Want to share and learn about Hosta hybridizing and seed starting and growing? Then this is the place. Also check out our annual seed exchange held in late fall and winter.
DBoweMD suggested i look on this forum for posts from Leafmould. I found quite a few posts from people doing hybridizing. At the Hosta Library under hybridizing there is a link at the very top above the diagram of the flower "different traits" (I think) and there are some ideas from people like Mary Chastain and Kent Terpening. The only definitive thing I have been able to determine is that the pod parent has the greatest impact on color. If you want variegated seedlings you must use a streaked pod parent.
I also got from the library Paul Aden's book. A little info there as well as in Diana Grenfell's book. I have not found very much. If you find something else, please let me know, too!
Charla
Latitude 38.57N; Longitude -94.89W (Elev. 886 ft.)
As you can see, no one has yet identified a particular gene or gene(s) for particular characteristics. They can recommend particular plants which are likely to pass on a selected characteristic to the seelings (white back, ruffled edge), but they are doing by eye and experience rather than by knowing hosta "A" contains a gene for highly ruffled edges, while hosta "B" is dominant for dark purple flowers. This is why I said that it is more an Art than a Science at this point. That is not a bad thing, as they are producing lovely lovely plants, but it makes it harder for those of us who might have been hoping for a more "scientific" explanation along the lines of mendelian genetics as applied to hostas. (the lesson on the hosta library is generic to all plants).
Also, it seems that some hybridizers just let mother nature (bees) do the crossing work for them (Mary Chastain), and just select the best seedlings from the results. Others such as Kent Terpening, have an idea of what they want and cross particular parents to get to that ideal of shape/color/height, or whatever. Both are equally doable.
Thanks George, I should have gone back and checked that article I read, but couldn't remember where I read it (Hosta Journal?). I remember it came up when I started looking up genetics references myself.
