Here are the lists I promised. This is from the Smith County (Smith County and is about 90 mi. east if Dallas) Extention service trials about 10 years ago. Smith county is in East Texas and is not as dry as the DFW area, but just as hot. I think it's 7b. Everything shifts when I post this. It's copied from a PDF, but you will be able to see the results, but it won't stay in columns. The hosta were evaluated by master gardeners in June, August, October and then averaged. There was a problem with the irrigation system in an area so �So Sweet�, �Sugar & Cream�, �Royal Standard�, and �Albo-Marginata� didn't get sufficient water. NAME DATE AVERAGE June August October Blue Angel 9.8 8.8 10 9.5 Sugar & Cream 9.2 9.4 9 9.2 Blue Cadet 8.7 8.8 10 9.2 Francee 6.0 8.8 10 8.3 Gold Standard 6.3 7.6 10 8.0 Honeybells 7.1 8.8 8 8.0 So Sweet 9.4 5.6 8.5 7.8 Royal Standard 7.4 9 7 7.8 Lancifolia 7.3 7.8 8 7.7 Grand Tiara 7.8 7.2 7 7.3 Albo-Marginata 7.6 5.8 7 6.8 September Sun 6.2 7 7 6.7 Sun Power 6.8 6.8 6 6.5 Elegans 6.0 7.4 6 6.5 Emerald Tiara 7.8 7.2 4 6.3 Patriot 4.6 6.2 7 5.9 Bold Ribbon 6.5 6.8 3 5.4 Guacamole 6.7 5.4 4 5.4 Gold Edger 7.1 6 3 5.4 Fragrant Bouquet 5.1 4.8 6 5.3 Sagae 5.2 4.6 6 5.3 Shade Fanfare 5.5 4.6 3 4.4 Summer Music 3.8 2.8 6 4.2 Undulata 6.3 3 3 4.1 Temple Bells 6.1 3.2 3 4.1 Krossa Regal 4.2 3.8 4 4.0 Resonance 4.3 5.2 2 3.8 H. fortunei 'Aureo Marginata' 4.3 3 2 3.1 Aphrodite 3.5 2.4 3 3.0 Colossal 4.3 2.6 2 3.0 Fried Green Tomatoes 3.8 3.4 1 2.7 Invincible 4.5 2.6 1 2.7 Halcyon 2.8 2.8 2 2.5 Big Daddy 2.3 2.8 1 2.0 Daybreak 1.7 2.4 2 2.0 Sum & Substance 2.1 1.8 2 2.0 Hadspen Heron 1.5 1 1 1.2 *Master Gardeners were asked to rank each variety from 1 to 10, with 1 = worst/almost dead, and 10 = outstanding in every way. These are the recommended varieties from a trial at the Dallas Arboretum. There is also a large trial in progress right now. I can hardly wait to see how they look this spring. Invincible (plantaginea Hybrid) Sugar & Cream (Honeybell sport) Dixie Chick (Invincible x Masquerade) Abba Ready Sweet Standard (Honeybell sport) Emily Dickinson (plantaginea hybrid) Potomac Pride (H. 'Blue Umbrellas' x H. yingeri 'Treasure Island' cross) Plantaginea Honeybells Royal Standard Regal Splendor (Krossa Regal sport) Krossa Regal Francee So Sweet (Green with cream edge- compact) Blue Cadet (Blue green medium) Patriot September Sun (Chartreuse green/yellow with dark green edge) The going theory is that certain "families" of hosta do better in warmer areas, which makes sense. If the parent plants are from warmer climates, then you would think that the progeny would do better in warm climates. It was explained to me that some varieties pass on their heat tolerance better than others. Sill, I don't think you can go wrong with anything fragrant, which comes from plantaginea. This is a recommended list: The families of hostas that do well in southern gardens are: clausa gracillima kikutii longpipes montana Nakaiana plantaginea rupifraga sieboldii some species tibae ventricosa venusta yingeri nakaiana How I tell the parentage is to look it up on the Hosta library http://www.hostalibrary.org/. Then say you are interested in what "so sweet" looks like. Look in the S's on the hosta library. On the left above the first photos is a link to the the myhosta.net database. It will usually tell you how large the plant will be and what the parents are. Sometimes, they are many generations removed and this is no longer relevent, though. Good Luck, I'm not sure when the trial at the Dallas Arboretum concludes. However, when it does, I'll post the results. bkay

Ci, I'd appreciate it very much if you'd relay what you find out about Willamette to me directly at my email address--which is listed in my member page here. I would not mind having seeds of such a fine plant, selfed of course or maybe another plantaginea x Royal Standard cross. Whatever comes of such a mix has to be good. Irawon, when my Fragrant King and Fragrant Dream bloomed, along with a couple of others, I did not smell anything at first because we had so much rain I think it washed the pollen away, or whatever substance has the fragrance. But then one afternoon late, when the wind was still, not a breeze at all, I walked out to the middle of the area where the plantaginea family have their colony, and I became aware of a really heavenly scent just everywhere. It was in the air, and I could not tell from which plant it came. But those were not the Royal Standard, nor the mama plantaginea, which has yet to bloom. Taking her own sweet time. And the show ain't over until the fat lady sings. I really envy you with your platoon of Royal Standards that are all mature and probably have multiple scapes on each plant....wow, that would be worth throwing a party for 10 of your closest friends. In some place or other I read that it was late afternoon when they open or exude their scent. So maybe you do not have to stay up all night to have the party. If I got an invitation, you can bet I'd be the first to arrive.....probably with Ci right behind me!!! :) I'll go take a picture of the fragrant ones blooming and begin another thread so it can be directly searchable. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in seeing a lot of the blooms from fragrant hosta. Sure hope I get my software straightened out which is where I save my gardening and hosta information. It doesn't want to let me save it. Some problem with administrative rights on Windows 7, began after the last HP update.What a bummer.

Thank yous to all! I've been spending time off and on all day researching hostas ... Thank you, Thisismelissa! We got the blizzard today, our slightly toned-down Illinois version, but it's kept the world inside and church was canceled. So I went to the Hosta Library site. I can't see pics, so have to glean what I can from verbal descriptions. When I'm really hot on a particular plant, I'll try to look it up in multiple places. Some catalogs just don't really know what they're talking about. The written descriptions at the HL sound a little like gibberish with my voice synthesized computer, but I can get some idea about size, color, form, rugosity, etc. Many of you guys collect 100's of hostas. Me, I love them in a little different way, I suppose. Even my relatively tiny collection gives some evidence of the variation in hostas, but each is, nonetheless, clearly a hosta. A small hosta was the first plant I id'ed with just a few clues. A previous owner had 3 or 4 varieties -- one small heart shaped guy that was spreading happily all over a front bed, a white edged small to med, and the fragrant ones. I couldn't see leaf colors, but could tell that these plants that shot up flowers on stick-like stems were all cousins. I remember discovering an amateur breeder in my church at the time. He told me about "plantaginea", taught me the term "scapes", and took me on a tour of his drip-irrigated hosta collection. So I felt minis up to the giants ... Fun! But composing a bed is very hard for me . Because I love hostas, I will always use them, but I've found out the hard way that I need the ones I choose to be distinct in form and/or size. Otherwise ... well? So, I guess I was asking both about the color combination ... which I've played with before. and I'm trying to figure out a showy, sun-tolerant specimen hosta. Since I don't currently have any "large" hostas I guess I thought that might be an obvious distinction. Vase or upright form would be distinct, too, as I gave my gorgeous 'Krossa Regal' to a special friend who admired it. It was a 3 year old in a rather large pot ... heavy sucker and happy friend. Melissa- Guacamole will definitely stay put. Plantaginea may need to be shifted, but he got reduced last year, so isn't quite the monster he'd been. I mean some of him got moved to another place that I wanted solid green ... Love him though ... He's been divided before and comes back gangbusters. I think of him as northern gardenia ... Edie- That's been a want list plant for several years. Vetivert8-Yep, the Dahlia's have a number of dark-leaved beauties. Got to go to bed ... I've got 'Golden Sculpture' in my head, but, man, that would be one honking big thing some day. Should I live dangerously? Hmmm ...

I don't recall a year plantiginea has ever looked so good with so many blooms and the blooms lasting so long. Maybe it was the wet spring and early summer. Or maybe it's just the hydrocodone as I lay out in the yard recovering from arm and elbow surgery! My workhorse border edging hosta lancifolia is also starting to look mighty fine though I don't recall it blooming so early before. As the one doing the lawn maintenance I really appreciate the way lancifolia provides a weed free mulch free border edge and handles the mower perfectly allowing the mower wheel to go underneath/push aside the leaves without cutting/damaging the leaves.