I only have one blue hosta Halycon. It's in a shade garden but still turns deep gray green. What blue hostas are famous for holding their color (given shady conditions) throughout the season? Here is a picture of Halycon on 6/6/09.
Halycon June
One in late August with deep green leaves next to a Hart Tongue fern.
Hart Tongue Fern and Halycon late Auguts
And one in July.
Halycon July
Thanks, Felco2
Felco2 The best views of the garden come from working on one's knees. The pause from working when you can drink it all in.
Without question, for me, in my yard and at my latitude, the following blues have all been blue well into August, and beyond: 'June', which apparently is a 'Halcyon' derivative, and 'Dream Queen' as variegated ones and 'Blue Sliver' and 'Blue Mouse Ears' as solid coloured ones.
Keep in mind that the blue we see is as a result of a waxy coating on the leaf and that coating can and will melt away under summer heat, even though the plant may be in nought but open shade and see no direct sun at all. Ambient summer temperatures play an important role here.
Pieter
"Never trust anyone who doesn't have dog hair on their clothes."
I have Skylight in a fairly sunny spot, probably 2-3 hours of direct sun a day, and it stayed a nice frosty blue all year.
Blue Jay, in bright shade, keeps the blue color very well for me, too.
Variegated...Secret Love and Frosted Dimples held the color well last year.
'Skylight'
P1010013.JPG skylight May 09.JPG (54.75 KiB) Viewed 1489 times
'Secret Love'
Linda P
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne
'High Society', 'Pewterware'-streaked, 'Touch of Class'
Just a few more. I should mention that I'm in Canada - fairly far north and we had a cool, wet summer last year; so these might not be typical for a hot dry summer.
High Society - September 17 - the edges remained blue all summer
Pewterware - a streaked division - still quite blue on Sept. 17. I'm hoping the streaks will remain this year, but if not I'll have a nice blue.
Touch of Class - Oct. 1 - also retained its blue well
'Fragrant Blue' stays nice for me all summer. I keep it in early morning light, and shade the rest of the day. Sorry no picture available, I am at work.
Thank you all for your replies. I'm in love with 'Touch of Class'. Wow. I've added 'Frosted Dimples', 'Fragrant Blue', and 'High Society' to my list. Is 'Fragrant Blue' related to 'Fragrant Bouquet'?
Thanks,
Felco2
Here is a pic of my shade garden to say thank you. The flower is spigelia marlandica. Only plant I know of that is named for my home state of Maryland. Maryland is just as good as Virginia yet so many plants are named virginiana, virginicum or virginicus!? Spigelia provides great color for the shade garden and often reblooms. Please ignore the oxalis, my mulch finally disappeared and that weed exploded all over.
'Fragrant Bouquet' is another of Paul Aden's; so I wouldn't rule out some relation, but the AHS Hosta Registry page indicates H. 'Fascination' as the pod parent and 'Summer Fragrance' as the pollen parent. http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... %20Bouquet
Fragrant Blue is one of the least fragrant of the fragrant hostas, so it is a distant relative to Fragrant Bouquet, as Ann mentions.
I totally agree with Fragrant Blue and its sports Blue Flame and Secret Love, and love Frosted Dimples. In my really shady areas Powder Blue was also really impressive for keeping the blue wax.
Living way north of you, but one hosta have a special blue color
Getting all day sun it never really have the dusty blue color other hostas have,even in full sun ( some loose the dusty blue wax during the summer) but Deep Blue Sea have a dark sort of blue color all summer, it never look like it is coated with a thik layer of wax, butit have a special deep blue color during the summer....
But then, I live up north and do not know how it look like in your area
Pia
Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
E-mail for pics hostapics@gmail.com
Chris_W wrote:Fragrant Blue is one of the least fragrant of the fragrant hostas, so it is a distant relative to Fragrant Bouquet, as Ann mentions.
After having 'Fragrant Blue' in our garden for almost 10 years, last year I finally got to smell the fragrance of the flowers of a division I made 3 years ago. And they smelled just wonderful. Must admit that it's been almost 6 months since then -and memory fades- but suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to having this division bloom again this year, so I can smell it again.
Must agree with Chris, if nothing else this is an unreliable plant for fragrance. Didn't ever smell fragrance on any of its flowers until last year on this one division, the main plant I have never smelled fragrance on since I've had it, almost 10 years.
Pieter
"Never trust anyone who doesn't have dog hair on their clothes."
'Big Daddy' stays quite blue for me, as does 'Love Pat'. Both are in pretty much full shade, which I'm sure explains it. One that has been a disappointment for me in the color department is 'Queen of the Seas'. That loses it's blue for me quickly, despite the shade.
I added 'Flemish Sky' last year and will definitely be moving that one to full shade this year.
I'm also in a pretty cool climate, which I guess is good for the blues....I hate when the wax melts off and they turn green!
A most unfortunate name... Fragrant Blue was one of the first hostas widely distributed in tissue culture... and I believe, based on the differing experiences people have with it, that somewhere early in the process a strain was produced that is not fragrant, or only very, very slightly so.
I have grown it for something like 15 years... and I have tried every year to detect a fragrance... and occasionally decide that maybe there is a little, but it takes some imagination. Since some folks. like Pieter, do find it fragrant, I have to suspect a genetic difference in strains. No matter... if one is looking for a fragrant hosta, they shouldn't look at Fragrant Blue. There are so many better fragrant ones.
As to blue... I concur with a lot of the suggestions here... and for a completely different suggestion, Kiwi Full Monty is, for me, a very bluish Striptease sport... my favorite of that family... good grower and the new flushes have nice blue, even in quite a bit of direct sun.
Jim, as said, it's only a division of my original plant where I have observed fragrance. The original I have never smelled fragrance on in the 8 or 9 years I've had it. Seems to me though that the fragrance the division had last year was different from what I associate with the 'Fragrant Bouquet' family, like 'Guacamole' and FB itself. I'll have to pay more attention to it this year and get a better handle on exactly what the differences, if any, are.
As an aside, my original 'Fragrant Blue' was/is a very slow grower, quite out of line from what I gather for this cultivar. I was convinced by someone to share a division with her and divided the original in 3 and kept 2 for myself. One went back in its original spot and the other into a pot and into a sheltered area, because it was the smallest of the 3. This latter one has gone from a single shoot 3 years ago to where I now have 6 or 7 coming up this spring, MUCH more vigorous than the other one I still have. I'll leave this larger division in its pot for now until it has flowered and plant it out in late summer.
Pieter
"Never trust anyone who doesn't have dog hair on their clothes."
