Pic of the Day--venusta

Talk about hostas, hostas, and more hostas! Companion plant topics should be posted in the Shade Garden forum.

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Hank Zumach
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Joined: Oct 11, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Stoddard, WI

Pic of the Day--venusta

Post by Hank Zumach »

Hi All--Today's plant, H. venusta, is one of the hosta species as defined by W. George Schmid. It has been frequently used by hybridizers attracted to its tiny leaf size and tidy clump form. It was added to our garden in 2002 and planted in a spot that gets dappled sun. When I got the plant, I knew I was getting a small plant but I had expected more growth than the 7x2 measurement I got the first three years. Then in its fourth year it leaped all the way to 12x5 and in 2006 it was 13x4. Zilis lists a mature plant at 30x7 while Lemke has it at 20x6 and the Hosta Library calls it "small" and "dwarf". Slugs have not bothered the little thing.

Registry - not registered - it is a species
MyHostas - http://www.myhostas.be/db/hostas/venusta
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/v/venusta.html

The photos are from 2004 and 2006.
venusta 6-26-06c.jpg
venusta 7-7-04c.jpg
Hank
Better Gnomes & Gardens
zone 4B-5A
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renaldo75
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Joined: Jul 15, 2002 8:00 pm
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Post by renaldo75 »

They are cute little guys. I found some for sale in 2003 at a local grocery store of all places. :o Last place I ever expected to find a species hosta. 8-) I've got a couple in different places. They never get very tall, but one of them had quite a spread before I had to move it recently.

Last year the larger clump was 3.75" H x 14" W, leaves 1.25" W x 1.75" L w/4 vein pairs. It was easily 18-20" across this spring, but I never thought to measure it.
GO HAWKEYES!!!

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Latitude: 40° 59' 17.6676"; Longitude: -94° 44' 28.014"
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Tigger
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USDA Zone: 6b - 7a
Location: SE Penna Zone 6b (7a?), lat. 39°50'
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Post by Tigger »

I have to wonder if there are different seed strains of this in the trade. The venusta we've been growing for years is significantly bigger (but with same vein count, etc.) than what Schmid describes, and what we've seen in other gardens. We never let the clumps get huge, but the individual leaves are pushing 2" long sometimes.

Just as montana can be either a smaller plant (think Mountain Snow) or a monster (montana macrophylla), it all depends on breeding.
thehostagourmet
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USDA Zone: 5b
Location: Western NY, Zone 5

H. venusta strains

Post by thehostagourmet »

Yes, of course there are different strains of almost all the species Hostas grown in cultivation. The exception seems to be H. plantaginea. One clone is all that we see distributed in this country, and Europe too, I believe.

I grow three different venustas. One is called the Benedict strain and has tiny leaves. The other has the 2" long leaves. The third may not actually be H. venusta, but was sold as such for years. Locally Ran Lydell was the purveyor. It originated at Q & Z Nursery. I would never point fingers, but at one time 'Masquerade' was thought to be a variegated form of H. venusta. 'Masquerade' TC plants that came out all green, or 'Masquerade' plants that turned all green I'm sure were sold as H. venusta. It sure looks like venusta, but with slightly longer leaves.

Finally, the green form of 'Masquerade' was named 'Munchkin' by Mark Zilis. Pictures show longer leaves than my third variant of H. venusta, so I'm unsure of what I really have in that third form of my venusta trio. Each has a different three digit number in my hybridizing scheme. Form three has sported for me to a white margined form similar to Ran's 'Striker', but with shorter leaves.

They're all great hybridizing plants to create mini seedlings.

George
Eleven
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Re: Pic of the Day--venusta

Post by Eleven »

My tiny venusta received in trade a couple years ago, stilling hanging on:
Image
~Shawna
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