I bought Hoosier Harmony in the spring and haven't planted it yet. It's growing well considering it's been ignored in a pot all summer. The slugs love this one.

I have Hoosier Harmony ..

It is planted along the base of a row of Lilac shrubs.. probably to close to the base actually.

I would say it gets no more than two hours of direct morning sun, and then it gets all its light filtered through the shrubs. They are not real thick ..so they get mottled light the rest of the day.

So far I haven't had trouble with Hoosier Harmony,other than I think it is one of my thinner leaved plants..and the bugs/slugs might tear it up more than I like.

This row of Hosta has two similar plants just down from it in the exact same conditions (Stained Glass, Fragrant Bouquet) the Stained Glass is REALLY out shining the Hoosier Harmony. They are all three just finishing there second summer in my garden..so it is a rather short term comparison..

I don't think I have a single pic of the harmony, I did post a pic of the Stained Glass somewhere on this board awhile back.

After looking through some pics i THINK this is the Hoosier Harmony, it could be the Fragrant Bouquet..I admit, I do not have a Very good eye for spotting the differences in some plants.

here is the stained glass in identical conditions, and the same age.

this summer I pulled out the black plastic edging and moved out the edge of the garden to give the plants some room, I buried stone edging, and replaced the old cruddy landscape paper with newspaper, and mulch.. It sure looks better, and I know more water is going where it needs to be.

Leafwatcher, that's Fragrant Bouquet, I think. Hoosier Harmony looks like a gold hosta in the pix I have seen of it.

I bought a couple of Stained Glass--a tissue culture & 4'' 'market ready' size from Hosta Liners. Got them the middle of July and both are thriving for me so it's sure looks like SG is a good grower. Not expecting that from HH given it's out of Royal Standard and RS does OK for me but it isn't what I would call a robust grower. Also got Cathedral Windows in a 4" market ready and it's doing just as good as SG.

Gesila--I've read that HH will do great as long as it's in the pot but when it gets transplanted to the garden, it can go into a snit. I can baby it in the spot that I have in mind for it or resign it to living in a pot if that'll keep it happy.

I have several specimens of Good as Gold which is a great hosta. The only problems are that I have 'several' and it isn't fragrant. Looking for more variety in gold hostas. (I did just get Fried Bananas but it doesn't look all that interesting. But it does give me yellow and fragrance in a spot where I want both.

Ci lantro, for a nice yellow or gold, try looking at Dancing Queen, Blaze of Glory or Dawn's Early Light, all three new to me last year in zone 5b. Blaze likes bright light but not full sun, but each of these light up the area they are in. One I don't see mentioned much is Orange Crush, it is amazing this time of year, a bright orange-gold!

I gave up on Hoosier Harmony years ago. It would start out okay but I could never get it to thrive in any garden I tried it, so called it quits after a few years. There are much better hostas to spend your money on. The newer Royal Standard sport Adorable looks like it is a better grower, but I don't have personal experience with it yet.

Chris, now I remember reading a previous post of yours about Hoosier Harmony. That's probably why it's still sitting in a pot somewhere in the garden.

ci_lantro, you were correct, I walked out and looked at my plants, I had the names reversed. I have the tags hidden from view on those two and couldn't read them when I walk by. the fragrant Bouquet is a little better for me than my Hoosier Harmony..

I haven't given up hope, I think I live in the right part of the country where most hosta types excel ..eventually.

Thanks for all of your input. Pretty much confirms what I'd already read about HH. I was hoping to hear at least one success story and what the 'secret' was to getting it to perform.

Anyone have Sweet Sunshine?

I'm looking for a nice interesting fragrant gold hosta.

Chris--I stumbled across Adorable a couple of days ago and it does look like a sweet little hosta. It's definitely on the To Be Acquired list!

Well shoot. I'd never heard HH was hard to grow. I'll probably start having trouble with mine now...lol Here it is... It was planted in a grow bag in 2009. It gets a couple hours of morning sun. High shade the rest of the day.

Oh, Keana, what a pretty hosta! Thank you for posting that picture. Morning sun means the front yard for me so I'll pot it for the front porch. Can't plant it out front because of the deer. So far, they haven't eaten any plants off of the porch!

Did you do anything special for it when you planted it in the grow bag?

I have a pretty good H. 'Hoosier Harmony'. It has (accidentally) had a lot of fertilization. Maybe that is the key. It also does well in containers with lots of water and fert. I have been growing the 2 sisters H. 'Sweet Sunshine' and H. 'Sunny Delight' for about 3 years now. Both are from the same batch of seeds from the cross that Bob Solberg did of H. 'Sweet Susan' and H. 'Tokudama Aureonebulosa'. I do like both, but for different reasons. Sunny Delight seems to have the best gold of any I have seen and is a very good grower. Sweet Sunshine, on the other hand, is a bit slower grower, but I really like the very round leaf shape and corrugation that is now showing as it matures. I have both growing in near full sun till about 3pm, along with most of my other fragrant ones.

Previous years when I water regularly, most of them would stay looking pretty good. This year, between the heat, drought, and lack of extra watering, most of the fragrant ones look pretty rough right now, but Sweet Sunshine and Sunny Delight have held up better than most of the rest.

Sweet Sunshine has a slightly better fragrance, but frankly both are a disappointment compared to even H. 'Fried Bananas'. If you just want to perfume the yard with fragrance, stick to H. plantaginea or H. 'Royal Standard'.

Another one I just added this year is H. 'Tortilla Chip'. It is the all gold sport of H. 'Stained Glass'. It has excellent gold color, and the fragrance was pretty good. It did scorch pretty bad this year, and it is too early for me to know how good of a grower it is, but it might be worth a look.

As a side note, my Sweet Sunshine, in it's 3rd year this summer, has put out a sport on 2 eyes. It looks pretty good so far as a medium green with a gold edge. I will divide it off next year if it comes back.

I washed all the potting medium (and slug eggs) off of Hoosier Harmony and it had the shortest roots of any of the hostas I've cleaned in the last couple of days. Even my Temptation that I got as a liner in May had longer roots than HH.

Wonder if that's one of the reasons HH seems to fail. I'm going to pick up some root hormone stuff today and see if it helps.

Thank you so much for this information, Gesila and Buckeye. I really appreciate the info on the other fragrant hosta, too.

And, yes, I want to perfume the yard, esp. the plantings near the patio...which I also want to look nice. I'm replacing non-fragrant mature hosta w/ fragrant ones and trying, as much as possible, to replicate the color pattern that I had. (Krossa Regal/ Big Daddy/ Good as Gold/ Summer Fragrance...) Is tough to dig out beautiful mature plants & replace w/ wee ones but am trudging ahead anyway.

Not sure how plantaginea will do for me in this zone. And esp. with all the shade that I have. Any sunny spots are 'upwind' of the patio but I did put plantaginea in one of the only hot spots that I have, along with a healthy dose of moisture crystals & half a bag of cow manure.

I do have Royal Standard; it was one of the first hosta that I bought, several years ago. Didn't know that it was fragrant when I bought it. What a lovely surprise! It does bloom nicely for me with minimal sunlight so guess I will invest in more RS plants since it hasn't been a robust reproducer, darn it.

I'm expecting HH to arrival today, maybe and am anxious for it to get here. Definitely will make note of the length of the roots, Gesila, and report back. You may well be onto something. I 'think' I ordered Touch of Class with HH. Love the blue/ green combo hosta or just about any hosta that doesn't remind me of albomarginata! Albo keeps feeding my compost pile nicely but, short of ordering up a bulldozer, I don't think I'll ever get it into manageable territory.

I'm having serious lust for Sweet Sunshine because I love the look of it, too, Buckeye. It's so darned cute that fragrance is secondary.

I'll have to add a line to my Hoosier Harmony nametag.

Hoosier Harmony
2007-2011

It just dwindled away.

Oh, that's not good, Lois, but it's a story I've heard a few times, already. Did you have it as a pot plant or out in the garden? Any details you can add would be appreciated.

BTW, HH arrived today along w/ Striptease (I thought I had ordered Touch of Class) from Hornbakers. The tags were mixed up. Lucky I ordered only two hosta so it was easy to figure out. Anyway, compared to ST, the roots on HH did look a bit shorter. OTOH, ST was a more robust specimen--5 or 6 eyes vs 3 on HH. Divided ST 3 ways putting the largest two eyes out in the garden and the others in the 'To Be Continued' bed. Neither hosta look all that great (cosmetically) but it is September and to be expected I guess.

I potted up HH; they all got a dose of rooting solution

I finally got you a pic of my HH, this plant was about 8 leaves in a 4 inch square pot when I planted it June of 2010. between the Hail,heat, and bugs ...I think it looks ok. Its not huge, but improving.

Ci lantro: I've never done anything with/to my HH otheer than water. Planted it and that's it. It is in a grow bag, so I think it might hold moisture better.

I'm reading this with interest because I just planted HH in a large planter box where it will have to compete with other roots. I had not heard that it was hard to grow. Luckily it's right outside my kitchen door, so I can keep an eye on it & fertilize if it seems to be failing. Thanks for all the info on HH and other fragrant hostas!

I've been tied up getting ready for a garage sale so haven't been able to respond much. Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has contributed information. There's a wealth of knowledge here and it's wonderful that you all take the time to share it.

Thank you so much for the picture, leafwatcher. HH looks healthy & happy. Such a pretty plant.