Hosta Bulletproof?

[ViolaAnn]

My 'Touch of Class' sported to a solid blue division. Three eyes on one healthy root, although I damaged all three eyes in the process of separating it. I HAVE planted the separate rootstock and I expect it will come back.

A friend on another chat list has indicated that Q and Z calls this Hosta 'Bulletproof'. I've seen it listed for sale in a few places. Do you think I can call mine that ?

The pictures show the plant on April 30 before I dug and separated it and on May 2, post surgery - seven healthy eyes with the regular TOC colouring.
Ann

'Touch of Class' with sections sporting to solid blue.

'Touch of Class' post surgery

[jgh]

This naming stuff is going to drive me crazy. Halcyon sports to June. June sports to Touch of Class, which is a probable tetraploid. Then TOC sports to all blue... but as a tetraploid, even people who use the term reversion (I'm a purist - I say you truly can't be sure the plant is identical to the grandparent and thus shouldn't call it reversion - but I know I'm in a tiny minority disenting opinion on that one) couldn't call it a reversion to Halcyon... but knowledgeable people like Solberg call it a "tetraploid form of Halcyon."

Yeah... I know the original genetics are from Halcyon, and it is a tetraploid... but I think it should properly be called a sport of TOC and leave it at that. If Halcyon had sported to Bulletproof, and then B sported to TOC, THEN I'd be OK with calling B a "tetraploid Halcyon."

Ah, well... another loss against a windmill!

What you should have there is a very heavy-substanced blue hosta with good blue color through a long season, incredible sun tolerance for a blue, and a plant that will continue looking good long into the fall when other hostas have "gone down."

[Chris_W]

But can you call the sport Bulletproof?

I asked that same question when visiting Q & Z last year, and they said Yes, I could call those solid blue sports of Touch of Class, Bulletproof. I'm sure that's how they get them anyway. Cull out the solid blue plants from ToC and they all get sold as Bulletproof, and it is like Halcyon but a tetraploid.

I know you like to be a purist about these things Jim, and I don't blame you at all considering how things get mixed up when we aren't, but that isn't really how the industry works I'm afraid

[dash]

Hi Everyone , ..Jim, Chris , Ann; I would just like to thank you,this is such a great site and very educational I'm learn so much just visiting the forums. I have a Fire & Ice that has an all green leave. I'm guessing I should remove it -Dennis

[jgh]

One green leaf... no problem. That is just a little instability...

But if it is a whole green eye, I would try to carefully remove it. With a lot of plants I wouldn't worry as much, but Fire and Ice, with its white center, is not a particularly strong grower. A green eye will be much more vigorous than the F&I and it will build more crown in a season than any eye of F&I will. I tend to remove solid sports by the "grip and rip" method - grab the eye at the ground level, twist and pull. But with a little smaller plant like F&I I might get a long knife and try to cut out that part of the crown.

If you remove a green eye from any of the Patriot clan, it is likely to be a very vigorous deep green plant. The one from Paul Revere is called Midnight Ride and it is a good hosta. Won't knock your eyes out, but unlike the rest of the Patriot clan (for me) it will rapidly form a good sized clump of attractive very dark green leaves.

[dash]

Would that be considered a sport of 'Fire & Ice' and would it have a name already? I'm still a little green to all this

[renaldo75]

I just bought Bulletproof. Didn't realize where it originated.
Now I know where it needs to be planted.

I had an all green sport in my Revolution that started out as a half green leaf one year, 2 or 3 the next, 3rd year a huge [compared to the rest of the plant] division.
In the middle of the plant of course so it had to be dug to remove it. I think it was actually 2 divisions by then. I thought it would be about the same as Midnight Ride, but it's not.
My plant is very upright. Not that nice rounded mound at all. It has an interesting thing going on with the veins too.

[digs57]

Interesting. My TOC had developed an all-blue eye last spring, so I separated it off, and gave it a different name (Class Act), as I had no idea the all-blue version had already been named. My Bulletproof Class Act has two eyes this year, one all blue, one the typical TOC. I'm inclined to leave it alone and let nature do whatever she will with this plant.

[Hostahaveum]

Now My TOC has an all blue sport & its much-much darker than any Halcyon I have ever seen. I think I will do the surgery & place the same size Halcyon next to it so I can compare the color & leaf thickness as time goes on.

[jgh]

I'm raising this question again as I realize I've got a nice (probable tetraploid) very deep blue sport from High Society. If nobody has named it yet, I'm calling it "Low Life"...

[paul_in_mn]

How about Blue Blood.

[ViolaAnn]

Thank you for bumping this thread up. I was actually looking for it (unsuccessfully) yesterday because I couldn't remember the name "Bulletproof".

The blue eye which started this thread off has put up two shoots. It had three before I divided, and I managed to destroy them all in the process of separating it. Of the two it now has, one has retained the blue colouring while the other has reverted back to the TOC colouring.

Ann

[jgh]

now Paul... knowing me... which is a better fit... Blue Blood or Low Life! I can't wait for it to develop a white margin... then I'll also have "Scum Bag."

[scootersbear]

Ridiculous, Bulletproof a Blue hosta Halcyon a blue hosta,,,It's simply irresponsible releasing of a hosta for profit. It's getting frustrating with all of these junk hostas being put out for profit or keeping your name in the books. I bet I can buy Halycon for a lot less than Bulletjunk and get similar results. For the book I love Halcyon great hosta but I don't need a tetra form of it.
Dash your answer about Fire and Ice and the green sport is compost

[ViolaAnn]

They might both be blue but "Bulletproof" is tetraploid whereas Halcyon is not. However, I suggest just waiting for your Touch of Class to sport and getting it free.

[scootersbear]

Sorry but I don't walk through the garden and say to myself that's a tetra and that's a poly...It's green, yellow, big or small and so on. I hybridize and don't give a darn whether it's a tetra hosta and I imagine most don't. They're slower growing (another good reason to not make a big issue of them) and give off a lot less seed. Just another blue hosta that should have been culled.

[Chris_W]

Hi Scott,

In this case, I have some of these tetraploid Halycon and they grow just as well and have quite a bit bigger leaves and I actually like it quite a bit. Is it "better" than Halcyon? No, I still like good old Halcyon, but in its own right this one isn't a bad plant. I wasn't convinced at first, but this one is growing on me

[scootersbear]

Sounds like some hesitation Chris There are a lot of green and blue hostas that are great hostas, I prefer them, there's plenty of room in my garden for them. Who can't look at Love Pat and just be in awe!!! There's just nothing I see about this hosta that makes me want to buy it. No ruffling, red petioles, no cupping,...etc... My frustration is this, I grew probably 5000+ seedlings over the winter (just this year) and kept 1, just 1 yellow seedling from one of my own and culled the rest because there's nothing special about the rest that's not already out there. I'm pretty sure the possibility of there being a tetra blue was possible. There's no reason why I couldn't have kept every one of them for about 3 years and registered every single one of them. Over the 10 years I've been hybridizing, accounting for some dying and room, I could have registered at least 15,000 hostas and given them cool names and possibly made a few dollars knowing there's really not much profit in hosta selling. Unfortunately there are a lot of dealers doing this even though it's not that high of a number, there are no standards to say what should be registered and what probably shouldn't. I respect the fact that when you introduced Radiant Star ( hope I got the name correct) you went on the forum and said hey give me your opinion, and it looks like you hit a home run with it. That's not the case for a lot of hybridizers lately and I know it's frustrating for me so I know it's gotta be getting frustrating to you even more so since you're getting the honor to sell some of these junk hostas.
"Isn't bad" and "good" can be miles apart and "isn't bad" just doesn't belong in the garden. Plus it killed a cool name for future use.

[ViolaAnn]

scooter = I hear you. I'm only into hybridizing in a VERY minor way, but so far, while I've had a few hostas I will keep in my own garden - at least for awhile, I've had nothing that I feel is unique enough to even consider registering. It would indeed be nice to see some standards.

[ViolaAnn]

I thought I would post an early spring picture of 'Bulletproof'. The one eye with streaking is still there but it's not in the centre of the leaf. I think I'm gonna have fun watching this one.