June question

thy · Post by **thy** » Mar 26, 2008 8:17 pm

LOL Molly... now we need to see your June

Pretty sure it will be a lovely June in a year or 2

Pia

MollyD · Post by **MollyD** » Mar 26, 2008 8:59 pm

Here's my 'infant' June purchased last year

MollyD

Post by **Chris_W** » Mar 26, 2008 9:01 pm

Keep taking pictures of it over the years, Molly. You will be amazed at how much it changes.

These pictures definitely show why it remains one of the most popular hostas out there

thy · Post by **thy** » Mar 26, 2008 9:18 pm

Hey !!! a cute new h.June in a lot of sun

Sorry I do not have a pic of mine... (the sunny one) in my sons garden.... but I 99.999999 % guarantee you... it is the correct h. June you have.

If you want it to change, just move it to the shade

I do grow faster with some sun and you can move it later.

Pia

MollyD · Post by **MollyD** » Mar 26, 2008 9:37 pm

Pia,

Glad to hear I have the real thing! That spot is under Black Walnuts. The picture was taken in May when the trees haven't leafed out yet but later in the year that spot only gets morning sun. June seemed very happy there .

Chris,

I will most definitely take pictures!! It's one of my gardening pleasures

MollyD

ViolaAnn · Post by **ViolaAnn** » Mar 27, 2008 7:29 am

This was my June last July. Second year in my garden though I got a sizable division from a friend. I don't know how long the friend had it before we traded.

Edited to say this is on the east side of my house and gets morning sun only.

Ann

PS This is now one of the pics Chris has on his web site.

MollyD · Post by **MollyD** » Mar 27, 2008 8:00 am

It is so lovely Ann! Hope mine looks something like that this year or next.

MollyD

bengal · Post by **bengal** » Mar 27, 2008 9:39 am

bengal..sure yours is a really June, just like mine are ?

'sfar as I know.

I just went to the hosta library to look at pics. Seems June is a '91 hosta....I recall buying mine around then, maybe '92, from a nursery in New Jersey that may be out of business now. Lots of tiny pots full of plants, including the still-new and quite pricy Lucy Vitols....and June. Me? Knew nothing about hostas. Zero. Zippo. But I went home with two lovely ladies -- Lucy V. and June.

Anyway, the hosta library says that, "'June' is a 'Halcyon' sport and has lovely gold centered leaves with wide blue-green margins.....There is some debate about whether there is more than one sport being sold under the 'June' name. Certainly the plant responds to the season and to the prevailing light conditions very readily."

So my plant probably looks the way it does because (a) I bought it during the first wave of TC Junes in the U.S. and (b) it gets a lot of light during the a.m.

at least that's the hope.

Otherwise, it's yet one more hosta here without an ID.

thy · Post by **thy** » Mar 27, 2008 6:37 pm

Sometimes the HL can be extremly confusing with the mix of young and old plants, plants in sun or shade and the time of year... and some wrong pics

it may have been part of the talks.

yours is beautiful and you have to live in northern US for having that color

Where is pacific PA ?... thought it was on the Westcoast but with you mentioning New Jersey... i do not belive it any more

bengal · Post by **bengal** » Mar 27, 2008 7:55 pm

Where is pacific PA ?... thought it was on the Westcoast but with you mentioning New Jersey... i do not belive it any more

Not sure what you mean by pacific.

I live in eastern Pennsylvania, very near Trenton, New Jersey. (BTW, caliloo and I are neighbors - just a few minutes apart by car.)

Anyway, June.... I've been keeping a folder of hosta images - plants I'd love to have. It seems many are quite new, with some not even commercially available. But I have to say, to my eyes, June ranks up there with the rarest of the rare. I don't have many hostas yet, and most of the ones I do have are pretty new. Still. June has to be the nicest one in the garden here. What a gal!

Spider · Post by **Spider** » Mar 27, 2008 9:19 pm

Here's my June last year:

Here it is on 3/22/08:

(the bar spacing is 1/2 inch finch cage bottom)
So far it has very narrow margins and a lot of yellow.

I like the wider margins better. I'm hopeing it's just a young plant and will grow to be like the ones I had before. (I may just go up and dig one I left behind, they must be huge by now!)

thy · Post by **thy** » Mar 27, 2008 9:40 pm

bengal...do not know...think PA in my head ment pacific

Sorry

Spider, it look fine, just like an young h. June have to look

jobranch · Post by **jobranch** » Mar 27, 2008 10:27 pm

I have a June purchased late last year. The nursery had it in deep shade. As you can see below from photo end of last summer it was virtually solid in color, as you would expect it to be.

Jeff

Spider · Post by **Spider** » Mar 27, 2008 11:02 pm

Thanks Pia, I'll just have to be patient. (not easy!)

ViolaAnn · Post by **ViolaAnn** » Mar 28, 2008 1:18 pm

Spider - does the 1/2 inch finch cage bottom help to reduce problems with rodents?

Ann

Spider · Post by **Spider** » Mar 28, 2008 4:50 pm

YESSSS! The tree rats have not messed with that pot! They have dug deep holes around Plantagenia and the morning glories, but not the june or the strawberries (they have the full birdcage over them). I'm doing the happy dance every day there are no holes!!

MollyD · Post by **MollyD** » Mar 28, 2008 4:58 pm

Jeff my June doesn't do that at all!!! In fact you are the first person who I've ever seen with an all green June!

MollyD

jgh · Post by **jgh** » Apr 02, 2008 1:23 am

I think the describing June in different "types" was originated by Winterberry Farms years ago. This place was famous, or notorious, depending on your point of view. It was a disorganized business doing kitchen-counter tissue culturing. Lots of things got mislabeled and shipped around the country. And instead of culling, they often just sold things, making up names for them and generally making things extremely complicated.

When they tc'd June, they felt there were different types based on the brightness of the center and variations in the width of the margin. Since some people liked the more subtle contrasts and others liked the brighter centered types, they marketed them as June type I, June type II, etc. This was the only "formal" example I know of attempting to identify specific variations within June.

In general, I believe most variations in June are due to culture... light intensity mostly. But... I know the tc June I got back at the beginning... like early 90's... had a much subtler center coloration than the ones coming out of tc now. I have grown the "old" and "new" ones side-by-side and the difference remained obvious.

Apparently the brighter center has become the norm... which is why people drool over the old, mature clump of the older version I have growing at the entry to my gardens. People look at the "new" Junes I have for sale, but then ask for divisions of the "old" June because it has such subtle beauty.

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Apr 02, 2008 3:40 am

Here are pics from May 06 and May 07 of the same plant. It was purchased as a liner in 00. As a baby, growing in a lot of sun, it had a screaming yellow center. I moved it here where it gets morning sun somewhere around 03 or 04. Every year it gets more blue and less yellow, perhaps due to the increasing amount of shade, but I think also possibly to age. At any rate, I think you can see the difference in the color from one year to the next. I know the camera can lie, but this is the way I remember the color, more yellow in 06, much more blue last summer.
Whatever color it has, it's a winner.
There was definitely more blue in all my blues last year, so it's entirely possible that more shade and cooler spring temps had something to do with the whole thing.
Linda P

jobranch · Post by **jobranch** » Apr 02, 2008 8:40 am

Molly - I had posted this picture late last summer with concerns that it was not June, and the concensus that it was June and was OK. I was a little disappointed with it's color. It was a case of I knew I wanted one, but could not remember what it should look like when I bought it. I am hoping it has better color this year.