Hosta of the Day - Red Alert

[redcrx]

Red Alert is a hybrid of 'Katsuragawa Beni' with a white edge and red speckles on the petiole and up into the leaf.

Hosta Registry - not registered
MyHostas Database - http://www.myhostas.be/db/hostas/Red+Alert
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/r/redalert.html

There were a couple of previous topics that looked at Red Alert:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=53412
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=55722

I was getting late flower photos this morning and noticed a couple of plants in a trough had good size flower spikes coming up. I had to check my garden map to see that they were Red Alert.

Red Alert - September 21, 2015

Red Alert - September 21, 2015

Red Alert - September 21, 2015

Red Alert - September 21, 2015

Red Alert - September 21, 2015

[redcrx]

Red Alert again failed to open its flowers. As mentioned in the two previous topics mentioned above, Red Alert may have a problem with its flowers.

I have two good sized plants in a trough and they developed multiple scapes this season. The smaller scapes disintegrated in late September and earlier this month. The flower head on the best and last started dropping its flowers yesterday. I tore apart a couple bud to see what the coloration looked like.

Here is the biggest on October 3.

Red Alert - October 3, 2015

Here is the second best one on October 4. It later fell apart.

Red Alert - October 4, 2015

Here is the biggest one again on October 7 as the buds start to droop.

Red Alert - October 7, 2015

I opened some of the fallen buds yesterday.

Red Alert - October 9, 2015

I'm going to put one in a front flower bed (with more sun) next season to give it a different environment.

[Chris_W]

I've been watching my Red Alert this month to see if any of their flowers were going to open and none of them have. I'm not sure I would call it a problem, though, as they still seem to last a long time and look pretty even without opening, so I consider it more of a unique oddity

[redcrx]

I don't think I have caught this one in flower before but it showed-up today. Interesting dark spots on the edge of the flower.

Red Alert - October 1, 2018

Red Alert - October 1, 2018

Red Alert - October 1, 2018

This is a second flower on a different scape.

Red Alert - October 1, 2018

[redcrx]

Looking back over my old photos I did see a flower in very late 2016. It's interesting the MyHosta database says flowering time is mid-season. In my yard it seems "Last to Flower". tardiflora started to open its flowers a few days ago. I do have a large number of fortunei types with late scapes and one rectifolia volunteer. And a Miss Grace scape a little later than normal. I found a Naked Lady scape just starting up today - I have a pod from an earlier flowering that had two snails on it this morning - it's bad enough trying to cross on fortunei types and then the critters try to take the one pod that's surviving - the pollen was from a white flowered rectifolia.

These flowers are on the same plant as the one above - it's growing in a trough.

Red Alert - October 11, 2016

[redcrx]

None of the other buds want to open. I have started tearing them open and the style has been bent-up inside the flower where it's being jammed into the front of the flower. The tip doesn't want to open - it's like clausa. I have been trying to make crosses with it after I have ripped the flower apart but the pollen isn't coming off the anther. I will need a few days to see if the flower accepted pollen from other flowers.