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Mystery hosta: Green with wide cream edges?

linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)

13 years ago

Any idea what this is? I love it, but not knowing is maddening. ItÂs about 3 or 4 years old. Leaves are thick, with no corrugation. Edge color is really a warm cream, not white: it looks a bit faded here. It stands up to sun remarkably: with a bit of fading, but no real burning, in afternoon house shade.

It was an impulse purchase, and didnÂt look so impressive when it was young. If I knew, I could maybe buy another one! It is pretty big now, maybe 2 Â½ feet wide: IÂd like to know if it will continue to expand.

I have reworked several beds due to patio/walkway construction and this beauty will get a nicer location now.

The "burnt" and crispy specimen behind it is Frances Williams, which looks beat up due to spending a week in a holding bed. Yet the mystery hosta is taking the move in stride, and still looks great!

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Comments (6)

thisismelissa
13 years ago
I think it's Liberty.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
sure looks like liberty to me ...

and why do you need to buy more.. ITS A HOSTA.... DIVIDE IT!!!!

use the tape mentioned in MOVING A FULLY LEAFED OUT HOSTA post... [use the GW search to find that ...] .. to make it stand up.. after you bisect the root mass ....

since hosta come up on stored energy .. and right now it is root growing time... where they store the energy for next spring.. now would be a good time to do the surgery .. though it might not look great for the rest of the year ...

ken

ken
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lykaon and dave - brace yourself for my periodic lecture - you hit one of my pet peeves - the term "reversion" - which I believe should be stricken from garden language. Guacamole is a sport from Fragrant Bouquet, which is a light green with a cream margin. Fragrant Bouquet is a cross between Fascination - a streaker that is a cross between two other streakers - and Summer Fragrance, a deep green with white margin. So how in the heck could Guacamole "revert" to an all green plant. How can it "go back" to a plant that has, as far as we can tell, never been in the family line... at least for four previous generations?! when they tissue cultured Guacamole they got a lot of not-true-to-type plants... many all green and some all yellow. Instead of throwing them them away, they named them Fried Green Tomatoes and Fried Bananas and sold them. In this case, not a bad idea... good foundation plants... nice neutral coloring to use with some of the more dramatic fragrant plants. Guacamole is pretty variable... which is why we have Stained Glass and Cathedral Windows and and and... The margin will streak and vary... without actually being something I'd call a sport. Guacamole will also sport to an all-green sometimes. That green typically looks like Fried Green Tomatoes. Whether it is identical or just similar would require a genetic test, but most hosta folks are comfortablere with the fact that people will call it Fried Green Tomatoes. (I'm resigned to this... though I'll bet some of these end up lighter or darker or smaller leafed or larger leafed... there isn't just one way to sport...)
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Thanks cAROL, I must be thinking of something else. The hosta I have, resembles "Dancing Queen", except the stems have ripples, down along the side edges. I got it at a yard sale, but can't seem to post the photo. Thanks for your help. -Sprout
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linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
Original Author
13 years ago
I google seached Liberty and it sure looks like all the pics I found. Thanks! You sure saved me a lot of time, Melissa. I normally save tags, and have most things recorded on the computer. This one must have slipped through, though.

I like it just the way it looks now, though, Ken! :) I don't want it to be smaller. If I see this one while I'm out, I'll get another. If not, well then maybe I'll divide it next year.
dhaven
13 years ago
Okay, I'm going to upset the apple cart here and give another possibility for this hosta. It does indeed look like an immature Liberty, and it could very well be just that. However, it also looks very much like Twilight. It's difficult to determine from the picture what the size of the plant is, or the plant habit. Liberty is, like it's parent plant Sagae, a vase shaped, upright hosta, and the leaves tend to grow at a more horizontal angle than Twilight. It is also a much larger plant at maturity. Twilight is more of a mounding hosta, although it is slightly upright as well. It's leaves tend to angle more than those on Liberty.

So, a couple of questions to see if we can determine what this lovely plant should be labeled. How large is the clump at this time? Is the plant habit very upright, or more mounding? Perhaps most importantly, where was it purchased? Liberty wasn't in any of the box stores 3-4 years ago, but Twilight has been sold at WalMart and other box stores for quite a number of years.

It may not be possible to determine which hosta this is until it reaches maturity, which for Liberty would be around 6-7 years. Twilight will reach it's mature height in 3-5 years, but will throw divisions and spread out much more quickly that Liberty.
linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
Original Author
13 years ago
The plant now is about 2 Â½ feet wide. IÂd call it sort of vase shaped, in that none of the lower leaves touch the ground, but not as vase shaped or as tall as my Krossa Regal or Regal Splendor. By mounding, does that mean much wider than tall? This is a fairly tall plant too.

I have 2 5 year + Sagae, which have grown very slowly in a different (drier) location and the form looks somewhat similar, even though my Sagae donÂt have many leaves. I donÂt remember where I bought it, whether it was a big box store or a nursery. Just know it was in the fall, and on sale.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
when a name is not possible ....

then division is the only way to insure you get more of the same...

ken

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