Howdy ~

In my limited experience with hostae, I can't imagine a scenario in which you can separate an eye without lifting the plant.

The roots I've handled are *very* intermingled and require either a lot of massaging and hosing to loosen and detangle OR a slice with a solid, sharp knife through the least harmful and most spacious joint.

I separated 3+ solid green eyes from my 'Sea Thunder' just last night. It was fresh from the nursery, so all I had to do was pop it out of its pot. I was able to separate without cutting, but it took a full 20-30 minutes of constant hosing/soaking/massaging to do so. (broke two nails and sustained several bug bites - it took a bit of work) At several points, it was like trying to detangle multiple dainty necklaces.

You can see the separate root systems in the picture about 1/2way down the linked thread. All of that was completely intermingled.

You can easily "keep pulling the wrong leaves out", but the eye will still be there & you'll possibly do damage to the crown that might spread to your NBC.

I'm sure others will have more seasoned/informed advice.

~ freshair

Here is a link that might be useful: separating ST's solid green eyes

No, do not dig up the whole plant. There are a couple of options to deal with the offending leaves/eye while it is still in the ground.

1. Cut the eye off with a knife or pruners as close to the crown as possible

2. Grab the entire eye and twist hard until it comes off.

Either method will work. There is always a chance the same reversion will grow back, but that is the eisk one runs when growing the more unstable variety. My Revolution is constantly putting out odd looking leaves and I rip them off whenever I see them.

Alexa

You can easily "keep pulling the wrong leaves out", but the eye will still be there & you'll possibly do damage to the crown that might spread to your NBC.

What the heck does THAT mean? What is going to spread?

Freshair - with all due respect, you did the right thing with your hosta because it was in a pot BUT digging and established hosta in the ground just because there are some "wrong" will certainly set it back.

Alexa

Alexa ~

* By spreading & ruining, I only meant that some physical damage might occasionally be caused when one is removing leaves from the same area on a regular basis, as Westy implied with "keep pulling".

* Westy said this was the "2nd year", so my reading of that was that the hosta in question is not established. The general image I had was one that was relatively immature & had not been in place for a terribly long time. I certainly would not have made the same comment for a truly established plant. Maybe I misread.

* "Wrong" was Westy's term, not mine. I have no idea what this plant looks like, or what Westy wants it to look like. The question about removing a "different" eye was asked, so I answered with the information and experience I have.

* I also clearly said that I don't know as much as many others on this forum, and that I suspected someone else might come along and give better advice, & it looks as if someone did. That's how this is supposed to work, right? I don't have a problem with being told that I am wrong.

~ freshair

Let me quibble a bit more... two quibbles

Night before Christmas is a sport from White Christmas. NBC is often described as an improvement over its parent as it has thicker leaves and wider margins. (Those traits make me wonder if it is a tetraploid, though nobody says it is... wonder if anybody has checked.)

So quibble number one - NbC can only "revert" (I really wish we'd never started using that word...) to its parent plant, which is White Christmas. White Christmas is a plant with lots of white center and narrow green margins and is typically a very poor grower. If that is what you are seeing, you are correct by current standards in calling it a reversion.

You don't say so, but I suspect from your Revolution comments that what you are seeing is a solid colored sport. If that is the case, then...

Can a plant "revert" to its grandparent? I think the answer to that question is "no" but I would prefer to ask the question "What is the genetic heritage that my sport is likely to have... what will it likely resemble... what might it be identical to?"

Going back an additional generation, we find White Christmas came from Gus Krossa, who said it is derived from an unregistered,unstable, streaky Fortunei-type he called 'Krossa Variegated' (aka [incorrectly] H. fortunei 'Krossa Variegated.'

So we can expect a solid colored sport from NbC to be a Fortunei-type plant... most typically green... most typically similar to Hyacinthina...

BTW - Gus Krossa (Livonia, Michigan) was a pioneer in modern hosta development. He imported many hostas from Japan from the 1950s-1970s and often gave them names starting with Krossa. Sometimes is was a letter-number, like Krossa A-1, sometimes a registered name like Krossa Cream Edge. He is best known for importing "Krossa A-3" which was registered in his name after his death by Alma Krossa as H. 'Krossa Regal.' In Japan it is known as "Ginba Giboshi." A great hosta - a great tribute.

now to quibble number 2 - one that has resulted in no end of aggravation to me, since I like my labels to be correct but I'm also cheap and hate replacing them if they don't need it...

You described your plant as Night Before Christmas. It was in fact originally registered as Night Before Christmas. But international naming conventions have clarified that prepositions used in plant names should not be capitalized. I think most of us automatically used non-capitals for of... like Queen of Islip... but before is also a preposition. Thus, the correct name of the plant is Night before Christmas.

Yes... people have referred to me as Cliffy...

PS Cliffy is a reference to the Cheers character, Clifford C. (Cliff) Clavin, a character co-created by the actor who played him, John Ratzenberger. Ratzenberger originally tried out for the part of Norm. The producers told him they were impressed with him but that he didn't really click for them as Norm. He pointed out that the cast didn't have a "bar know-it-all" - the guy who always seems to know obscure stuff that he enjoys sharing with people, even when they aren't terribly interested in acquiring the additional information.

Cliff appeared in 273 episodes of Cheers between 1982-1993. He appeared as an animated character on The Simpsons and made a guest appearance on Frazier. He is now primarily known for his voice work in Pixar animated films - he has a role in every one - but interestingly enough, when he had a speaking role in Richard Attenborough's "Ghandi" his voice was over-dubbed by Martin Sheen. Another interesting tidbit... "Ratz" not only attended Woodstock, but helped build the stage.

But I digress...

oh,yeah... forgot to answer the question.

Traditional method, to avoid disturbing the whole plant, is to grab the whole eye as close to the crown as possible and give it a twist/pull/jerk. Sometimes this results in removing all the odd crown material - at least I've got plants I've done it to and not seen any additional sporting for years after. Sometimes you get another eye the next year... and you get to do another twist/pull/yank.

I've never had fungus set in or anything - pretty tough plants. Worst result is that I sometimes get too much of the plant coming with it.

Even if I want to save the sport, I rarely dig the whole plant. I'll use my sharp shovel to cut off a larger part of the crown, including the sport, then dig just that part. I'll cut that up and line it out. Some of it will be normal divisions of the parent and some will be the sport - easy to pick out in a row of plants the next year.

Jim - I'm in study lab preparing for tests. My brain is so crammed with info it is about to explode.

Thought I would stop into the forum on break for some "light" reading.

Your explanations are so lengthly and complicated I'll never be able to get my mind back around Excel and Access. LOL

Jim - You need to get into a contest with my husband. I thought he was the worlds greatest trivia lunatic. Now I'm not sure! (Especially TV and movies.)

....and thanks for the encouragement. I'm about to go outside again and snap and twist. Also love the grammar education, being a grammar snob. Can't stand it when people can't speak, spell or write their native tongue - which is almost everyone these days!!!!

Westy