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Hostas from seed...I have never had any 'volunteers' from mine

14 years ago

I have had hosta in my yard for about 13 years (some came with the house and I bought many more) and I have never had any just "pop up" like I have read that some of you have. I have many times left seeds mature on the plant and hoped that they would self seed, but since it never happened, I figured they didn't like my growing conditions.

This year I tried WS some seeds from my Blue Mammoth hosta, but so far there are no sprouts in my container. What do I need to do to be able to try growing my own seedlings - either direct sowed or WS?

BettyLu

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Comments (7)

dorisl
14 years ago
they take alot> of time to germinate and you have to make absolutely sure they never dry out.

:)

The hostas in my hard dont even ever make seeds. :
northerner_on
14 years ago
I have several Hostas in my gardens and the only mature one that produces seeds is the Yellow River. One of the younger ones I grew from seed in 2006 produces a white flower and seeds. I don't know the parents but all those babies have blue foliage. I would think it would be quite difficult for Hostas to re-seed. The seed would fall on all of that dense foliage and it probably would not come into contact with soil to germinate. It would probably rot in between all those wet leaves over the winter.
I sowed Hosta in my first year of winter sowing. My records show I sowed them on April 5, and that year I used those berry containers, not realizing they were not deep enough and I had to water every day. I did not keep records of germination dates in those days, but I do not remember them coming up that late. But then maybe some are easier than others to germinate. You may want to collect the mature seeds and throw them under the leaves in the fall. Maybe that would be the way to get volunteers.
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bev2009
14 years ago
I have two new hosta come up a couple of years ago. I couldn't believe it. I guess the conditions were just right. I'm trying seeds this year too. Never even thought about collecting seeds from hosta until this forum. I've learned so much ffrom everyone.
gardenweed_z6a
14 years ago
I have quite a few hosta and last June I took some seed I harvested the previous fall, stuck them in pots in a sunny window. They sprouted and grew right through the year and finally went dormant sometime in December. I gave them a sip of water last month and they're poking up through the soil again this year. I also WS some hosta seeds back in December and have sprouts in one container. I'm confident the others will sprout too. The sprouts are SO cute! If anyone wants hosta seeds, let me know. I'll set them aside for you and maybe we can trade something when the time comes. I'm going to harvest them from all my cultivars again this year so I can share them with Token.
pitimpinai
14 years ago
The only Hosta in my garden that produces seedlings is Elegans.
I found them near the mother clump 3 years in a row. These are what I found last year:
{{gwi:371609}}
They are pushing through already and showing signs of growth from last year.
PVick
14 years ago
A few years ago, I sowed hosta seed in December, and then sowed some more in March (same batch of seeds). They all sprouted at the same time - early April. So ..... your seed may be sprouting soon, BettyLu.

My two cents ...

PV
floodthelast
14 years ago
I just wanted to say my hosta seeds just started sprouting. :) So for my wintersow babies it's late April.

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