Pic of the day--Paradise Power

Talk about hostas, hostas, and more hostas! Companion plant topics should be posted in the Shade Garden forum.

Moderators: ViolaAnn, redcrx, Chris_W

New Topic Post Reply
Hank Zumach
Posts: 3262
Joined: Oct 11, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Stoddard, WI

Pic of the day--Paradise Power

Post by Hank Zumach »

Hi All--I'm sure we have all had the experience of buying a new hosta with great expectations (the emotion, not the hosta variety) of it being a great, beautiful addition to the garden, only to end up being disappointed when the plant failed to live up to our anticipated performance. I am happy to say that Paradise Power was not one of those. From the very beginning Paradise Power has meet or exceeded the very high hopes I had for it. I bought three plants back in 2002 and have them growing under different conditions around our gardens and they are all doing extremely well. Paradise Power has become one of my "short list" of favorites. The plant in today's pix is getting about 6 hours of afternoon sun and shows no sign of burn out. The growth rate has been excellent. It was 15x9 in 2002, and then went 26x11, 36x14, 52x24 and a spectacular 62x34 last summer, way beyond the medium-large provided in Lemke's Data Base. As you can see, the plant has even produced a sport. On top of all that, slugs don't bother this beautiful plant. The photos are from 2002, 2004, and 2006.

Registry - not registered as of Nov. 2012
MyHostas - http://myhostas.be/db/hostas/Paradise+Power
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/p/paradisep.html
Paradise Power front 6-26-06c.jpg
Paradise Power front 6-26-06c.jpg (68.03 KiB) Viewed 3524 times
Paradise Power front 7-2-04c.JPG
Paradise Power front 7-2-04c.JPG (59.46 KiB) Viewed 3524 times
Paradise Power front 6-24-02c 010.jpg
Paradise Power front 6-24-02c 010.jpg (63.65 KiB) Viewed 3524 times
Hank
Better Gnomes & Gardens
zone 4B-5A
Latitude: 43° 48' 51" N
User avatar
jgh
Posts: 5135
Joined: Oct 14, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Plymouth, Minnesota zone 4

Post by jgh »

One of my favorites as well, Hank.

I don't have great luck growing Sun Power... it was slow where I had it in shade, and for the last couple of years it has grown faster but burned up by August in a lot of sun.

But for me, Sun Power's greatest contribution has been two great sports. Abba Dabba Do, the green-with-yellow-margin sport and Paradise Power (Fransen), the yellow-with-green-margin sport.

PP has grown rapidly for me... easy and lovely... I think it might fit in the same niche as On Stage for a lot of people, but may be less picky in growing conditions...

hard to add to the pictures after Hank's great shots... here's mine from 2003 and 2005... and a 2006 panorama view from my deck with PP as one of the real focal points (near center of pic)
Paradise Power rdcd.JPG
S2 05 Paradise Power S2 rdcd.JPG
S2 05 Paradise Power S2 rdcd.JPG (63.32 KiB) Viewed 3518 times
Panorama south pears alt  rdcd.JPG
Panorama south pears alt rdcd.JPG (62.93 KiB) Viewed 3517 times
User avatar
renaldo75
Posts: 10306
Joined: Jul 15, 2002 8:00 pm
Location: SW Iowa Z4b

Post by renaldo75 »

Very nice, Hank & Jim!! :D Now I think I have a better idea of where mine will get planted this year when it leaves the holding bed where it's been.
GO HAWKEYES!!!

Renaldo's Hosta List
Latitude: 40° 59' 17.6676"; Longitude: -94° 44' 28.014"
User avatar
thy
Posts: 9047
Joined: Sep 23, 2002 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 7
Location: Denmark - 7B/8A Lat. 55,23

Post by thy »

Planted mine rather shaded and it didn't do anything at all the first 2 years so I moved it to a sunny location last spring and it did actually grow :D and by late summer it was a pleasure to look at it

Great pics :D
Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
E-mail for pics hostapics@gmail.com
User avatar
newtohosta-no more
Posts: 15270
Joined: Oct 25, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Ohio, Zone 5

Post by newtohosta-no more »

You scared me there for a sec, Hank! When you started talking about plants that just didn't live up to expectations I thought for sure you were going to say that Paradise Power was one of them and destroy any hope I had for mine to grow up to be big and beautiful. Whew!! Glad to hear that it's a winner. I got one in 2005, so it hasn't done much yet, but now I can't wait to see what it will look like this year. All your pics are just gorgeous!
~JOAN~
My Hosta List

Tomorrow is promised to no one, so love and laugh today.
nanny_56
Posts: 3202
Joined: Jul 01, 2006 5:07 pm
USDA Zone: 5b
Location: Putnam County, Indiana Lat. 39* 45' 54.2892" Long. -86* 41' 55.9284''

Post by nanny_56 »

I picked this one up today along with Guacamole at our county Home & Garden show!!!! Also got a nice 10' red maple for future shade in another area. (plannin ahead here! :lol: ) I own hostas now! :P

Claudia
Claudia
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest" - John Muir
Hank Zumach
Posts: 3262
Joined: Oct 11, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Stoddard, WI

Post by Hank Zumach »

Claudia--When you say "red maple" to you mean a Japanese maple? If not, native maple trees have very shallow, extensive root systems that make them BAD for planting perennials under.
Hank
Better Gnomes & Gardens
zone 4B-5A
Latitude: 43° 48' 51" N
nanny_56
Posts: 3202
Joined: Jul 01, 2006 5:07 pm
USDA Zone: 5b
Location: Putnam County, Indiana Lat. 39* 45' 54.2892" Long. -86* 41' 55.9284''

Post by nanny_56 »

Well, looks like I will have to come up with plan b! :roll: :lol:

Claudia
Claudia
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest" - John Muir
Hank Zumach
Posts: 3262
Joined: Oct 11, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Stoddard, WI

Post by Hank Zumach »

Claudia--Yes. I don't think I have ever read a positive experience from folks who have tried to grow under a maple. We don't have any maples near our garden beds. I do plan on buying a Japanese maple this spring. As far as I know, they are not a problem.
Hank
Better Gnomes & Gardens
zone 4B-5A
Latitude: 43° 48' 51" N
User avatar
LucyGoose
Posts: 17710
Joined: Nov 14, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Zone 5, Northwest Indiana

Post by LucyGoose »

Beautiful hosta Hank! Worth the wait to load, but no fun scrolling back and forth to read....won't say it anymore
Hank Zumach
Posts: 3262
Joined: Oct 11, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Stoddard, WI

Post by Hank Zumach »

Hi--Did you tried to change the settings on your monitor? I'm sorry you are having the problem but aparently almost everyone can view and read things OK.
Hank
Better Gnomes & Gardens
zone 4B-5A
Latitude: 43° 48' 51" N
User avatar
renaldo75
Posts: 10306
Joined: Jul 15, 2002 8:00 pm
Location: SW Iowa Z4b

Post by renaldo75 »

Hank - I think Lucy's scrolling days are over now that Chris changed the view size of jpegs back to the above 55kb setting again.
GO HAWKEYES!!!

Renaldo's Hosta List
Latitude: 40° 59' 17.6676"; Longitude: -94° 44' 28.014"
New Topic Post Reply