First... let's start with the official registration... the link from hippienono... Paul Aden registered it as the product of the cross of two of his numbered breeders. Evidence suggests that there were no such plants, so we have no idea where it came from. Then look at the size... registered as 12" wide by 8" high. If you look at old FB plants in gardens you will see lots of them in the 30-36" wide clumps. The height isn't too bad - it is a lower, flat growing plant compared with other hostas. The registration does indicate it is not fragrant. Yet the registrant (Aden) didn't indicate a different "nominant" so it would appear he named the plant FRAGRANT Bouquet and indicated is is not fragrant. Pretty odd! He gave the flowering period in New York as a range of time of 3 1/2 weeks. That usually indicates somebody really isn't willing to watch the plant for a couple of years and narrow the time down. He did get it right that its a white (sometimes whiteish... with some of the lavender chemicals present and fading to white) and an earlier rather than later bloomer. Not sure where Fine Girl's extensive description comes from... noting the location as the Enterprise Rent-a-car Flower Borders is fun! They got the size wrong, like the registration... and "showy" might be a stretch on the flowers, but that's in the eye of the beholder... So... we don't want to ever get into disagreements based on either unofficial or official plant descriptions. It is sad to see this kind of mistakes on old plants - Aden could have gone back and corrected obvious errors like the size of this plant. We'll see what happens to this registration after the two AHS committees get done reviewing the Aden registrations. Unfortunately, we're continuing to see such errors... even more of them. It is all about marketing. I waited to register Polish Prince until I'd grown it independent of its parent plant for four years. I observed its growth and made sure it would remain margined and interesting. On the other hand, if I'd have wanted to market it, I'd have offered it to some of the bigger companies and let them name it for marketing. The could have put it into tissue culture five years ago. Of course, they wouldn't have really known what an adult looks like. This is happening all the time. People get a neat seedling or sport and name it and throw it in tc. They register it based on "best guess." In spite of how easy it is, very few registrants go back and correct the registration. The only thing we can totally trust on the registration is the name. Oh, wait... lots of people getting what are probably the same sport in different locations are naming them, so names are even suspect. And who knows about the naming on all the Aden plants. So... I still encourage people to register hostas and to make them as accurate as possible. You'll often hear me referring to registrations. But we do have to use a grain of salt. One thing about Fragrant Blue is undeniable. Some people call it fragrant. Of those, most say "mildly fragrant." The majority of people say they cannot detect a fragrance from FB. No joke, folks... I've been testing people on this from numerous plants... (I only have two left)... and only a few folks have ever detected a fragrance. These plants are FB in every respect except for that. I grew them from a tc batch I got, I think, in 1996. Now, Brandy... I think you are one of the lucky ones. Yours is fragrant. And I even believe that there might be an "original" strain of FB that is fragrant and a much larger group of FB that came out of tc without fragrance. The only reason I wouldn't lable it FB... because it was originally labeled Blue Flame. The most likely scenario, as we've discussed before, is that an all blue plant snuck through the culling process along with with the rest of the Blue Flames. Every batch of BF tc will have a percentage of these all blue plants. In the old days, solid colored plants in the tissue culture of a variegated plant would be culled - thrown in the compost. But there are some plants that give high percentages... like 30%... of solid-colored plants. It has become common practice for the wholesalers to re-label them or rename them. Examples... when they tissue culture June, it is common practice to pull out the all blue ones and re-label them Halcyon. On the other hand, when Q&Z got a bunch of blues coming from tc of Paul's Glory, instead of labeling them with the parent's name - Perry's True Blue - they chose to give it a new name - Wheaton Blue. Following their lead, a lot of retailers started doing this as well. The nursery Brandy's friend got the "Blue Flame" from could have avoided the serious confusion by putting in a tag for Fragrant Blue. And I know its become common practice in home gardens. Lots of people say they never had to buy Halcyon because they pulled a blue piece off of their June - or First Frost or El Nino etc etc etc. - and relabeled it Halcyon. There is a good chance that plant is genetically identical to FB... making it FB. Unfortunately, without genetic testing, we are only guessing. So I won't label mine that way. It doesn't really matter WHAT we call our plants... until we share them with somebody else. I know I'm in a distinct minority... but I remain a purist, especially because I might be dividing and sharing/selling the plant. I HATE the idea of adding any confusion to what is already a wild naming environment for hostas.

(I was waiting around to respond so that someone who knew what they were doing could post a follow-up.) Now my two bits worth. When I had a greenhouse and did propagation experiments for my amusement I found that often I had better results starting woody cuttings when the plant was dormant. I never tried roses, hence my hesitation.

for anyone considering jeffrey court tile i recommend that you call Ceren at Pacific Flooring & Stone, Inc. (510)-536-5090 to get a price quote.. was a great price and really low shipping cost compared to others.. product arrived when she said it would and was packaged pretty well to avoid any major breaking during shipping.. i think i had maybe 2 cracked pieces out of 35 sheets.. we got the extra 5 pieces issue resolved with no problems.. will hopefully be able to finish this up next weekend.. which is fine because i have been talked into installing another electrical outlet and will need to finish that before finish the tile anyway.. and i had to finish up installing the new pedestal sink in the bathroom.. i can't stop coming up with new projects.. next will be new french doors to replace sliders, engineered hardwood with tile inlay, and covering over some tongue and grove wood paneling.. what will i do when i run out of rooms to mess with? oh yeah.. theres always the yard!!

Beth, Ken and Sunnywood - that's the look I am going for!!! Lovely! Sunnywood your leaf picture reminds me of Brother Stefan. I have taken leaf photos of BS in the past that look very much like that! Royal Standard! I never thought of it being that Ken. I looked at the HL and my hosta looks quite like RS. Hmmmm. . . I will have to take more photos next year and see if I can figure it out. So yesterday I decided to do a repot. Roots had a bit of rot. Not too bad. But what surprised me was that I found 9 little plantlets growing in the center! I removed them because I thought they wouldn't do well in there and also because I wanted to thoroughly remove all old media. Not sure what to do with these little plantlets and whether they will even survive in the garden.