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Best time to start hosta seeds?

14 years ago

Hi,

I've been collecting hosta seeds from my garden and was wondering when they should be started? Should I start them now? Or should I start them indoors under lights during the Winter or start them outside in the Spring? How big can I expect the seedlings to be by next Fall? Will they survive their first Winter?

The seeds came off a lovely grey blue one, will the seedlings be the same color?

Thanks for any info.

Please post your answer here.

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Comments (9)

dansgrdn
14 years ago
I like to start mine in November inside under shoplights in my basement. Others prefer to wait until January or February. Depending on the pollen donor, your seedlings from your "Blue-grey" hosta are likely to be mostly green with some blues and possibly golds mixed in. Below is a slideshow of some of my seedlings from this past winter to give you an idea of size. Most were started in November. Most of the pod parents of these hostas were streaked which accounts for the streaking on most of my "keepers". Good luck and have fun!
dansgrdn
14 years ago
Let me try that again. This is the first time I've tried a slide-show.
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Bump this up! I just culled my first seedlings and did this per Bill Nash's article 'About Seeds and Hostas'. He wrote it easy to understand and made it simple for me in the case of culling streaked seedlings. Wow what an experience! In summary, since these were open pollinated seedlings of streaker mother plants Fickle Blue Genes, Topo Gigio, Blue Lightning and Dorothy Benedict, and I wanted only variegated seedlings, I did not want any stabilized single color (here all green) seedlings, threw those all out. From about 110 seedlings I culled 90, have left about 20 streaked or potentially streaked seedlings, about 1 or 2 per cell. With offspring of streaked mothers, if a seedling is single-color, it will not be going back to streaked. I also have seedlings of variegated mothers which are yellow-border/green center. In that case I keep green seedlings because variegation might show up only next year. Bernd
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
there is an FAQ about the subject.. as a starting point ... link below

i am really surprised that ANY seeds are ripe this early in the season ... are you sure you are leaving them on the plant long enough

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link
aker
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you :-)

WOW, Dansgardn Your seedlings are gorgeous!! I don't know who my grey/blue crossed with as there are many hostas in the gardens here, including my neighbour's. I hope I get a few as nice as yours. I think I will start them under lights during the Winter.

I think the seeds are ready as are black and the pods were brownish. We've had a really long hot dry spell and lot's of sun here near Vancouver. My hostas bloomed early this year.

Thanks again :-)
pagrdnr
14 years ago
When it says that you need a streaked mother to have any chance at variegated seedlings......Will a center or edge variegated plant give any variegated seedlings or does the mother ave to actually be streaked?
dansgrdn
14 years ago
Pagdnr, There are very rare exceptions, but for the most part, yes the pod parent has to be streaked.

Dan
Mary4b
14 years ago
Dan, your seedlings are really beautiful! Thank you for the pics!
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
streaked hosta are unstable ...

they pass that instability to the seeds.. and ergo.. the seedlings ...

streaked seedlings.. over the years.. will settle out to edged or centered plants ...

though possible ... stable .. which means one color or edged.. or centered plants.. will give a majority .. like 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999% solid plants ...

just throwing some numbers out .... if you use a stable plant.. you will get about 85% green seedlings... 10% blue.. and 5% yellow ... and one in a million edged or streaked ... though it might happen.. dont bet the mortgage payment on it ...

when you are growing seeds.. you will need to throw out almost all the green .... or you will very quickly be overwhelmed by all them.. fear your success ...

ken
hosta_freak
14 years ago
I have OP seedlings from my Korean Snow,(a streaked plant),and I have at least one seedling that is streaked,but the one I like best is goldish in the spring,but is viridescent,turning green later,as right now. It is even blooming now and has set seeds itself. Right now,the parent plant,and the seedling are both in bloom. All of my past seedlings are green,however. Phil

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