Could it be skipping a generation (June) and reverting all the way back to Halcyon?

~~Becky

Interesting!

Is Halcyon a tetraploid? If so I guess it could have skipped back 2 generations, but I thought Halcyon was a diploid. If it is a dip then ergo, this is not a reversion it is a blue tet sport.

Alexa

Either way, it's worth separating off to have a nice smallish blue wherever you might need one! TOC--like the entire family tree coming from Halycon origionally is nearly bullet-proof and they hold their color well until frost....
So, name it after someone dear to you, your dog.. or whatever...and see what it grows up to be!! ;-) Hostas are so fun, aren't they??

I also thought this was interesting... I got TOC at the end of the 2005 season as a 1-eyed tissue culture... I was surprised to see this all-blue eye pop up this year. And yes, TOC holds its color very well, and is one of the last to fall to the frost.

Alexa, I also thought Halcyon was a diploid, so I guess that would make this a sport, since it's a tetraploid? Very cool!

I will likely try to divide it off, shouldn't be too hard since it's near the edge of the plant. YAY! Hostas are so fun :-) I can usually only find this kind of stuff at the nurseries... my most recent find a few weeks ago was a Gold Standard that had 3 eyes streaked! I divided off the streaky part to keep, and gave the rest to my MIL (I even planted it for her!)

Buff

Lemke's database (link from Hosta Library) shows no known sports of Touch of Class.
If it were me, I'd plant the sport near the same size Halcyon and watch carefully for differences in the flower as well as foliage.

Thanks!! That info from Lemke's database was what I was looking for... I haven't gotten down and felt the leaves yet to see if they feel the same as TOC...they appear to be the same shape and color, just missing the center markings. And I will definitely have to pay attention when it comes time for scapes, to see if there's any difference in the flowers. Thanks again!

Buff

I have had TOC in my yard for a few years and no revertion seen in it. It is a wonderful slug resistant hosta. This year I went and bought 'High Society' another 'sport' of 'June'.

Same thing happened to my Kiwi Full Monty, so i just called it Blue Kiwi

Ed

UPDATE: Just out there checking on hostas today, and my all-blue section of TOC is actually 2 eyes! I am hoping to get it divided today!

Buff

I just bought one last week and it is called Touch of Frost,
of cause that does not mean your all blue ToC is the same as mine, so just enjoy it for what it is and call it what you like.

Hi Bob,
I don't see Touch of Frost in the Hosta Library... is it a newly named cultivar?
Thanks,
Buff

Yes it is new, I got it from the nursery who introduced it, Fransen of Holland a realy great place to visit if you are ever this side of the water, with over a 1000 varietys on offer
Link www.hostakweker.nl
www.hostaparadise.com

Bob

Thanks for the websites, Bob... I looked up Touch of Frost on the hostaparadise.com website, and that looks JUST LIKE my all-blue eyes on TOC. And since your username is "bobinfrance" I'll assume you're in France... I would LOVE to visit there sometime. In fact, I just got my passport this past December, so now I'm free to travel the world! Not that I'll be doing much traveling with an 8 month old daughter :-)

Just as a side note, you should consider taking a picture of your Touch of Frost, to send into the Hosta Library so it can be added. Even if yours is a young plant, at least it would be listed in the HL.

Buff

I *finally* got the 2 all-blue eyes of TOC divided this past weekend. It only took me 2 months to get around to doing it! So far the 2 eyes are holding up great, they appear to be very upright, vase-like, but we'll see what it's like when it comes up next year.

In the process of dividing it, I had 1 eye of regular TOC come loose, with only a couple very tiny roots. I have that one sitting in a cup of water in the window... hopefully it will grow some more roots and I can pot that one up!

Now, if I can only get around to dividing Flamboyant to get rid of some of the all-green eyes and try and save to some of the streakiness... hmmmmm...

Buff

It is a sport! Every TC plant is a sport, silly to rename each one when they look so much alike but they are tiny divisions.

Now we get a really different plant, it is a sport. We can't jump through tetraploid all the way to diploid.

We wonÂt get from this blue sport to June even if it produces something similar.

If you donÂt agree donÂt be offended, tell us why?

I must have missed this from earlier, but as was mentioned, Touch of Class is a forced tetraploid sport of Hosta 'June', so a solid blue sport is basically a tetraploid form of H. 'Halcyon'.

I have some of these too and they are growing bigger than a similarly aged Halcyon and have very thick leaves. Other than that they look pretty close to the same as Halcyon and I have a feeling we will be seeing many of these just get labeled Halcyon. I like the name Touch of Frost, though, and because this seems to be such a common sport we will likely see them pop up in catalogs after a while.

So Chris are you saying it's a tetra Halcyon?

Just curious.

my TOC has a blue leaf also...

jill

I wanted something different, so I went the other way. Here is an all yellow TOC sport, still on the plant in '05 and the all yellow version pic taken in 07:

Seems to me from all these threads that TOC is not too stable. I'm going to keep an eye on mine but so far going on year 2 it is stable so far.

I have 2 Thunderbolts and one reverted, in the ground for 4 years and the other stable going on 2 years. Goes to show, it's always something.

Deb

"So Chris are you saying it's a tetra Halcyon?
Just curious."

I'm saying not, no one is saying why I'm wrong and I'm not looking for some contest or fight over the question. I know what I think BIG BUTT I can't defend my position with genetic knowledge.

Kick the horticulture can down the road if you can.