lounging in a hammock in the shade of some palm trees, but no beach, just along a nice river with plenty of water, oak trees and spanish moss stirring in the breeze. Sounds real to me. :)

Let's hope they decide to live long and prosper like Spock.

Although this Maui Buttercups is not a fragrant, I just had to put it into the post. It almost went dormant earlier this summer, and as you see, here it is back almost perfect with a total new flush of golden yellow leaves. Why am I mentioning it? Because it is in the pink pirogue, beneath the shade of a young potted palm. Morning sun, afternoon shade, and all it needed was a wee bit of shade to look lovely. Perhaps after 4 or 5 years some will disappear, but of the ones which endure, I'm hoping they will mature in say 3 years instead of the usual 5.

Our climate is not the most extreme, there are places with a lot more heat. They have a similar humidity PERHAPS....but I think our low humidity season is very short, same as our number of frost/freeze days. It isn't all about chill factors, or cold zones. There is such a thing as heat zone too, right? I may be poised just in the far frontier where I squeak in with barely enough chill days, and with the hosta which can take the heat/humidity like the low dormancy species, which seem to respond to our longer growing seasons.

Paula and I both noticed hosta lasting into December before total dormancy....actually when we finally had a temp below 40 that put them to sleep. And then, like riding a wave at the beach in Hawaii, riding that crest, to take us clear until an early spring awakening.

If you think about it, you realize that several million folks from the north retire in the south, and they are used to growing or seeing hosta. Perhaps there is a vast untapped market in the south, where folks like flowering plants, fruiting plants, and also love spectacular tropical looking leafy plants. That's where hosta can hold their own, you know. Plus, the species that can grow the best in this untapped market, happens to have fragrance,

Anybody remember an early standup comic/musician named "Brother Dave Gardner"? He had a routine where he was Little David, playing on his harp, just the same note over and over and over....until someone asked him about it.
"Well," he said, "others play all different notes, because they can't find the right note. But, I flat got it." plunk plunk plunk plunk. I've got it myself.....that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

White Silver Sands was Panama City Beach and Destin FL.
Incidentally, did you know that the titanium dioxide in tooth paste and paint etc comes mostly from the beach in Destin? true story.

Here is a link that might be useful: White Silver Sands-Bro Dave Gardner

Ci....why mine is blooming now is making me scratch my head. I got it late this spring, so it might be cycling like when it came from Avalon Acres which is cooler. Certainly the Guacamole I have--which replaced my more mature plant came down with a blight in May--bloomed in July or early August. However, I had a young small plantaginea bloom in early July, but none of the other 7 (I have 8 species plantaginea) budded up until one of them sent up a strong scape this month....it is getting bigger all the time!

I've definitely tried to puzzle through the ragged schedules of the fragrant hosta blooming periods. Maybe I can understand it better next year when most of my hosta have spent two years here. My acquisition madness is slowing down--but not my love of the garden filled with hosta. It is easier to make hard choices though. I'm more interested in having a garden which flourishes than I am in having a balanced "collection." So I'm heavy on the fragrants, which just so happen to flourish better than any others....but with some exceptions, of course. :)

Just off topic except for the fact that this is one plant which provides shade for my hosta. The fruit on this tree is edible, by the way. And I think I've seen this color combination in some runway fashions. Elegant looking in person.