in a normal spring.. elegans is supposed to be one of the first to flower in late may.. for me in MI ... with your pointed tips.. rather than rounded.. i would compare to blue angel ... i also seem to recall.. elegans flowers peeking out from under the canopy.. not as tall as yours ... all that said... of course.. they sold them from seed back in hosta history ... ken ps: 5 is a scale i can understand... lol ..

This will be my first year planting hostas so you could say that I am a Hosta newbie… and Ive read that basically Hostas just don't work down here in LA…. but i need to learn it for myself.. lol… I was hoping any of you southern gardeners could help me out with which hostas to invest in.. and some general tips to keep them alive and healthy in the LA weather… These are the Hostas that i narrowed it down to and was going to pick my favorite ones … (my bed under the tree is completely empty) planning on mixing in Ferns/coralbells and what not with them… any opinions on these hostas? and what to plant around them? Sum & Substance sieboldiana Elegans Empress wu Tenryu Nigrescens Royal Splendor Sagae Paul's Glory So Sweet thanks for help!

I live in central Alabama and have been successful with Krossa Regal (I did kill a couple in the beginning) and Gold Standard. The ones I have now are about 6 years old. Since your success is iffy, I wouldn't invest a large amount of money this first season. Also, Home Depot will have a large variety of 1 gallon hostas at very reasonable prices. Keep going back every week through May because they will get in different varieties. Also, growing anything under a tree can be challenging. Hostas do like some sunlight and they don't like to dry out. Tree roots absorb a lot of moisture. And just when you've spaced them out all perfectly, you start to dig a hole, and . . . hit a tree root. Move it over a few inches and . . . hit another tree root. Very aggravating. Remember to plant them high so that the crown doesn't rot. I've personally not been very successful with coral bells either. Holly ferns will tolerate a lot of shade (but anything likes some sun) and they are very hardy. The holly ferns are also evergreen in my zone, so they should be in your zone also. Home Depot will also have nice, healthy holly ferns for about $5 and Walmart has Autumn ferns for $5, but they may be looking scraggly by now. I bought one a month or so ago when they first came in. Walmart has beautiful plants when they first get them and then their employees neglect them.

Actually, it's not h. sieboldiana Elegans. It's just Elegans. This is copied from the hostalibrary h. Elegans page: 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. This is from the Sieboldiana page: sieboldiana is an extremely variable cultivated species. A selected clonal form named ‘Gray Cole’ (Kuk) best exemplifies the Western form, which can reach immense proportions. The cultivated population includes many seedlings which have been selected for conformity to the accepted norm. Well over 100 named cultivars look very much like the idealized form of this species, which is a cultivar form and many Japanese naturalists have reported to that they have never encountered such plants in the wild. The species as represented in the West is clearly hybridized, but has been treated as a species since the 1830s. So, sieboldiana is not a species, but a cultivar. bk