no use sterilizing the plastic pots.. and the medium ... if you are going to stick wooden labels in there ... the trick is to sterilize everything .... think hospital operating room ... 10% bleach for plastic .... oven or microwave for the medium ... and plastic bleached labels ... i have seen plastic knives... but my favorite is mini blinds ... garbage picked at the curb... cut into 2 or 3 inch length ... and then sliced thinner... heck.. these days.. you can probably get some at wallyworld for a couple bucks.. and make a million of them .... if they didn't grow much ... it might be.. since i lack facts.. medium exhaustion ... from jan thru march .. i repotted mine 3 times ... using fresh medium each time.. and i used 1/4 teaspoon of water soluble fert in a gallon milk jug every time i watered ... and always use tempered water .. meaning i have about 3 jugs ready to go .. and don't shock tiny plants with straight from the tap water ... if you leave the water next to the plants.. the water should be the same temp as the medium ... ken

If indeed you DO have Hosta ventricosa the difference in appearance is likely due to the flowers having been open pollinated: you have no knowledge or control of where the pollen came from when the bees were busy doing their stuff. It would be incorrect to refer to these seedlings as Hosta ventricosa seeing as you really only know the pod parent. Enjoy them for what they are, and give them whatever garden names strike your fancy! Pieter

I once grew hostas from seeds bought from Thompsons, collected some from my own blue ones and did not label them. I grew the seeds under light in the basement over winter, and planted them out after acclimatizing. That went well, I gave away some 3 year old plants. Some blue ones are self-seeding, some seedlings growing in a gravel path. Now I think the lower leaved ones are Elegans, the tall upright ones are Blue Umbrellas. Then there are large puckered blue-green ones, might be Elegans. I would suggest that you label all seed-grown hostas to avoid future noids. Bernd

Bk I am so new to this I got some seeds from a nice lady on this site (Joan), ebay and my new H. Frances Williams. I havent planted them all yet. I have viewed the old post from bernd, ken and others in this forum about Hostas and seed planting and I think I am going to be overwhelmed. Luckily I am going to get two t8 grow light fixtures and my cousin has built me a shelf from pallets to put them on. I love doing this. My first set of seeds from ebay didn't do anything so I set them outside. Now I have two grocery store plastic food containers with about 11 seedlings in them. Not nearly enough for what I want in my back yard (and give to my sisters) but they are coming along. This is just so much fun to watch them grow. Cant wait to show pictures of my back yard in the next year or two.