Pic of the Day--Blue Angel

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

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

Pic of the Day--Blue Angel

Post by Hank Zumach »

Hi All--Blue Angel may get more comments from visitors than any other hosta in our garden. It's size alone makes it an attraction. It's foliage is usually an eye catching blue but it can lose its color if heavily watered in warm weather. I bought the plant in 1994 and since about 2001 it has been in a spot that gets maybe an hour of direct sun. It reached its maximum size in 2002 when it measured 84x35. Then, in 2003 it had some of the same problems that I described in yesterday's posting about Yellow River. As a result, Blue Angel lost some size, but by last summer is was back up to 81x28, making Blue Angel and Abba Dabba Do the largest varieties in our garden. Zilis lists it at 70x32. Slugs usually don't bother this great variety. The pix are from 2002 and 2006.

Registry - http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... ue%20Angel

MyHostas - http://myhostas.be/db/hostas/Blue+Angel

Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/b/blueangel.html
Blue Angel 6-26-06c 010.jpg
Blue Angel 6-24-02c.jpg
Hank
Better Gnomes & Gardens
zone 4B-5A
Latitude: 43° 48' 51" N
eastwood2007
Posts: 3517
Joined: Jan 25, 2007 12:51 pm
Location: kansas, usa zone 5b

Post by eastwood2007 »

beautiful pics, Hank! I especially love the setting of the second one! :D
Charla
Latitude 38.57N; Longitude -94.89W (Elev. 886 ft.)
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renaldo75
Posts: 10306
Joined: Jul 15, 2002 8:00 pm
Location: SW Iowa Z4b

Post by renaldo75 »

It looks beautiful from whichever angle the pic is taken, but I like the view from 2002 the best. :P
GO HAWKEYES!!!

Renaldo's Hosta List
Latitude: 40° 59' 17.6676"; Longitude: -94° 44' 28.014"
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HostaDesigner
Posts: 750
Joined: May 15, 2006 3:29 pm
Location: Niles, MI

Post by HostaDesigner »

In this day and age where there are literally hundreds of big, blue hostas, it's nice to have a handful that's very distinctive. This is one of them!
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Tigger
Posts: 2727
Joined: Oct 14, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 6b - 7a
Location: SE Penna Zone 6b (7a?), lat. 39°50'
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Post by Tigger »

Hank doesn't show it here, but Blue Angel also has perhaps the nicest flower display of any of the sieboldiana group. which is to say at least that you can actually see them, where so many sieboldianas bloom too far down in the plant.
thehostagourmet
Posts: 669
Joined: Mar 10, 2003 10:38 am
USDA Zone: 5b
Location: Western NY, Zone 5

'Blue Angel'

Post by thehostagourmet »

Tigger, that's probably because it's as much montana as sieboldiana.

George
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jgh
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Joined: Oct 14, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Plymouth, Minnesota zone 4

Post by jgh »

Blue Angel is especially notable for two things...

One, it may be the most popular giant blue hosta sold today.

Two, it is the "parent" of Guardian Angel - another of the truly special hostas in the market.

BA has been around for a while. Zilis says it was introduced by Paul Aden in the 1970s, eventually registered in 1986. It's heritage is unclear... it was registered as a hybrid of two seedlings - not terribly informative!

Smarter people than me can tell things about hostas by analyzing the flowers. Though we tend to think of sieboldiana any time we think "big blue", the flowers of BA suggest, as George points out, that it also has montana in its background.

Once again, Hank's pictures put mine to shame so I won't waste electrons and your time by posting them. Nobody grows those big ones better than you, Hank!
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Tigger
Posts: 2727
Joined: Oct 14, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 6b - 7a
Location: SE Penna Zone 6b (7a?), lat. 39°50'
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Post by Tigger »

And then Ben Zonneveld will tell you that sieboldiana is just a variant of h. montana anyway (in the way that cabbage and cauliflower are both brassica oleracea)... it gets so confusing!
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