Nightlife

[wzbt03]

I have been trying to post some of my lesser known hosta for others to see.

Tonights is H. 'Nightlife'

Zillis 2004
Invinsible * Elegans
Best of both parents and I agree!
Almost an Invinsible with substance.
Bluish green to dark Green
slightly corrugated
fragrant pale purple flower

Registry - http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... =Nightlife
MyHostas - http://myhostas.be/db/hostas/Nightlife
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/n/nightlife.html

I hesitated for a second on this one and have high hopes for it now. If you can find this one it might end up a very nice mound 18 * 40 with leaves 8 * 6

First year TC

Nightlife.jpg (49.11 KiB) Viewed 6352 times

[Chris_W]

I have one of these that I got last year that I'm trying out too.

I didn't want to buy a whole bunch of them since I already have two other plants with similar parentage: Moonlight Sonata and Lederhosen. Moonlight Sonata is Invincible x Northern Halo, so essentially it would be about the same parentage as Nightlife. Lederhosen doesn't have parentage listed, but from the flowers and substance I am certain it has Invincible in it, but it has elongated leaves instead of rounded leaves. Both Moonlight Sonata and Lederhosen are fast growers, so hopefully Nightlife is too

If you don't have any of these I would definitely recommend picking one of them up. They are some of my favorites.

[renaldo75]

I hadn't heard of Nightlife before, but I was wondering if it was similar to Moonlight Sonata when I read the parentage. I'll have to look Nightlife up at the Library & see if there's any mature plant pics of it.

[whitewater176]

just picked up Nightlife yesterday, a nice little 2 eyed plant hopefully it will keep the dark coloring it is showing now.
the mrs.

[Tigger]

I picked up one at our "winter" meeting of the local hosta society. Note that HL doesn't have a pic (yet), but QandZ sells it (pic there).

Mine should be blooming in a week or so (2 scapes)! It's gotten a little spring scald, as it hasn't found its permanent home yet, but I'll try to remember to get a pic (and a sniff report: how odd to have a fragrant hosta bloom in May!).

[Chris_W]

Hi Tigger,

Sounds like Nightlife was started early, but maybe its those Elegans genes giving it an earlier bloom.

[wzbt03]

Nightlife is one of those special hostas which have great flowers. Big flowers!

Nightlife 2.jpg (24.03 KiB) Viewed 6199 times

[renaldo75]

They sure are big flowers compared to the size of the leaves you have now!!

[HostaDesigner]

That's a new one to me. It looks like it'll be great. Nice big flower pic... I can almost smell it (fragrant hostas are the best flower fragrance in the plant kingdom IMO).

Invincible is always fun to get seedlings from and to cross, too.

[scootersbear]

Don't take this wrong but I have to ask whats special about this hosta it look like just another plain jane green hosta to me.

[wzbt03]

I find your comment interesting since I was in one of the finest hosta gardens in the world this last weekend and I saw a green one that I thought was very very nice and was told I could have it since it was only a Greenie. I left it there, but he better let me have it have it before he culls it.

I guess we all see things different.
The flower on this one is exceptional. The substance on a Invinsible seedling is very thick.
The fact that I can use it as a pollen parent for some desirable characteristics - priceless.

[scootersbear]

Like I said not trying to sound insulting, I love green hostas, but I just don't see desirable characteristics in a hosta from Invincible and Elegan which both have been hybridized with just about everything. In this case just seems like a large green fragrant hosta. Thats been done. As far as passing the 10 foot rule I don't see it passing that. As far as hybridizing most of us have both of these hostas in our garden and could hybridize something very similiar without paying for it. I guess my question is or convince me why would I want to put it in my garden? Other than it's has a cool name and is a Zilis hosta.

[largosmom]

Not to be argumentative...but to enjoy the discussion...

It's the size of the flower coupled with the fragrance that makes it unusual to me. I may have limited experience yet, but I don't think there are many around that one can buy with that type of flower. You make the point of being able to make one like that with your own work...true, but if one already exists and has that particular flower characteristic you need, (a violet, large, fragrant bloom), why not get one that already exists. It might take a couple of generations before you get something really similar as mother nature can be fickle.

I agree that the foliage is nothing special...but if you want a breeding plant, it would seem that the time savings to go after a bigger goal might be worth it.

Laura

[DBoweMD]

I'd have to see a fairly mature plant to pass judgement.
Moonlight Sonata was one of those for me. Looked very plain as an immature plant.
Shady Affair (Iowa convention hosta) is another one like that.
The two parents are so dissimilar that seedlings from the cross could have a wide variety of appearances.
Hopefully it is fertile. I have had a number of crosses produce seemingly infertile offspring.

[Tigger]

It's a first-year plant in my garden, but I think it has good potential. You need the greens to rest your eyes from all the possible variegations and bolder colors. And, so far, this one shows the potential to be one of the deepest greens in the garden, almost as dark as Potomac Pride. I've put ours next to daphne 'Carol Mackie' to help bring out the variegation in that one, and it's on the edge of the raised bed to get the (let's be honest: somewhat) fragrant flowers closer to nose level.

[ademink]

I picked up a mature division of 'Moonlight Sonata' at the convention and it's just gorgeous!

I kept oohing and aahing at it in everyone's gardens without immediately recognizing it was the same variety. Then when I reached one of the vendor stands, I was drawn right to it - only to find out it was MS, once again!

Funny how your eye will get "stuck" on a certain hosta!

[Pieter]

(let's be honest: somewhat) fragrant flowers

Seeing it has only 1/4 plantaginea genes that is not overly surprizing. How does it stack up in terms of strength of fragrance compared to say 'So Sweet' or 'Guacamole'?

Having fragrant Hostas with substance is a good thing though I'd say and it would be interesting for those with ample room for hybridizing to develop a fragrant Hosta of substance with the intensity of fragrance that comes close to what we have come to expect out of plantaginea.

[scootersbear]

Does anybody have any insight why Zilis found this hosta worthy of being introduced? Just from his past introductions this just doesn't seem to have the same flavor of his past introductions.
As far as the whole time thing would go thats the fun of it.
I'm personally not going to hybridize either of these hostas because my view it's a waste of time, they have been used so many times and there characteristics have been passed to other hostas that are more worthwhile, not that they aren't great hostas, they are, they just have been played out and there characteristic exist in a lot of hostas .
As far as the flower goes just do a search on fragrant flowers, they have been around for a lot of years. So Sweet introduced somewhere in the mid 80's Iron Gate Delight which was introduce around 1980. Guac in 94 and all of it's sports that I'm aware of have large fragrant flowers that are hard to beat for fragrance and size. So I'm not sure that would be a very good arguement to put it in my garden.
Just want to reinterate not trying to attack either the poster or the hybridizer, I just can't see the value of this hosta.
Would love to see pics of a mature hosta and be proven wrong.

[wzbt03]

I have room in my garden for this hosta and like it.

That really sums it up. I have already done some crosses with it being the pod parent and will have to see if any take.

Many people get very excited about a number of new hostas out there, an example would be Hacksaw which as it matures is quite unimpressive but seems to be selling rather well.
Nightlife is a far better looking green hosta in my garden then Hacksaw.

So make your own choices and I will make mine. That is what makes this fun.
If you don't like Nightlife, go buy a something else that appeals to you. Mine is staying in my gardens.
I really do not have to come back and prove anyone wrong, I only have to please myself in my gardens.

[Chris_W]

For me, I was very hesitant to buy Nightlife.

I already have two other plants with the same general parentage, Moonlight Sonata and Lederhosen, so I didn't really think I needed Nightlife. But over the winter I thought about how much I really like those other two hostas, and how they were pretty unimpressive when they were young (especially Moonlight Sonata - Lederhosen was cool even as a youngster), so I decided to give Nightlife a try.

A lot of times there are plants that look really spectacular young but then they mature and lose some of the character they had earlier. But many others, and these are the really tough ones to sell, look better and better the older they get.

For now I am growing it because I know it could have some potential and because I like others with the same genes. Then I will sit back and wait to see how they turn out. If in 2 more years it is $20 in our catalog then you will know that I think it is going to be great. If in 2 more years it is $9.99 or under then you will know that I think it is just another green hosta

So get back with us on these guys in 2 or 3 more years and then I'll be ready to pass judgement on them.

By the way, one of my favorite plants, year after year, is Hosta 'Sunny Disposition', and it was the underwhelming cross of August Moon and Ventricosa (I don't remember which way off hand). So sometimes you can get some nice results without always shooting for the moon