Hey sport...

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 06, 2007 10:53 am

2 years ago I noticed that one shoot on a clump of 'Hyacinthina' I have in my front yard had started to sport. It was minor, but I was encouraged, particularly because it's from a clump I got from my youngest brother years ago and in his years of gardening he'd never run across a sporting Hosta. Sibling rivalry and all that...

Last year there was more than one leaf that showed variegation signs and I couldn't wait for the shoots to begin unfurling this spring. So, while it's still in the process, you can quite clearly see the beginning of the variegation of this leaf. If most leaves in this shoot prove to be similar I will divide the sporting shoot(s) in about another month or so.

NWhosta4life · Post by **NWhosta4life** » May 06, 2007 2:40 pm

Hyacinthina, if nothing else is always good for the sports. Its good fun, I have a couple dozen clumps of these since its the first hosta i ever owned. I quite often get unstable varigation that seems to settle out to gold standard- another household name...but its still fun. Good luck with yours Pieter.

Wanda · Post by **Wanda** » May 06, 2007 5:07 pm

Oh, this plant is fun! I got mine in late summer - it was all blue-green. The next spring it came up with yellow borders...each leaf had a different width border, from a hairline to 1/2”. It still comes up with the borders, but now most stay yellow all year rather than “greening up”...and now its all streaked in addition!!! I bought it as hyacinthina, then found out that with the yellow spring border it is called hyacinthina stenantha variegated or “Fools Gold”. Whatever it may be, it is always fun to see what it will do next!!!

wanda

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » May 06, 2007 11:43 pm

OOh! What fun!

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 07, 2007 12:17 am

You BET it's fun!

It was kind of a dreary day today and I didn't have an opportunity to get a close look at this clump today, but it struck me yesterday that there is more than just the one shoot this year on this clump that is sporting. Keep my fingers crossed. And here's hoping it will end up sporting past the 'Gold Standard' stage.....

As most of us know, 'Striptease' has a long list of sports. My ST is going into its third season and it not only has more than doubled in number of shoots from last year, it is also sporting. It may be coincidence to be sure, but last year I brewed several batches of Alfalfa tea and used it on all my Hostas, supposedly the tea increases sporting in offsets. Reaching? Perhaps, but you gotta give me something to hang my hat on...To boot I noticed another 'Hyacinthina' division today that is sporting.

This is TOO MUCH FUN!!!

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » May 07, 2007 12:23 am

Okay, I have a question, and you don't have to answer it publicly, if you don't want to....but....how many times a day do you go out to look to see what your sports are doing? 1? 2? 3-4? 5 or more?

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 07, 2007 12:38 am

Because of where in the yard it is, I see this one perhaps once a day. Now, the ST that's sporting I see 5 or 6 times a day because it is in the sideyard and I spend a fair bit of time there with the resident canine, Ace The Destroyer.

This is the sporting 'Striptease leaf. I would expect to see the center portion this way in the fall, but not when it's still unfurling and hasn't fully grown as yet.'

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 08, 2007 9:05 am

Well, just a couple of days later the variegation is much more pronounced. In another month you wouldn't recognize it, I hope.

NWhosta4life · Post by **NWhosta4life** » May 08, 2007 9:41 am

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 10, 2007 9:12 pm

Here we are tonight, these are three separate shoots now that are sporting. They'll get divided probably in another month or so, once the first flush has fully unfurled and the new roots are starting to grow. This is FUN!

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » May 11, 2007 9:24 am

Enjoy it!!

People like me have to live vicariously thru the

sports of the rest of you.

The best I have is a Twilight that is partially sporting to a narrow white edge - which is what??

Basically the same as Francee??

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 11, 2007 11:56 am

That's the way the croissant flakes, Ren. As you have probably seen from my website I only have around 30 different varieties of Hosta, though I have easily a hundred plants, if not more.

This Hyacinthina sport started about 3 years ago, I now also have a Striptease that's sporting, AND, I have a Revolution that's reverting, just as well I had plans on dividing both of these, huh. Last year one of my Groundmasters reverted, but so far this year it's coming back all variegated but a lot smaller, go figure.

I also have a bunch of Revolution seeds sprouting (I do mine outdoors, haven't got room for them in the house) and there are the expected all white ones, but I see one where there's a nice, thin stripe running right through the center of the leaflet. I can only hope the second leaf will be similar. I'll post pictures if it proves to be worthwhile.

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » May 11, 2007 3:55 pm

Lucky dog!!

I did forget to mention my all green sport from Revolution.

I'm calling it H. 'Prettymuchthesameas Midnight Ride'.

It's doing well this year - up to 4 eyes from 2 & a very dark green with a similar form to Revolution.

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 13, 2007 9:00 am

We had our usual carport plant sale yesterday and towards the end I noticed another Hyacinthina that was sporting: two leaves on two different shoots showing edge variegation rather than the medio variegation of the one that is shown at the beginning of this post. Needless to say that soon as I noticed this the whole clump was put out back again and will NOT find it's way onto the table again today...

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » May 13, 2007 10:15 am

Nice...

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » May 13, 2007 10:18 am

Pieter...

My Revolution has an almost all green eye on it. I thought it was reverting...is it a sport?

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » May 13, 2007 10:47 am

Hi Charla - Revolution is a sport of Loyalist which is white-centered also, but Revolution has the green specks in the white that Loyalist doesn't.

Loyalist in turn is a sport of Patriot.

Every TC lab wanting to make some $$ has given each similar sport in the family a name it seems so there are a lot which are fairly similar, but not quite the same.

Fire and Ice//Loyalist//Paul Revere are all more or less the same plant although I can definitely tell differences between my Fire & Ice and Loyalist. I don't have Paul Revere. But each of those has their own sports. Loyalist has also sported to Fireworks [smaller], Americana [Walter's Gardens newest intro in the family tree], Clifford's Stingray [2 other Clifford's as well] besides Revolution.

Revolution has a green-centered, speckled white margined sport named Independence. [Which is more or less Patriot w/green speckles in the margin.]

More speckles got thrown into the family tree when Francee [which Patriot sported from] sported to Pathfinder which has green speckles in its white center. So Pathfinder is more or less the same as Revolution. Pathfinder has now sported to Olympic Glacier from Naylor Creek. It has green speckles in the white margins. I just read that OG had been put into TC before the boyz knew about Independence, but they say OG stays smaller.

Confused yet??

Getting back to your sporting/reverting question. Your Revolution is sporting. Mine started a couple of years ago & had one eye that still had small areas of speckled white centers on leaves. I thought that was kinda

- then last year there were 2 eyes that were all green. I was moving it anyway so I got those 2 eyes out & planted them. I've heard that eventually the all-green could possibly take over the plant & I didn't want that to happen. Midnight Ride is the very dark green sport of Paul Revere which is why I was comparing my sport to it.

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 16, 2007 1:35 am

It seems as if every day these sports change: though they're still quite chartreuse, the centers are becoming brighter and creamier. I'll probably divide these coming weekend.

thy · Post by **thy** » May 16, 2007 6:36 pm

very nice

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » May 18, 2007 1:50 am

I quite often get unstable varigation that seems to settle out to gold standard- another household name.

Thus far the sporting I'm seeing does not have the waviness you see on 'Gold Standard'. This being the third year for this sporting part of the crown, it so far has maintained the same semi upright form of Hyacinthina as well as the same leaf shape. Time will tell how it stabilizes obviously, but this one does not look as if it is going GS on me.