Ludisia, I can't really help you with your ID question. I only have one big blue, and it wasn't any of those you mentioned. I just wanted to say Hi! Welcome to the forum.

Im sure the others will be along presently to help you out. Sounds like you have a big task ahead of you. Please come back often with lots of pictures.

All three look like Elegans to me. It is likely they were all divided from one plant and were grown into maturity. You can tell by the early flowering and the fertility. That's why you see all those seed pods on these guys.

They are quite beautiful. Despite being a fairly common Hosta, Elegans is still highly valued in breeding new Hosta and often will win the "largest leaf contest" at Hosta gatherings. Using these three as the backbone of your garden and designing around them is very wise and will give your garden both focus and harmony.

Go to it.

Steve

welcome ludi.. i hope you really want to be enabled .... lol..

but i am basically lazy.. and i am not going to go back and forth from your album.. to your descriptions.. over and over ...

PLEASE .. i beg of you.. figure out how to insert your pix.. between your words.. look for an HTML code.. and paste it right where you type.. and on preview.. if you see it we will ...

i want to help.. i just want you to help me.. over my base laziness ..

ken

Steve, thank you so much !!!!

With an identification I went snooping for more info.

I found this on Hostalibrary:

Use of the name sieboldiana 'Elegans', though widespread, is technically incorrect. The name 'Elegans' was originally given to a hybrid created by Arends, which was called 'Robusta'. Today the name is used for a variety of different blue sieboldiana-type plants which have been grown from seed in the last century. It should be considered a general name for these plants, and not that of a specific cultivar. In preparation for his book The Genus Hosta, W. George Schmid once tried to track down the original plant from Arends, but was able only to narrow it down to five growing in two locations in Germany.

So if I am understanding this right, saying these are Elegans is a generalization? Or are they species ? The description sounds to me like Elegans is not a specific cultivar.

When I looked up sieboldiana 'Elegans' on AHS they advised that the old name was "Blue Giant"

Blue Giant is not registered on AHS but hostalibrary shows an entry for it and the leaves look less corrugated to me than the pictures of elegans.

I am in no way disputing your claims and am appreciative of the reply. I am just a bit confused at this point what sieboldiana 'Elegans' really is.

I also understand that these are only two of the many resources out there that I am consulting at the moment, so it could just be limited information gathering on my part.

In any event I am curious as to your thoughts, and thanks again :)

Ludi

Hi Ken ^^

I am still new to the general flow of this forum and must confess that I was nervous to post since I saw previous posts where there was a lack of information. I guess I went overboard with the documentation but Flickr was a quick easy method for me to compile some 12 photos. I also did include descriptions on all of the pictures in Flickr, not just here in the post. Plus with Flickr you have an easier access to my documentation of this project. There are also other pictures in there of the monstrosity that is this front yard ::cringes::

But yes if it helps you all help me then I would be more than happy to figure out some sort of HTML code. What do you use when linking pictures ? I do plants but I am not so good with the computers.

Thanks !
Ludi

AH HA !!!! I have figured out the great mystery of linking pictures.

WOOT ^^

Ken, these are for you sir ^^

But if anyone else wants to see the whole album this is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ludisia/sets/72157630358250554/

BIG BLUE #2

BIG BLUE #1

BIG BLUE #1

BIG BLUE #3

Ludisia,

Elegans is a cultivar, not a species. It is no longer correct to refer to it as H. sieboldiana Elegans. All that stuff on the Library page is to indicate that no one was really able to pin down the original clump. The best that George Schmid was able to do was to pare it down to five possible clumps. The Elegans that we see today may have come from different seed, but it is similar enough for us to be able to identify it. The three plants that you have were likely divisions from the same original plant. It is common to see this in older gardens.

I saw a garden a couple of weeks ago that had 5 or 6 clumps of Elegans in it. All of them were mature clumps. I don't think this gardener had bought a new plant in 30 years. Everything she had planted had been propagated from one original plant. Frugal Yankee gardening at its best.

Steve

Steve,

Thank you for clearing that up. ^^

And I would definitely agree with you on the other two being divisions from the first. This garden is at least 8 years old everything at this point is established and competing for space. I'm so glad these giants won their fair share. This is reassuring also that when I dig these up next spring they shouldn't fair to bad size wise once I replant the less dense divisions.

This is awesome. I now have an ID for when all the people walking their dogs past the property ask me what it is. I can proudly say � "Steve said it was Elegans".

Thanks again !!

Ludi

Wow. You have a lovely trio of hosta there.

I note you say you plan to split the clumps. If it were me, I would leave AT LEAST ONE of the clumps untouched. The queen so to speak, as a mark of respect for her longevity and persistence.

I think it was said earlier that you can build your garden around these three, how many more of them would you want to have that are small, when you can get some great new hosta to spice up your garden?

Welcome to the forum, BTW. Looks to me you have a super nice place to live and garden.

Moccasinlanding thank you for the warm welcome.

A tribute to the Queen is indeed merited. I would definitely have to agree with you. Like I said in my original post I knew once I saw these three that they were special. There are a few other cultivars of hosta in the garden as well but nothing like these Elegans. (speaking of which I shall have to put Steve to the challenge again identifying the other mystery hosta in this jungle of mine). Ken won't ID if you don't link pics directly � lazy bum :p j/k

Let me clarify though, so as to maybe better offer me advice.

We live about 11 miles north of Philadelphia in the burbs. This garden is old and overgrown. There are a whole slew of perennials (mostly ferns and hellebore) from the original landscaping design. But like I said there is nothing to look at except overgrown bushes and self-chocking iris. So when I broke ground and started clearing out the first perennial bed about a month ago I hit clay. Real bad nasty compiled clay that I would rather throw on a wheel and spin into a lovely container than garden with. So my goal as I go through these perennial beds is to amend the soil. Slowly in the process moving all the established perennials to rejuvenate them with proper spacing and a more cohesive design (I'm going for woodland floor since the sycamores are dominating all the light in the yard).

With my Elegans I was not intending to move them from their current locations but rather dig them up, amend the soil underneath, and then replace them divided and refreshed.

I have read and seen when a mature plant gets to big it starts to suffer and I don't know how long total beyond 8 years these have been in the ground.

Am I in the wrong to touch them in any way ? I feel like they would only benefit from a soil amending. I would not dig them up every year, but rather amend around them in the years to follow.

Should I leave them be and wait until I see more signs showing me it is time to divide ?

Thanks as always ^^ You guys are great.

Ludi

If the hosta are doing as well as they are, why do any amending? They are happy in the soil they are in.

tj