I'm in Texas, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Fragrant Queen and Sweet Innocence did not do well for me. I tried FQ twice and so I give. I like Irish Luck for looks. I like Guacamole for performance. My all time favorite fragrant is So Sweet. it comes up early, stays late, stays compact and doesn't burn.

I don't smell any of them unless I put my face in the flower.

If I were you, I'd be asking Pieter. He's in your same neck of the woods and has been growing hosta for a long time.

bk

most fragrant ... bullet proof .... takes a lot of sun in most of the US ...

plantiginea ...

how long they take to bloom.. depends on how big you start with ...

ken

I had no idea that Hostas could be fragrant until I planted So Sweet. I was weeding and had my face close to it. Wow. Sadly she was smothered to death by an unruly Clematis. Must get another one.

In my experience, plantaginea is extremely fragrant and has been quite easy to grown in Windsor, Ontario 6B. I get many many blooms and they have never failed to come out but I have two clumps in full sun. I have a couple of others in the far back in almost complete shade and they are a much deeper green and never bloom. The clumps in full sun are a light green/chartreuse and you can't help but notice the fragrance when you walk by them. In person the colour is much lighter than shows in this photo. For me this hosta is very cold sensitive and I must cover it if we get a late frost or the damage is significant. It is coming up very slowly right now as it was a cold spring.

Teuth, ain't no doubt plantaginea is the most fragrant one, its heritage is in the vast majority of fragrant cultivars, having said that, it requires full sun and heat. Just for fun, read what Schmid has to say on this specie. Where I am, in Steveston, I cannot give it the required amount of sun exposure to get it to flower, out here in the Lower Mainland it NEEDS full sun before it will flower reliably. A friend of mine has a couple of them flanking the stairs to his front door in around 49th and Kingsway with full southern exposure and they're magnificent in August. Any that I've had over the years having never had open flowers, the buds invariably aborted, so I finally gave up on it.

I do however have a variety of fragrant hostas such as 'Fragrant Bouquet', 'Guacamole' and 'Stained Glass' as the most reliably performers but they compete in the yard with Oriental Lilies, which win out in the fragrance department every year, particularly during the day, the hostas become more noticeable in the evening, you just have to get closer to them than the lilies.

I also have 'Fragrant Blue', which took years before it finally started to produce any fragrance and it is very different from the ones mentioned above, more like Freesias and quite subtle, definitely something you have to stick your nose in before you smell it. Thank goodness it's such a nice shade of blue, a vigorous grower and set seeds readily.

Pieter

Thanks for the great information everyone. Especially Pieter - very helpful to hear some experience from so close to home. Glad to have the pdf link too.

Pieter, since you don't have enough sun for plantaginea to flower, but you find Guacamole & co. reliable, they must be less fussy about sun? How much less fussy - would they bloom well in full shade?

hostas_for_barb, I love the bright green in your pics of Fragrant Bouquet. Why is it so bright in the last two pics? Is it to do with the age of the plant, or were they taken at a different time of year?

Teuth, it's been my experience that fragrant flowered hostas do best with some direct sun....

Pieter