Hosta Identification

15 years ago

I either confused a label when I replanted my hostas, or it was mislabeled when send. I've looked at all the named hostas in my past few years plant orders and none match anyway. Can anyone help me identify this hosta?

It is medium green solid leaves, the leaves about 5" long by 3" wide, the veins are very symmetrical pointing to the tip. There is a slight scalloping around the leaf edges. The leaves are only barely textured. It looks like it will grow to about 16-18" high, but it is only in its 2nd year.

Any identification would be appreciated.

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Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
15 years ago
lancifolia?

ken
dbowemd
15 years ago
How about fujibotan? The double flowers would give it away.
in the same vein, could be Clausa. You'd remember buying these.
Could also be a rogue volunteer seedling.
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Jim - it's definitely EW. I'm not sure when it was first released for sale but I've had this for around 10-12 years now. I'm not great w/ any definite time frame past a year ago the older I get! HAHA! I grow this one in full sun and I think that lends to the tight, upright form. I can't imagine the real estate it would take up if it was sprawling! LOL Funny thing is I purchased another EW around 5 years ago and it was growing around 6' away from this one. It was bloom time and I was standing and looking at that bed. Total lightbulb moment that I had twins! HAHA Funny thing is that the other one was around the size of Royal Standard. It looked fine but never thrived like this one. I've heard many tales of EW that never got big. Makes me wonder if there are TC snafus on this variety.
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Hosta Identification 7
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The vein count is right. The description is consistent with the hosta registrar's information. I still think you have a close match if not a perfect match. When you see the flowers, you will know for sure if it matches. If you had a Maekawa, then I'd label this one Maekawa? and wait for that final affirmation from the flowers. It flowers in Illinois from mid July to mid August. As far as the hosta library - those are all young plants. Not one of them is as mature as yours. The third one down looks exactly like yours down to the "needing fertilizing" look. Viktoria Serafin has posted a good photo of the bloom, so you have a model to compare with. This is the photo from the hosta registrar, which, I assume, is official (before tissue culture). It appears to be a young plant as well (I'm counting only 10 veins there, but it's young).
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Compare to Blue Angel. Can you show us a closer view of the leaves. Here's a closeup. i thought of blue angel ... but would expect it to be much bigger in 10 plus years It's been pretty much the same size the entire 10 years, in fact, some years it's looked smaller than the year before. It's not in a great location, as it's in hard, packed down soil, and surrounded by tree roots. So maybe some of that has prevented it from getting bigger. compare flowers at library ... but note one seems to have white flowers.. and one tinged purple For the longest while, I thought the flowers were white. Then I realized there was a purple tinge. This year, however, there's a definitely purple to them. Maybe because it's getting more sun? I thought Blue Angel at first, but BA has a white flower that is very distinctive when it emerges. It loo like a star at on point. Here's a closeup of the flowers as they were just emerging.
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Hosta Identification help #3
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a scale usually helps.. anything we might recognize ... I see the consensus is a probable Wide Brim, but here's a couple more pics, with a 12 inch ruler for scale. (sorry the ruler is hard to see, but it's the only one I have, and a measuring tape was too heavy)
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ademink
15 years ago
Maybe Hyacinthia..?
ademink
15 years ago
I am guessing not Clausa just b/c of the habit. IMO, Clausa is far more stoloniferous and doesn't clump so nicely. Just a thought...?
yardenman
Original Author
15 years ago
Great suggestions. I didnt think about the flowers. They are "just" opening and seem to have light lavender color stripes on the outside. The flowers seem to individually rotate around the stalk in thirds. The stalk is unusually long, BTW, at least 2' tall. The Gold Drops and Piedmont Gold are in full bloom. One Sum&Substance bloomed yesterday. None of my others have bloomed yet, if that helps.

The veins of the Lancifolia pictures I found seem more pronounced and I count 7 pairs of veins on this one.

It might be Fortunei Hyacinthina. That one has the right number of veins and the color looks right. I couldn't find anything about the flowers, though.

Clausa or Clausa Normalis is an interesting thought. The Normalis leaves seem more pointed than this one, but the flowers may give more info when they open (or stay closed).

Fujibotan seems very close, but the unopened flowers are very much more purple than mine are and my leaves seem less shiny. That might just be the photography, of course.

I thank everyone for the suggestions. The next couple of days will tell me if the flowers open or stay closed.

The flowers being arranged by thirds and the timing of them may be the best deciding factor. I couldn't find much about the timing order of the flowers.

I must say that just by asking this question, I have learned a lot about how to identify hostas! It never occurred to me before to count the number of veins, examine the rotation of flowers around the stem, or look at the bottoms of the leaves... So even if I never identify this hosta accurately, I've learned something.

I can say that I certainly did not ever order any hosta of these suggested names, so at least I didn't mix up a label (relieved). And I haven't had any that grew as hybrids or sports (I have always planted them very spaced and there have been no "volunteers".

But, if any of the additional information provides some new suggestions (or confirmations of earlier ones), please let me know! Otherwise, I'm going to have to make a plant marker label that just says "uncertain".

I suspect that my source of hostas mislabeled a hosta (which definitely happened with a 3-tray of "Middle Ridge"). And since they have been so good over the years, I will not mention their name. ;)

But if you have any further idea of the name of this hosta, I sure would like to hear the suggestion...

Yardenman
paul_in_mn
15 years ago
How about Honeybells - slight ripple on edges of leaves

{{gwi:1046305}}
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
15 years ago
vein counting ONLY works on mature plants ....

it will put you in the neighborhood of an ID ... but it is NOT determinative unless mature ... e.g. elegans.. can start with 10 -12 veins as a single or double division ... and end up at 16 -18 7 years later .... go figure ...

named varieties do NOT magically appear as rogue seedlings ... 99.9% of hosta do NOT come true from seed ... you either planted it there.. or it popped out of nowhere ... if it popped out of nowhere ... then you will not find a name.. because it doesnt have one ...

if you did buy it.. and plant it.. then you MIGHT have a chance of finding a name ... if you are relying on a third party ... well .. who knows ....

keep learning!!!!!!!

ken

Hosta Identification

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

dbowemd

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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