Strange Sum & Substance

[Aud1]

I moved my hostas to my new house last year. I did not have my shade garden ready so I put them all in full sun all day. My sum and substance seems to look strange some of the leave are blue and one of the leaves have a yellow strip going down the middle of a blue leaf.

What could be going on. Is it because of the Sun?

[largosmom]

I've got an interesting one too, that I found three years ago...waiting for it to color up a bit more before I post pictures...different than yours though!

Laura

[jgh]

Sum and Substance is notorious for sporting... and this is often how it starts. You see a mixture of unstable eyes, then they "settle out" into a pattern... a light center or a light margin or whatever. Sometimes you'll even get more than one kind on the same plant.

The sun conditions shouldn't cause the sporting - but I've found that brighter light makes it easier to spot the subtle changes that may have been occuring before but were harder to see in a shadier spot. This one may have been unstable before the move and you just didn't notice it. I've had that happen - went back to older photos and realized there were differences in the plant I just hadn't noticed before.

Have fun watching it develop!

[ViolaAnn]

I don't have S&S, but have seen this happen on other plants. How long would you wait before separating out the eye with changes?

[gamekeeper]

Mine is even stranger,a friend an elderly lady offered me a Sum&Substance she said she didn't have a good spot for it.Over I went with my trusty shovel,she sent her husband out to help and show me where it was.When we looked at it I said it looks more like lillies than Hosta,he agreed and went in to check with her and being a bit crotchety she blasted him, it was Hosta.Thus we dug it up and home I came and planted this big mass sure it was lillies.A few days latter I spoke to her and told her it was planted and doing well.She then allowed that Siberian Iris had grown into the Hosta a BIT!
I dug it up and with my hose and an old bucter knife started cuttin up clumps of the Iris and finely found the hosta.Had to cut it out to resue it but got 4 good size pieces and planted them and the Iris and all are doing fine.
Peter

[renaldo75]

Great story!!

S&S is one of the sporting-est of all hostas. And most of the sports look basically the same. To me anyway. Unless you get out your measuring tape to ck the 1/8" difference in the margins.

My original S&S succumbed to crown rot several years ago.

Then I bought the last of Eric Kinman's Gunther's Prize at the 2008 midwest convention. He threw in his last 3 divisions for one price. Such a deal!! But - they weren't the best of the lot. I procrastinated too long.

But now I have 3 very strong divisions.. of S&S. They were a bit pricey, but at least I've replaced my original now.

[Aud]

Thank you JGH.

Laura I will be interested to see your strange S&S

Gamekeeper thanks for the laugh.

[redcrx]

Not a strange story - I was at a local plant center last season and found an S&S with some streaking. This season it's back with streaks.

[jgh]

Ed... if the green on the streaker is a lightish green - apple green - then you have a Blizzard or the equivalent of Blizzard. It is quite unstable and you may need to divide it every second or third year to keep the streaking, but the good news is it will often settle out to an apple green center with yellow-fading-to-cream margins which is called Winter Snow. WS has really grown on me (pardon the expression) - vigorous and attractive, my favorite of the S&S sports and actually distinctive, unlike all the look-alikes Reldon referred to...

I've seen amazing pictures of Gunther's Prize, another of the S&S streakers - but several people have described getting plants that never developed the proper streaking, ending up looking like just regular ole S&S... I don't think the tc worked well with GP...

[redcrx]

Thanks for the information. I also have a small Gunther's Prize sitting right next to this S&S which has some nice streaking.

[redcrx]

This is the same plant posted May 22, 2010. I know I've shown it in another topic but I can't find that one - it dealt with a twisted scape on this plant.

This plant has been moved many time and for years it sat in a pot and couldn't do much. When I put in a new garden last season, it came out of the pot and into soil. It obviously survived the move and the winter now hopefully it will grow.

It got a little deer damage.

Sum and Substance sport - May 10, 2018

[redcrx]

This season - just cleared the weeds out of this bed.

Sum and Substance sport.