Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

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Hank Zumach
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Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

Post by Hank Zumach »

Hi All--Fragrant Blue is one of those varieties that gets overlooked in our garden. It is easy to do since there it doesn't have many characteristics that would draw attention to itself. It does have fragrant flowers. Other than that, I find the plant unremarkable. It's early season blue color tends to become green by the end of the summer. Since 1999 it has been growing in a spot that receives a little direct sun as the sun passes over the trees. Over that time it has very slowly reached a size of 35x14, still well short of Zilis' 48x20. It benefits from slug protection.

Registry - http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... ant%20Blue

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Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/f/fragrantblue.html
Fragrant Blue 6-26-06c 024.jpg
Hank
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newtohosta-no more
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Post by newtohosta-no more »

Your FB is lovely, Hank. With such a pretty powdery blue it's hard to imagine that it does get overlooked, but it does. I have one,but I don't think it is planted in the best location, so it's on the ever-growing list of plants to move and beds to re-do. :???:
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Pieter
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Post by Pieter »

Hank, sounds as if you FB behaves the same as mine. In spite of the supposed reputation of being a rapid grower, it has taken my single shoot 4 years to grow to where it is this year, about 10 from only 3 last year. This 'explosion' of growth comes after the plant was lifted late last fall to do some soil amending, so, I'd like to think that is was the good sh*t we put in the planter/raised bed that is responsible for that, but, who knows?

Must admit that the 'fragrant' monniker is a bit of a stretch for mine, it is very faint indeed. In spite of all that, I do like the plant and where I have mine it seems to hold its blue colouration throughout most of the season. Read all about it on my website http://www.pwk.resteddoginn.ca/hosta_fra_blu.php .
Pieter

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HostaDesigner
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Location: Niles, MI

Post by HostaDesigner »

It's always been a good grower for me. It's also one of my favorites for growing open-pollenated seeds!
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renaldo75
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Post by renaldo75 »

Mine was one of my nicest blues last year & looks like it will be again this year. It was in a shady spot with just filtered light. Kept the powder blue color even thru the intense heat we had last summer. The pic of it is from mid-August & it still looked pretty good although if I'd taken the pic a week sooner it was much bluer. Nice shape. It's gotten moved around a couple of times the last couple years for various reasons & I just moved it again the other nite to a new holding bed. I think I decided today where its permanent home will be though. It didn't bloom last year & not sure it did the year before either, but I could never detect any fragrance in mine when it did.
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LucyGoose
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Post by LucyGoose »

Hi Hank......Did you get a double post for FB? I see Marlys posted on the other one.....no biggie...

I got my FB replaced by Trudy....It was one I lost with winter....

Beautiful oldie...... :D
Hank Zumach
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Post by Hank Zumach »

I did see the double post and have no idea how that happened. Did you see the PM I just sent you?
Hank
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LucyGoose
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Post by LucyGoose »

Yes Hank...I did....I even called and left you a message... :lol:
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thy
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Post by thy »

No singing message... :o

Love the color of this one.. and have been seaching for it in the garden... may be very late and hidden between the spring bulbs leaves... or I have moved it and forgot to write it down :roll: :oops:
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wzbt03
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Frag. Blue

Post by wzbt03 »

I have two of them in near total shade and while they always look nice, they also are easy to overlook.
I have never detected a fragrance.
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jgh
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Post by jgh »

Man... I take a couple of days off and I come back to rampant heresy spreading like wildfire! And you started it Hank... one of the cool kids says something nasty and pretty soon the whole school is in on it!

I'll admit... I had ignored Fragrant Blue the first couple of years it was in my garden. That changed when Kim... a hosta official and judge in Minnesota (and partner-in-crime of our own Lisa) stood on my deck and from over 50 feet away identified FB. What she said was "That must be Fragrant Blue. It's got that... " and then she searched for a description of the color... ended up with something like a seafoam green/blue. From that spot there were probably 15-20 blue hostas visible, most of them pretty similar shades. We looked around and FB was, indeed a unique shade, more green than any of the tardianas or sieboldianas, but still distinctly in the blue category.

So... take another look at your FBs... compare it with the other blues... think "Seafoam"... see if it doesn't have a special shade. I like it a lot for about a month each year, even if I've never been able to detect a fragrance!

And BTW... in the last two years, I've seen two sports from FB that I like a lot. Frankly, I'm not sure I'll be able to tell them apart - only time will tell. Last year I added Secret Love, a yellow margined FB sport from Jan van den Top. This year I added Blue Flame, a yellow margined FB sport from Naylor. The only difference in the catalog descriptions is that the margin on BF is described as "variable" and the picture (and the young plants I received) indicate it may have a more irregular margin than the SL plants I got last year.

So get thee behind me, sinners! I will stand by Fragrant Blue and sports as a valued addition to the color palate of the hosta garden. As my father-in-law used to say... "I has spoken!"
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DBoweMD
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Post by DBoweMD »

I'm another big fan of Fragrant Blue. Could you call it Turquoise?

Maybe it's a genetic variation in Humans as to how easily we detect certain fragrances, but I can clearly detect the fragrance without much effort, while I have met others who can barely smell it, if at all.

There are known tastes that some can detect and others cannot, which we explored in High School Biology, in the genetics section.

The shade of blue is also very distinctive to me, and I have identified it correctly in other people's gardens often. It doesn't need to be near other blues to see the difference, so the story about Kim doesn't surprise me!
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thy
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Post by thy »

Powdery baby blue

green :-?
Where :wink:

Still haven't fond it :cry: but think i will..darn old broke down PC keeping my lists :evil:
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Eleven
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Re: Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

Post by Eleven »

'Fragrant Blue', not so pretty as in years past, but still a great blue:
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HostaDesigner
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Re: Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

Post by HostaDesigner »

I love FB. It's also one of the best I've used for longer-lasting blue color in seedlings. :)
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Chris_W
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Re: Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

Post by Chris_W »

It definitely is fertile. I have tons of OP seeds collected if anyone wants to try growing some. And they are definitely fragrant for me. When I'm planting or weeding near these I always notice them, though I always forget so it catches me off guard usually.
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boops
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Re: Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

Post by boops »

I've had one for two years and it hasn't flowered at all for me. :(
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redcrx
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Re: Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

Post by redcrx »

I picked up a Fragrant Blue at First Look this past weekend.
Fragrant Blue - June 28, 2017
Fragrant Blue - June 28, 2017
Fragrant Blue - June 28, 2017
Fragrant Blue - June 28, 2017
Fragrant Blue - June 28, 2017
Fragrant Blue - June 28, 2017
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Pieter
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Re: Pic of the Day--Fragrant Blue

Post by Pieter »

P1130926_fragrantblue_flowers.JPG
Here's a shot from last year of the flowers and plenty-o-pods. I bought my original plant in 2005 and it wasn't until 2009 before I smelled the fragrance of the flowers, and it's rather different from the multitude of plantaginea crosses like 'Guacamole', 'Fragrant Dream' etc...
Pieter

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