American Hosta Society Mini Hosta category study

largosmom · Post by **largosmom** » Jan 02, 2008 10:00 pm

Chris, thanks for giving the thumbs up to let me post this: Many folks here have already heard of this group, but there may be some who haven't. This is a duplicate of what I posted on Dave's Garden...

A group of interested people, led by, W. George Schmid, Chair, AHS Classification and Nomenclature Committee and Warren I. Pollock, Member, AHS Classification and Nomenclature Committee have established a group with a mission...

"Mission:

To assist in determining which hostas, based on growers experiences, meet The American Hosta Society criteria for a mini hosta.
To maintain a listing of AHS Mini Hostas to be used for the annual AHS Mini Hosta Popularity Poll.
To provide a forum for exchange of information on growing mini hostas."

They have established a Yahoo group for the purposes of collaborating on this effort:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minihosta/

They are soliciting help from persons who are growing mini hostas around the world, to measure and take photos (with a ruler/measure), to provide supporting data for use in categorizing hostas as minis. They mention on their site that the categories of "tiny" and "dwarf" have been eliminated in favor of the new mini category and they wish to get a good list of exactly what fits that criteria, and what should be moved to other categories. For example, the hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' is often listed as a mini, dwarf, or small hosta. Under the new mini criteria, this one clearly does not belong in the mini category. Instead, it falls into the "small" category. They need the data to support their categorizations and we can all help.

From their web site:

AHS Mini Hosta Criteria:
In 2005, The American Hosta Society adopted new, slightly larger requirements for a mature mini hosta:
Leaf blade area - less than about 3.5 square inches (22 square cm.)
Clump height - less than about 7.0 inches (18 cm.)
Clump width - no limit.

You can request to join the group and assist in this project. I'm sure many of you out there have larger collections than I. I don't have very many minis, and certainly not many mature ones, but I'll measure my few and send the information. The more data they get, the better their categorization will be. Persons outside the US would be extremely helpful to give a good range of growing conditions and environments. Papers will be written later and credit given to contributors, so this is your chance to get into the "Scientific Literature"!

Laura

yardmom · Post by **yardmom** » Jan 03, 2008 7:12 am

At some point or other I signed up with this group, but then they disappeared, and I couldn't find them. I still can't seem to connect.

tsbccowboy · Post by **tsbccowboy** » Jan 03, 2008 8:53 am

This looks like the site for the AHS Mini Hostas group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minihosta/

largosmom · Post by **largosmom** » Jan 03, 2008 6:55 pm

Thanks for the link, I ooops'd when I copied from my Dave's garden post!

Laura

yardmom · Post by **yardmom** » Jan 04, 2008 7:07 pm

Thanks, John!

Post by **Chris_W** » Jan 04, 2008 7:37 pm

There sure can be a lot of variation in miniature hostas, which makes it tough to pick out good ones. The way I look at it there are two kinds of miniatures: 1) those that are naturally tiny and 2) those that naturally don't grow so always stay tiny... I try to avoid plants in the latter group, but then often those in the 1st group grow so well after a while they aren't really "mini" any longer. So I like the way the are classifying them now, but can see how confusing it might get once we see things grow for a long time and learn their ultimate sizes

thy · Post by **thy** » Jan 04, 2008 10:40 pm

Thanks for the laugh Chris... I for sure loved it

my old car broke down on the road. So now I am stucked in a rual area with mostly one hours walk to a bus top... love the Internet, finding a new car with in a few days, so no pitty

.....those that naturally don't grow so always stay tiny....

You was in my garden and didn't even tell me

may need a graveyard a or nursing home category too

Like Cats Eyes

...
How to measure a round tiny leaf

sugar · Post by **sugar** » Jan 05, 2008 6:12 am

I will be participating, but I guess there are a lot of Hosta that deserve a check-up on the registered size

Some of the 'Medium' sized plants I bought became rather 'big'

sugar