Sugar Daddy

[eastwood2007]

Here's my new "Sugar Daddy." Sorry about some of the leaves looking tattered. There were several to choose from there, but this one had one eye that was really streaked and different. I love the colors and texture of this one!

Hosta Registry - http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... ar%20Daddy
MyHostas - http://myhostas.be/db/hostas/Sugar+Daddy
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/s/sugardaddy.html

Please notice my trained assistant who slid into the right side of the pic to add additional background interest just as I was snappin the shot! Camera hog!

Thanks for looking!

[Spider]

Boy, I need a sugar daddy.....Oh, you meant the PLANT!

[eastwood2007]

Well, Spider, I guess if I got the right kind of sugar daddy...I could have lots o' plants! Wasn't thinkin' I guess.

[thy]

shaking my head

I love SD, got it from Chris 4 years ago, one nice eye and late summer it got a sporting eye too, nice streaker it is, after 2 years it was separated from mum and it is still doing great... but as SD's darn slow

A couple of weeks ago i forced my kids, not at the same day... to walk the garden with me they did a fast calculation and both seemed to think... okay I haven't done it for a long time ... If I walk with her now I have done it for this year ...

I asked them to pick a few hostas they really liked, both claim they like hostas, and both of them poined out tokudama flavocircinalis, June, Guardian Angel and SD.. and a few more they did not agree on.

Mine is in its 4. summer and I can't wait to see it 3 years from now

Pia

[eastwood2007]

Pia, I am encouraged your kids pick SD out of your gardens as one they liked. I am also encouraged that you were able to get your kids to walk the gardens with you...I'll have to find out your secret. Did it include a bribe of any kind?

[Jamie]

This one has been a pain in the arse to grow here. Slow as molasses and doesn't take to the sun very well.. I've never took a picture of mine here cause I really don't think it's worthy, but here's one from the convention a few weeks ago and you can see why I don't care for it.. Mine looks exactly like this about the beginning of summer

[thy]

Seems like you have to plant it in deep shade and give it lots of water... Yes it is slow

Kids... they got the ... you owe mw look and know the day i am gone they have several hundreds of hostas

They are 33 and 20 years old... old enough to know

Pia

[eastwood2007]

Well, Jamie, I am very disappointed to see that pic. Maybe there is a reason the leaves on mine look tattered! I hope not...the pic on hosta library is soooo pretty!

Pia, thanks for the tips...I don't think that kind of bribery will work for me...as I am planning to take my hostas with me when I go....

[Marlys]

It's been on my list to post asking about Sugar Daddy.
Mine was pretty when immature but this year it looks really ugly. All the white margin is tattered & torn. I suspect the blue/green is outgrowing it causing the dreaded drawstring affect.
I am interested in knowing if this is true for others as the plant gets older???
At first I thought it was from being frozen this spring but it is not looking any better as the season progresses.
I do not have space for a looser's lane like Hank.
I need every inch of real estate for deserving prospects so if Sugar Daddy is a Dud it goes away to compost heaven.
I need to know the real story.

Thanx!
MM
http://www.marlysgardens.com

[JoshS]

Unfortunately, Sugar Daddy is a looser for me, too I have a picture of that same plant from the convention, Jamie...I thought it actually looked decent, compared to what mine looks like! Mine has no edge at all. I'm this close to pitching mine Too bad...it would be a beautiful plant if it would hold up.

[eastwood2007]

Oh! This is not good news at all!!!!!!

[Marlys]

OK! I went out and cut all the ugly leaves off Sugar Daddy this morning. Now if more tatters and tears appear - it's off to the compost pile with him.

Surely, someone has grown SD long enough to know if being way ugly is his real character. Mine is only a couple years old I think or maybe 3. It was fine before it started maturing. SD got frozen this spring so I was attributing its flaws to that. But Josh, yours weren't up to get frozen - were they?

Who knows the real story ?

MM

[eastwood2007]

I would like to know the real story, too! Anybody?

[JoshS]

But Josh, yours weren't up to get frozen - were they?

No, the oldest one up in the garden did not get frosted. I got it at the Midwest convention in Madison, WI...it an Ice Age Trail were the convention plants that year...2002. IAT died, but SD has slowly been trucking along - getting uglier every year.

[LiquidFeet]

I've grown five Sugar Daddy hostas for about 8 years. Yes, they grow slow. But that's not their problem.

They come up beautiful in the early spring, with wide yellow margins. As soon as the leaves fully unfurl and spread out, the yellow margins begin to turn soft and limp and brown. In about two weeks those yellow margins are dead dead dead, and after another two to three weeks the margins have fallen off. The green part of each leaf keeps living all season.

I live in the Boston area and I have them in full shade. This is not burn-out from too much heat nor sun. It's not lack of water as I've babied these plants. It's not disease since I have them near others that are doing just fine. It's got to be faulty DNA.

Here's what I just read on Don's Hosta Lists at http://www.hostalists.org/hosta_list_sprdes.php. This sounds like the problem. It's happened every single year with these Sugar Daddys, on every leaf. "Spring desiccation burn" refers to the brown areas that develop on gold leaf sections of some H. sieboldiana cultivars, as commonly seen on 'Frances Williams'. The non-yellow portions of the leaf are not affected. This is a genetic problem in which excess water collects in the leaf tissue during cold, rainy days in early spring. The plant cells die and turn white, and then eventually rusty brown."

It has been a tough decision, but I'm digging them up and throwing them away this week. I have no hope left for them.

[Chris_W]

I discontinued Sugar Daddy a long time ago. Yes, it just gets ugly. I don't believe it is the same problem as spring desiccation, but I agree it is likely a genetic problem.

Unfortunately the Dutch wholesalers have picked this one up and are selling it quite a bit, and touting it as a "new" hosta, so the newer sellers are picking it up too. You can see people selling them on ebay and facebook

You made the right choice to remove them