This is a hosta that has surprised me this year. It just sat there last year, and I wondered why this hosta had been on my wish list. Now it is showing a little potential......well lets just say, it looked good when others didn't. This hosta is very low to the ground, and it's just blooming now in late September.
David it's a Don Dean intro.
Here is what I found:
7" tall, small, Origin: Hybrid
Striking small hosta forming a symetrical small clump, 7" tall x 21" wide. 'Little Wonder' x 'Love Pat' hybrid round, blue-green leaves bordered with a very wide, golden-yellow margin.
Trudy...why do you do this to me. I just convinced myself that I REALLY don't need any more hostas. That one pretty much undid my self-convincing.
I have to say, that's a cross I wouldn't have thought to make, but I'm glad that Mr. Dean did!!
Linda P
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Streaky plants from non streaked parents occur pretty rarely, about 1:10,000 seedlings.
Streaky plants from streaked pod parents are about 1:3.
Sometimes a seedling with start out solid in the first several leaves and then appear to sport to a multicolored plant. I'd say this is also in the 1:10,000 range. The vast majority of variegated plants sported from a solid to a variegated plant, many years after growing as solid plants.
Some result from a streaked plant settling out to a center or an edge variegated plant, or both on different divisions.
I imagine this parallels the event where TC of a solid plant results in a streaked or variegated sport.
When it happens (variegated seedling from solid parents) we get all excited and pay special attention to that plant. Maybe that is why we see these variegated seedlings from solid parents make it to market more than once in 10,000 times. Bob Kuk's Skyrocket (Gold) and Unforgettable (Green centered version) are out of Gold Regal, as an example. I can't remember which it was, but I know I've seen this in Zilis's book and wondered the same thing you did.
Hmmmmmmmmm I have tiny seedlings from seeds that I bought here last winter in the seed exchange. The cross is Reptilian x Jimmy Crack Corn. One of them looks to have center variegation, but only on 1 leaf. It's just a one eyed tiny seedling, so not a sport. I can see it pretty well with the naked eye, but can't get it on camera. Maybe it'll get better before our first freeze so I can get a pic.
Baja that sounds like exactly what I'm talking about.
I had that happen a couple years ago with H. 'Marilyn', that plant is growing well now and is dark green has light markings all over, which are most visible in the spring, barely visible now.
I just collected a lot of seeds from it, as I forgot about it all summer, and found it as I was getting things planted.
I have another one that is Cinnamon Sticks x Plantaginea, that had a white edge on a couple of leaves as a very small seedling, but this year came back solid green. It is growing well but I think it won't flower this year. When it has several eyes in a year or two, I'm hoping to get one that is a fragrant red petiole plant with white margin. I'm being careful to mark the plant/pot so I don't forget it.
I have a couple of streaked seedlings from 'Green Piecrust' seeds I got from Chris this spring. They aren't very big...I hope they make it through the winter.
Charla
Latitude 38.57N; Longitude -94.89W (Elev. 886 ft.)
I guess it's fairly common for it to happen, almost everyone growing a lot of seeds has seen it happen.
But you just have to plant about 5,000 - 10,000 seeds a year or be lucky.
It gets to those big numbers pretty fast if you are doing a lot of seed pods, Like 100 pods x 30 seeds each is 3000.
There seems to be some confusion here. The problem is that many variegated Hostas have streaked forms, either the original streaked form, or a tc sport. 'Little Wonder' is such a Hosta. I have a couple of them myself. It isn't very stable in the streaked form, however. You have to separate the margined eyes regularly.