Hosta Flowers: Any good ones?

[felco2]

Love the leaves. A little mixed feelings on the flowers. Are there any hostas whose flowers you really look forward to?

Also how to handle the flowering? Does it hurt the hosta to cut them off right away or should you leave them on for awhile?

If left on, are there some hostas that make nice babies?

Thanks, Felco2

[tsbccowboy]

The one Hosta I look forward to for the flowers is plantaginea. The flowers are beautiful, large and very fragrant. Along the same line there is Avocado, Cathedral Windows, Guacamole and Holy Mole for the looks and flowers.

Here is plantaginea:

[sugar]

Besides the fragrant ones (I would recommend 'Essence of Summer' (great substance, flowers larger then other fragrant cultivars, near the size of 'plantanginea' ) there are two cultivars in my garden that stand out with the flowers

Hosta Violetta

Very nice large plant with a lot of dark purple flowers,


Hosta 'Roller Coaster Ride'

Nice shape & Colour

[tsbccowboy]

Sugar,

Those are beautiful flowers and beautiful pics!

Cowboy

[eastwood2007]

Felco2, I actually used to feel the same way about hosta flowers until I discovered you can start hostas from seed and can create your own varieties! I used to cut all the flowers off cuz they messed up the looks of the hostas.

Having said that...if you decide you don't like the flowers, I don't think it matters if you cut them off or when.

I also like the flowers of 'Royal Standard.' It was my first fragrant hosta and discovered the scent before I even knew any hostas were scented. I kept smelling something very lovely and was looking everywhere in the garden for it except the hosta.

Lovely photos cowboy and sugar!

[Spider]

I'm making my plant decisions as much for the flowers as for the foliage. Here are some I have. For a bigger photo you can click on them - I think it also links to my whole album. I'm not cutting the spent stalks anymore - I'm in a very humid climate and it just opened the plant up to problems.

plantagenia


Waving Wuffles


Blue Mouse Ears


Blue Mouse Ears


Phantom


Bridegroom


I just ordered plantagenia Venus (tripple blooms?) and may find room for Fugibotan (purple double blooms) Grand Slam is on my wish list for flowers and piecrust edge.

[thy]

It have been said the flowers need 2 bloming flowers before it was vise to cut them of... true ? do not know.
You can't find nothing cuter than the the flowers of Blue Mouse Ears.. take the fragrans of plantaginea and family...
My fav is the flowers of Purple Lady Finger.. ortherwise the hosta is rather uninteresting

Hosta flowers are great combined with pink or white roses and last long time in a vase.

If you cut them off, do remember to clean your tools with alcohol every time you go from one hosta to an other... for the risk of spreading HVX

Pia

[ViolaAnn]

I've got a few that come to mind.

Clausa has a flower that never opens, but there are lots of them and it is an intense purple.

Diana Remembered is a HUGE flower that is also fragrant.

Fujibotan carries its double lavender flower on very tall scapes.

Venus has a spectacular, full, white, fragrant flower. It doesn't always bloom for me if the summer is wet and cold as it bloomed in late August.

Clausa with its very purple closed flowers.

Diana Remembered - huge, fragrant flowers.

Fujibotan - double lavender

Venus - very full, fragrant flower

[Justaysam]

I always wait for this one, just like the coloring and the slight ruffle.

[felco2]

Thank you all for the great pictures. I'm taking notes from all the posts. I'm adding Venus and Diane Remembered to my hosta wish list.

I would like to share several pictures of my favorite hosta: Blue Shadows. But I am on a Macintosh and can 't seem to get it to work. I once got as far as a choose bar and was in my iPhoto library and selected the photo and then got an error message. I'm not supposed to tie up the forum with this though. Any reccommendations as to the correct procedure to get some help.

I see the upload attachment box and I'm gonna try again. Nope the image file is invalid.

Thanks, Felco2

[Pieter]

I always wait for this one, just like the coloring and the slight ruffle.

Interesting enough flower, but what exactly is it?

[Linda P]

Great flower pics! Justaysam, is that one of your seedlings? That's a beautiful flower.
Raspberry Sorbet, Fall Bouquet, Temple Bells, Lakeside Lollipop and Lakeside Neat Petite, Blue Jay and plantagenia Aphrodite are some of my favorites.
I have a Blue Cadet seedling that has wonderful pink flowers on it, masses of them.
I've always loved the hosta flowers, but in recent years it seems there are more people who are trying to work good flowers into the next generations.
The only ones I can't abide are the wimpy flowers on the undulata group.
Linda P

[Justaysam]

Yes, thats one of my seedlings. Sorry if the question was for plants you could purchase. Crossing for flowers takes much more skill and much more record keeping than I am capable of. You need to keep crossing to F1 similar or better flowered plants and keep track of the results. And grow on the seedlings a few years to see if your results are producing what you want. Way too much for me to keep up with. I know where this guy is, and keep up with checking out it's blooms each season and that is about it, I don't do much else with it other than admire it.

[Don Rawson]

Here's a list which may be helpful. You can view the flowers of many of these on the Hosta Library. Don

BEAUTIFULLY-FLOWERED HOSTAS

‘Abiqua Ariel’
‘Academy Flora’
‘Akane’
‘Akarana’
‘Amethyst Star’
‘Austin Dickinson’
‘Blue Skies’
‘Boyz Toy’
‘Brazen Hussy’
‘Calypso’
capitata
clausa
‘Crystal Chimes’
‘Ebony Spires’
‘Emily Dickinson’
‘Essence of Summer’
‘Fall Bouquet’
‘Flower Power’
‘Fried Bananas’
‘Fried Green Tomatoes’
‘Fujibotan’
‘Hirao Splendor’
‘Honeybells’
‘Kokuryu’
‘Korean Snow’
‘Lakeside Looking Glass’
‘Lakeside Neat Petite’
‘Lancifolia’
‘Lavender Lace’
‘Louisa’
montana and montana cultivars
‘Montreal’
‘Moongate Little Dipper’
‘Mount Royal’
‘Nakaimo’
‘Ogon Tachi’
‘Omatsu-san Nishiki’
‘On Stage’
‘Passionate Purple’
‘Pike’s Peak’
plantaginea
plantaginea ‘Aphrodite’
‘Purple Dwarf’
‘Purple Lady Finger’
‘Rhapsody in Blue’
‘Raspberry Sorbet’
‘Richland Yea’
‘Riptide’
‘Royal Standard’
‘Royal Super’
‘Sea Fire’
‘Sentinels’
‘Sparkling Burgundy’
‘Sunny Disposition’
‘Swoosh’
‘Temple Bells’
‘Tot Tot’
‘Ultraviolet Light’
ventricosa
ventricosa ‘Aureomarginata’
‘Venus’
venusta
‘Viette Eighteen’
‘Vilmoriniana’
‘Wild Walt’
‘Yea’
yingeri

[redcrx]

One of the reasons I got into hostas was for the flowers in shade. I look for flowers that attract hummingbirds. I have red cardinal flowers and beebalm but I wanted more. I put in a lot of hostas last summer and now I'm looking at flowering times so I can have flowers all summer and late into the fall (I had a Stained Glass with flowers in November - it got confused). I bought Grand Finale because it flowered late. Chris sent me a bonus of Wily Willy late in the year and in full flower - really nice.

Wily Willy

Wily Willy

Gingko Craig

Gaucamole

Gypsy Rose