Hey seed starters... whose your fav?

[MikeWI]

I'm growing (or was) quite a few different lines of seeds this winter. Some took off like wild fire, others started languished and died off. Others did noting at all.

So far my 'favorite' parent has been American Masterpiece. The seeds took off and grew... at first all green, so i didn't think much of them but they were the first batch so i decided to keep them around awhile. Since quite a few have developed some great misting patterns and subtle streaking which I'm guessing will define with age.

I grew a few 7th heave that I had huge hopes for as they had intentional crosses, none germinated.

Confetti cup: About 20% germinated and my fav out of the bunch is a solid. Most of the streakers have gone solid but appear to be maturing back to a streaked pattern, time will tell.

Monkey Fist: I dumped the seeds across the floor on accident and only salvaged about 10 seeds. 5 grew and most are streaked. Time will tell on these, still all single leaf stage.

Blau Zunge.... The seeds germinate like crazy... Real fertile mertile. Grow fast. So far all green tiny leaflets.... some, very few, look like they could streak or varigate... will see how these grow.

Gertie: Almost all have died since. had one with great potential, streaker, but it died. Fragile little seedlings. I had crossed her with Bold And Brassy hoping for great things. Maybe next year.

I have some other late starts, Zebra (seaver), White Magic and Electrum Stator from streaked pods, that haven't yet thrown a leaf.

Also growing some solids, Manhattan and Lakeside Sir Logan, but those just started.


So tell me...... who are your fav's at the moment???

[Jamie]

Hi Mike,
I was a little late starting the seeds this year, and there just starting to germinate. Some of the ones I've had better germination with are American Masterpiece, Amime Tachi, Tsugara Komachi, Beatrice F2, Tisch, and Kokuryu.

Poor germination "so far" Sally and Bob, William Lachman. A little more time will really tell though.. I'll post more about how I like the seedling's here in a couple weeks..

Sounds like you've got some interesting seedling growing

[Liselotte]

Mike, I am very late this year and just started my seeds yesterday, the 18th. If you believe in planting by the moon, this was an excellent day!
Will let you know if it works

[dmi188]

My first plantings (October) were Swoosh and Neat Splash. Both germinated well. The Neat Splash have mostly streaked, nice markings. The Swoosh are about half streaked. The Breeders Bed seedling seeds I got from the exchange only had about 40% germination, but they are my favorites! Highly cupped, and well streaked. This month I planted streaked mixes from the exchange. Both mixes germinated well, but both had many "fatal" whites. Still have many nice plants in that batch. Planted a gold mix (in 2 different mediums) and both failed to germinate. Have Sally and Bob and Wm. Lachman and Christmas Tree Gala planted 12/2, and all have germinated well, but are too small to see any streaking or misting yet.

Had a few seeds from Allegan Fog, and a single pod from a Undulata. Both failed to germinate. A few pods from Knockout produced only 2 seedlings, but they are very thick substanced, and nice deep green color, so far. Korean Snow germinated well. Am beginning to see some misting on some. Next week, after Christmas, I will be VERY busy repotting!! This is fun, tho!
Denise

[Roxanne]

Mike--Good results here with L. Mom, although few are streaked. American Masterpiece, I have had good germination, and about 5 have the misting, mottling. Posting pics today. Plebes' Blues, good germination. I have some outstanding seedlings that show promise.
Montana Hatsushimo, good germination, a few are streaked. Dark Nebula, fair germination. I have 3 keepers. Dorothy Benedict. I can't seem to grow. This is my 3rd attempt. Poor germination, all died. These all have 4-6 leaves now. The next group I started, I have only had about a 20% germination rate. The ones that did come up are from a mixed bag of streakers from my yard here, Candle Glow, Galaxy, First impressions, and some unknowns. They are still too small to see if I have any keepers or not. They just went under the lights yesterday.

[jay dee]

It sounds like some great hosta will be growing through the winter from forum members.

My best to date has been Korean Snow - op'd and pollinated. Great germination, many streakers, some red on the petioles and many two eyed seedlings! It is just amazing to find and repot these twins.

My first batch of Galaxy I got zero germination but the second bath is better but too early to see any variegation. Sea Prize, Swoosh/Capatata have great germination and many streakers. Beatrice is just now starting to sprout after 19 days. Lachman hasn't germinated very well, Knick Knack has germinated like a weed but no streakers yet. Monopoly gave me four streakers and they are tiny and cute. Pin Stripe Sister, Christmas Tree Gala, Rod's Streaky Mix and Bill Nash Mix have all given me multiple streakers. I hope my American Masterpiece is nice to me because so far, I only have green and one big gold one but they are healthy and growing, BIG.

jay dee

[Justaysam]

Hi Mike, I have 11 seedlings, all streaked from, I think CTG going. I'm starting to up-cup them, have 3 done so far. All are great little guys and I am looking forward to their progress. Thanks for the seed you sent!, I have done badly with some of Granny's seed I tried to germinate in paper towel, and am a little scared to do the Bold and Brassy, I may wait a month to start them. I put some streaked seed from Granny in wet toweling and bagged it and set it on top of our fish tank thinking it would keep it warm, and it kind of cooked the seed! I don't think many if any will germinate. It works well to get the seed going, but you have to really watch and check on them. I do have about 50 or so Cinn. Stick seeds sprouting like crazy done in the same way, now I have to get them into dirt. I've also got one pot of seedlings, all green so far, and I am sure they will stay that way, of El Nino seedlings going under lights too. They were the first seed to set here in my new yard and garden, so I had to pot them up and see what comes of them, just for fun.

[gardenkat]

I start most of my seeds in January, just because I have more time then. I will also be starting some on the winter solstice tomorrow. But I have a few trays going already and so far the best results have been from the seeds of a Neat Splash seedling. About 80% germination and half of them are streaked.

[hostarod]

I have some Dorothy Benedict seedlings that are looking great and even better are the DBF1 seedlings very colorful, Have a Merry Christmas, Hostarod

[Robin]

I have the best looking of all! All of them germinated, signs of streaking, and all looking healthy..of course they are in my daydream.

Sounds like everyone is having fun. My seeds are still in the freezer, waiting for my return. While they won't live up the the dream, I just be happy to some cute little ones.

[druff]

swoosh had good germination and threw out alot of streakers. june gave about half gold seedlings still quite small yet. lilly pad had great germination with some nice red petioles. have 2 gold lancifolia seedlings still very small. 1 chartreuse from abba showtime. korean snow germinated well. a streaker came up in love pat and reptillian??? hmm maybe an errant swoosh seedling blew in there??? i guess i'll wait a couple of years to figure that out.

doug

[mooie]

Jamie must have sent me his good Sally and Bob seeds, cuz mine germinated well and I have at least 2/3 streakies. (Thanks Jamie!) American Masterpeice germed well but all look to be green so far. Thick rounded leaves on all of them? CTG yielded several streakers and a lot of lethals which have since keeled over. DB did nothing exciting, but I have a lot more seed of that to sow and try again. Neat Splash has yet to germinate. I haven't potted anything yet and will probably hold off until after Christmas unless I run out of things to do.

mooie

[greenseeds]

Hi Mike! Great topic favorite topic!

I have a few favorites at this point but my most favorite at the moment would have to be a sdl from Rod's strk mix, I call her 'Little Lacy'. It's a good little grower in comparison to the rest and so far is retaining an extremly lacy edge on her last two sets of leaves with nice variegation!

'Korean Snow' germinated pretty well. Ended up with a definate 3 keepers. Two nice blotched and a nice shiny yellow one with wavy edges that's growing at a nice pace!

'Lakeside Mom' had poor germination but I did end up with two really nice babies, one has lacy edges!

From my 'High Kicker' x 'Rambler' sdl. plant, germination rate was just ok. I got around 5 nice streaked keepers and have more sprouting.

'Galaxy' had "0" germination! from both mine and Katails seed.

'Savannah Supreme' had poor germination and my only keeper came on strong, then croaked off!

Rod's strk. mix, excellent germination rate and several nice streaked keepers!

Bravo Line from Ellen, excellent germination rate and 5 good keepers!

Pin Stripe Sister from Doug B. , I think every single seed germinated! Only two or three streakies out of 40. Mostly yellows/golds, thin substance.

Various DB's from Doug B. , good germination (that's a rarity for me with these!) at least 5 nice keepers!!

'Dorset Clown', two seeds germinated out of 30! All green, one died and one is just sitting there.

'Spilt Milk' great germination, slow in leafing out. A few streakies, however not "white" spilt streaks, just a lighter green streak here or there, nothing heavy and I don't expect them to keep these (?). Still sprouting a bunch.

I have two sets of twins now, one from Gary's streaked 'Blue Angel' (babies are not streaked) and found one yesterday from a 'Spilt Milk'.

'Galaxy' x 'Fragrant Gold' from Doug B. , great germination and 3-4 nice streaked keepers!

'Rosedale Shady Lady', excellent germination and two or three great streaky keepers!

'Whoopee' from Katails, ok germination and three streaky keepers.

Both 'William Lachman' and 'Revolution' had very poor germination rates and got all greenies.

I have over a thousand more seeds in my last flat popping up now so new surprises to come yet!!

The most important thing I've learned..........Only plant the best seed with the largest cotyledon (bumpy thingy, embryo)

[MikeWI]

This is turning into a great thread. (atleast for me) I get frustrated with some of my 'breeders' preformance and wonder what I'm doing wrong.

Galaxy has been a problem plant for me. I have had her for 10yrs now and got my first seedling last year. Hope it makes it thru the winter.

Doug --

You are throwin' out the streakers? Say it ain't so?!?!?
Know you are goin' for the golds if I'm not mistaken but variety is a good thing.

Mooie-

Your AM sound just like mine did. Keep growing them on. I find new streakers with misting every day though I think I'm near the end of new discoveries in the flat.


Thanks for all the good info all. I'm lovin' it.

[scootersbear]

Personaly I'm staying away from the streaked seedlings, theres just soo many of them and I just don't see a future in them in my garden. I'm starting to think you only need 3 of them a small 1 a medium 1 and a large 1. The only 1 I've tried is from Disorder and haven't gotton a streaked 1 in the bunch. ow well

However what I'm going for is the reds. My seedling from 3 years ago H. Red October x H. Red October (which I've dubbed... Majestic Apollo) is giving me some wonderful seedlings and with plenty of red I just hope a few of them hold it...ps. I have over 200 seedling from this plant alone with over 90 % germ. rate. And I have over 100 seeds left. I can tell you how happy this hosta makes me.

Also trying a lot of the Tetraploid seedlings with little success.

[DBoweMD]

My best streakers so far are from Katails - Whoopee, I probably have 6 or 7 decent streaked babies from that. There were about 4 lethal whites and 1 solid green.

Katails's Galaxy I got only one to germinate but it is very nice and growing strong.

Her "Kent's streaky seedling has germinated two tiny plants, neither looks viable. One is yellow solid and the other is white with a narrow green stripe.

Marlys send me some more streak seeds so I will have something more to report in a couple weeks.

My crosses are giving variable results. Korean Snow has several streaked or misted open pollinated babies. My crosses with KS as pod parent are not very impressive.
KS as pollen parent though are pretty vigorous.

The seedlings of Paradigm and Montana Macrophylla are very vigorous, regardless of the pollen parent.

Hypoleuca seedlings are good at germinating but they don't all look strong, and this varies a lot with the pollen parent.

June is a strong pollen parent in pretty much all cases, giving green and gold, maybe blues.

Green Eyes has a very wide variety of open pollinated babies, some are flecked with green on gold. some strong, some weak and from narrow to wide leaf blades.

Pee Dee Gold Flash is my favorite pod parent this year, fertile with bright gold and red petioles.

Cinnamon Sticks is very fertile, but not as much red petiole as I expected... One Man's Treasure is similar and in addition seems to be slow growing.

Azure Snow as a pollen parent seems to produce blue seedlings at an early time, that is you can tell they are blue at the 1 or 2 leaf stage.

Masquerade produces streaked seedlings but weak.

[druff]

don't worry mike i'm just getting rid of the weaklings. the ones with more white than green. i've still got 2 dozen streakers from swoosh left.

you've gotta good memory mike. gold is what i'm concentrating on for a while.

by the way do you know of any golds that have really glossy leaves. like invincible glossy? i have this idea that a glossy gold hosta would have intense color. kind of the way gloss sets queen josephine apart from the other green with white margined hosta.

i also like gold hostas with white margins

doug

[MikeWI]

Doug - Off the top of my head I think that Rubber Ducky from Schwarz might have the gloss you are looking for. I'm thinking there maybe be one or two more... Not sure if School Bus by Jansen is shiney....

Hmmm... something to think about.

[DryGulch]

Hi all...

I am really new to germinating hosta seeds, didn't hold out a lot of hope. I do try to grow quite a few difficult perennials from seed. I thought I would pass this along, though, as it might be of interest.

I collected some OP seed from some sort of Elegans sport (Its mother plant was sold to me as an Elegans 15+ years ago, but neither it nor its two sported offspring have all true Elegans traits, other than big and blue.) and OP Abiqua Drinking Gourd. Both are planted in crowded groups of other hosta. This particular "Elegans" regularly sets seed (I think because it feels stressed where it is.), the other two never do. The Abiqua only set seed on one stalk.

I "stored" the seed in a grocery sack in the back of my car all fall, then brought it in around Cristmas and shoved it in a drawer. (As you can see, very little special care, there!)

Late in January I cleaned the seed, placed it in a Ziploc with moist seed starting mixture and placed it near my standing gas pilot stove with the hood light on about 12 hours a day.

Within a month I had seed germinating in the Ziplocs about as think as hair on a dog, and conveniently in a small space. I recently pricked out over 300 seedlings into a flat from these baggies. And looking at what is left, I would guess at very near 100% germination. I guess I would expect that from Elegans, given its history in the trade, but Abiqua?

Just thought I would pass it along. I will try some crosses of my own this year and see how they go. I would mention that both of these plants get a bit more sun than I would like to see for a hosta, but have to wonder if that didn't have something to do with the viability of seed also.

I really enjoy the hybridizing and breeding threads!

Rachelle

[thehostagourmet]

Year after year 'Sea Prize' gives me the best germination among my streaked pod parents. Nice plants too. This year 'Swoosh' is a close second. Last year it was 'Yellow Splash'.

Of the solids, 'Salute', and one I brought home from the Iowa AHS Convention, 'Riptide', have done the best as both pod and pollen parents.

George