the KV story ... as best i remember it ...

he was some neighborhood punk .. lol ... of the lachman's .... i believe ... he started his scientific odyssey ... by hanging around in their state of the art for the time garden.. hybridizing their collection ... some way or another.. this is not gospel ... just a story i recall ...

he was doing it for knowledge and passion ... rather than with a monetary purpose ... and it lead eventually to his doctorate ....

he came up with.. developed some rather unique new touches to hostadom.. back in the day ...

but he did not retain all of his breeding stock ... over the years ... so you have these random references to plants in what I THINK.. is the mid 80s ...

i hope.. should he ever read this.. that he forgive me for this synopsis .. lol ...

that and what you said about aden.. if he was involved ...

tom schmid used to carry a hosta named Kevin Vaughn ... otherwise known as ... i think .... Christmas Tree Gala Our Version ... or he just came up with that story to sell me the plant.. lol ...

if bruce ever runs across this.. i bet he could flesh out my synopsis ... [well a rock probably could do that.. lol]

i also note... that the registrar of hosta ... might reject a name such as this .. as adding confusion to the genre ... since they names are not all that distinctive ... if not dyslexically identical ...

any chance you have the old geo. schmid tome handy ... check out his historical plant lists.. and look to see if he has any reference to KV , the man .. and the hosta.. and FS ... i had to have read it somewhere .... since i do not know the man.. nor am i an east coast hostaphile ... which would have been his stomping grounds ...

there you go... FWIW ....

ken

Given that So Sweet is my favorite hosta, I did a little research on Kevin Vaughn, PhD. He works for the USDA in Greenville MS. If one were that interested, he would be easy to contact. You could probably figure out his email address from the info on zoominfo.com. It appears that Louisiana Iris is his current hybridizing interest.

FWIW

bk

This post was edited by bkay2000 on Wed, Apr 16, 14 at 23:16

See, all this history fascinates me.

BKay, so he is in Greenville MS, which is quite an interesting place, the heart of the MS River Delta region and the Percy family stomping grounds (Walter Percy et al) and where John Barry's book RISING TIDE (MS River Flood of 1927, best book written in the current era) so he is in a significant location to make history.

Sounds to me from Ken's recollections that KVaughn followed his dream, where ever it led, and the Lachmans were fantastic mentors. I bet if you scratch the surface, you'll uncover the hostaphile is still there in this PhD heart. I wonder.....what does he recall?

Too bad that Paul Aden, the hosta Wizard of Oz, should be mixed up in this story.

Ken, I will look further into George Schmid's historic hosta and see where that leads. He is great about documentation, the audit trail of name changes. Names are important things. They really mean something.

Whoa, I did not think this would become a mystery story, searching for the Lost Fragrant Summer. Maybe it is hiding in plain sight. A similar account could be Green Summer Fragrance with its name changed to Mascouten--but that is documented fairly well. Where did this one go, after it contributed to the DNA of Fragrant Bouquet? Inquiring minds want to know.

Interesting...I guess we have two different hostas named 'Mardi Gras'. One's an Olga plant, the other, according to the hosta library, is a solid green sport of 'Fragrant Bouquet' credited to Mark Zilis (He loves to market solid green sports). Yup, it's fragrant.

I also wonder if Aden made up this 'Fragrant Summer' plant. Could be Aden-fiction, along with his 'Aden-241' and 'Aden-blahblahblah' etc. plants.

Don B.

bkay,

Kevin retired from the USDA in Mississippi and now lives in Oregon I believe. Recently, he has begun to hybridize again.

BTW, Ken, he grew up in Athol, MA which isn't far from me, but about an hour away from the Lachmans. The Lachmans influenced a lot of people in this area and were real ambassadors for the genus Hosta. Rick Goodenough knew them well and recieved Sand Pebbles from them as well as some other plants.

But Kevin really was the protege of Florence Shaw. He was hybridizing at the age of 15. He corresponded regularly with Florence, and visited Birchwood often. It was Kevin who told me that Birchwood contained pretty much every new and rare Hosta that was available at the time. I know that he and Florence were sharing breeding plants.

It was when he went away to college (Miami of Ohio, I think) that he began to lose plants. At college he had access to a full sized greenhouse and was able to get H. plantaginea to bloom early and thus to cross it with early blooming plants.

Unfortunately, Kevin will not be at First Look this summer, as he has a prior commitment. But I'm hoping that he will make it to North Carolina next summer for the AHS convention.

Steve

Now you see, Don, I learned something from YOUR post. I knew that OLGA's Mardi Gras was not fragrant. But I did not know there was a second Mardi Gras. How on earth did THAT happen? And how do you know which one to choose from a nursery if they don't ID the registrant/originator?

I have a Mardi Gras, and now I'm not sure which one it is.
Geez Leweez, this hosta business can get confusing.
Thanks for the info, Don.

Steve, if Kevin Vaughn comes to the AHS convention, then I'll have to absolutely have to attend, and do you mean THIS SUMMER? Or NEXT SUMMER which is 2015?

I also tried to contact Ran Lydell for Super Bloomer, but the email addy was outdated. Have no idea how to contact him.

And Steve, I think of acquiring as many fine growing fragrant hosta as I can, and trying to learn something from them. If I must go over ground already tread upon by wiser people, I expect to learn from that. And, I will be happy to do so. I love to see them grow.

Mocc,

2015 is the convention I was referring to. BTW, your old Mass garden was not far from Kevin's original garden in Athol.

As for Ran Lydell, try contacting him though the Western NY HS. I know he's still selling plants.

I think your collecting goal is an admirable one. Once the fragrant Hostas are blooming in Moccasin Landing, it must be heavenly. Too bad there isn't an app for sharing that.

Steve

Retraction: Sorry Mocc, I was wrong. I previously posted that Zilis' sport was a solid green. I'm not sure how I misread that, but I did. (DUHH!!)

Here's what myhostas.be states...

'The true 'Fragrant Bouquet'. This plant has beautiful large white fragrant blooms, as well as the highly streaked leaves.' - myhostas.be

'The TRUE 'Fragrant Bouquet'? HUH? Now I have no idea what to imagine this one looks like, except maybe very, very similar. Hm.

?
Don B.

Don, let me make sure I understand ...
You looked up ZILIS Mardi Gras, and whatever source myhostas.be copied said that Mardi Gras was the real Fragrant Bouquet?

In my humble opinion, that was quoted from a nursery catalog which was selling the plant. And, it meant that Mardi Gras had more or better fragrance than the plant NAMED Fragrant Bouquet.

So now I look for another MG by. ZILIS and sniff for myself.

My question is, just HOW did we end up with two by same name, hmmm?

We are uncovering some great history, and I truly hope it has a happy ending.

Steve, glad the meeting convention you mean is 2015, cause my remodel will be out of the way by then, we shall have a new car, and it would be a perfect road trip.. I will ask DH where Athol is, know about Acton but not Athol.

Thank you for the kind words about my fragrant goals. Maybe one day part of the plan, or goal, will lead somewhere. It is exciting to find old trails to follow.

Hi Mocc. Yes, I wouldn't doubt it that the quote was probably from a catalog. It also mentions Zilis' 'Mardi Gras' has 'the highly streaked leaves' of 'Fragrant Bouquet'. Speculating here, but maybe it's a little TOO close in similarity to 'Fragrant Bouquet', if you know what I mean. (Maybe the same deal as 'St. Paul' and 'Paradise Glory') Since I've never seen one, I'm basing my speculation on the only bit of info I can find on it; just that little blurb from myhostas.be

As for how two varieties have the same name, I don't know. Great question. Coincidence, perhaps. They can't both be registered with the same name, right? Only Olga's is registered. Again, Hmmm......

Don B.

Aha! Don, you just gave me a perfect opportunity to upload my pictures of Saint Paul and Paradise Glory......or maybe not. I have Paradise Sunshine.....well DRATS. I took new pictures today while it was overcast, and am itching to show them.
Maybe someone else will have the Paradise Glory to post if I begin a thread asking for it.....don't want to bury it here.

And if anyone has the Zilis Mardi Gras, please please post it to this thread? MOST appreciated.

DonB, I was wondering about the "streaked" statement concerning Fragrant Bouquet, because mine is definitely NOT STREAKED. So I began at the HostaLibrary, and immediately found this text describing the plant, which explains some of the questions I have.

[Quote:] "H. 'Fragrant Bouquet' has very large near white fragrant flowers which are certainly the reason for the name. This is a medium-large hosta that really went over big when it was registered in 1982 by Paul Aden. The leaves are apple green with a creamy white narrow margin. The actual registration is for the streaked version which was lost, but found again and renamed 'Color Parade'. The parentage is given as 'Fascination' x 'Fragrant Summer'. ///
[end quote]

So the registration was really for the STREAKED Fragrant Bouquet....WHICH WAS LOST. Egad, such a horrible thing to say....another lost hosta in one family tree? Enough!

But that it was refound and renamed COLOR PARADE.
Well, I have Color Parade on order from LOTG, which means I shall have the STREAKED Fragrant Bouquet in reality.

Like Steve says, Ran Lydell may know on the whereabouts of Fragrant Summer--like where it is hiding. Probably in the Hosta Protection Program.

I'm thinking the Hosta Protection Program is more effective than the one The FBI offers for humans. Down the rabbit hole we go! : ) Thanks for the info, Mocc.

Don B.

Moccasin, did a search today for hostas with Summer in their name and came across Summer Fragrance on NH Hostas site. Then did a search in the garden forum for any comments/info and came across your entry. Did you ever find one?

Deb, thank you for bringing this mystery back to the forefront. I'd forgotten about it, except for a faint tickle in the back of my mind. My hosta collection is indexed on my Windows computer, have yet to discover a way to transfer it to the Macbook in new software/apps.

I have Summer Fragrance. BUT, if it is listed at NHH I will order it definitely from them too. I had Essence of Summer (from Warwick Essence I think) but the crown rotted over our wet winter and it did not come back. I have Paradise Sunshine which is said to be fragrant, in the Paradise naming lineup. Let me get the old Windows computer fired up and I'll be back later. Problem is, that computer is not connected to the internet for searching. It blew a fuse I think....don't know how to fix it.

I have several with Summer in the name....including Kevin Vaughan's Summer Fragrance. I got it from Hornbaker in 2012, my first big year fascinated by hostas, and I ordered over 200 unique varieties. Others with "Summer" include Summer Music, Summer Breeze, Summer Serenade, Summer Lovin.

Summer Serenade had a green eyed sport, not sure what it would be, so I was searching the Piedmont Gold family tree to see if there was already a green sport. It was a sport, incidentally, because I had to cut the crown apart. I've moved the two plants after separation into more sunshine, to see what changes to the leaf color occur with more light. (My Brother Stefan sport wound up being a real Brother Stefan when more light revealed its mid-leaf color....just saying, not connected to this question at all.)

I totally expected to have our house remodel done before mid June 2015, but no such luck. The driveway is torn up laying new sewer lines, new irrigation lines while we have such an event in progress, and my gardening is suffering. We'll have to rework the back garden areas too, where heavy equipment compacted the soil, before I can sod the lawn and such as that. I cannot leave it to the DH, he would try to do it himself and I want it done professionally. He is truly not able, at 82, to endure such a project. I want to make sure he has a good arm to reach for his wallet! :)

More on the topic of Summer Fragrance later. I'll check for pictures.

That is Summer Fragrance up front, with Sweet Bo Peep in the red pot, and Old Faithful to the left.

Here is my Mardi Gras. I'm assuming it is the OLGA version. Which is not the fragrant one. Do not know how to order the fragrant one, from where. Maybe I call Van Wade, the guru of hostas. Picture taken this year.

My happenstance finding of Summer Fragrance started with Mbug's posting of Summer Breeze. The name reminded me of the song which made me wonder if there was a hosta out there named after my favorite summer song, Summer in the City. Definitely will be getting a Summer Breeze, not so sure about Summer Fragrance, reminds me of Francee. Have Francee, love it, but I have limited space so have to be choosy.

Deb, one of my favorites in that bunch of Summers is Summer Music. It seems to glow. Last year it was nipped by the cold and the white became translucent but it held on and looked great most of the year. This year I haven't spent as much time in the garden, but it is in this shot, the one with the white leaves not far from the big Honeybells and the birdbath. As you see, it doesn't take up much space! :) For one with so much creamy white mid leaf, it looks good for a long time, even here.

Will check that one out too, thanks!