Daily Hosta - Royal Tiara

[redcrx]

This is an odd little hosta. It supposed to have a clean white center but mine always have these darker streaks in the middle. The streaked form is called Royal Wave.

Registry - http://www.hostaregistrar.org/detail.ph ... al%20Tiara
MyHostas - http://myhostas.be/db/hostas/Royal+Tiara
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/r/royalt.html

Royal Tiara - 6/19/2011

Royal Tiara - 6/19/2011

Royal Tiara - 6/19/2011

[Chris_W]

Yes, Royal Tiara is an odd plant.

This plant was mixed up in tissue culture and originally registered as a Tiara sport, but it didn't take too long to grow it and realize the registration was completely wrong. First, the flowers were not right, and then when you got solid green sports out of it, those were nothing like a Tiara either. Years and years ago I happened to have Royal Tiara growing in a row right next to Gold Edger and noticed that the flowers were identical. Then I saw that one plant that had turned solid also looked just like Gold Edger and was pretty much convinced that was what it was from. Later others including Mark Zilis came to the same conclusion.

But as you noticed, your Royal Tiara doesn't have a completely cream center like it was supposed to, and actually this was a fairly common mutation in tissue culture. Most of the TCs that I grew came out with this streaked center, and we sold many Royal Tiara like that, thinking this was normal. Then in 2004 Greg Johnson registered Royal Wave and someone pointed out to me that our plants were oddballs too, just like Royal Wave.

Today I still have a couple clumps of Royal Tiara around, but they weren't really the best growers and most ended up reverting back to Gold Edger over the years so I quit selling them.

[redcrx]

Hi Chris, we have had this discussion a couple of times:
http://www.perennialnursery.com/forums/ ... st#p476119

The flowers on Gold Edger and on the solid sport of Royal Tiara do look the same but the anthers on mine are different colored - green on GE and purple on ssRT. Would it still be in the same family with this difference?

Royal Tiara sport on top and Gold Edger on bottom -- 6/19/2011

Another point on why it's not a "Tiara" is flowering time. This plant has early flowers. Tiaras have flowers about a month later.

[Chris_W]

Hi Ed,

The difference in the anther colors could be that you are looking at parent and sport. What you need to do is find a solid yellow sport/reversion from Royal Tiara and compare the solid leaf plant to Gold Edger, then I bet the anthers would be the same then, though I've never taken the time to look at these differences myself before.

[redcrx]

I got a bigger Royal Tiara in early this season. The first two shots are of the one I had the last couple of seasons. The last three are of the new one in a pot.

Royal Tiara - September 21, 2012

Royal Tiara - September 21, 2012

Royal Tiara - May 26, 2012

Royal Tiara - May 26, 2012

Royal Tiara - September 21, 2012

[redcrx]

A pot of Royal Tiara today.

Royal Tiara - June 27, 2013

Royal Tiara - June 27, 2013

[viktoria]

The quickest way to verify that RT is not a Tiara at all is to look at the leaf reverse. All Tiaras have shiny backs, RT does not.

Mark Zilis registered the gold form of RT as 'Royal Charm' in 2003. RC is a much larger plant than 'Gold Edger', medium rather than small.

Viktoria

'Royal Charm' May '13

'Royal Charm' summer '12

[redcrx]

The MyHosta database lists Royal Charm as green. But there is another sport listed - Paradise Goldheart - which it says is yellow. The hosta library pictures of both look similar. Here is my sport today with Gold Edger on the left and the sport of Royal Tiara on the right with Cameo, Cherish and Hope along the mid-bottom edge going to the right. That's Amber Tiara mid-top.

Gold Edger & Royal Tiara sport - June 28, 2013 - with Cameo, Cherish and Hope

Gold Edger (left) & Royal Tiara sport (right) - June 28, 2013

[redcrx]

I was re-sizing some photos today and noticed something familiar about a new plant called Totally Awe Sum - a sport of Sum and Substance. Totally Awe Sum is a streaky twisted plant and this shot of mine taken about a month ago reminded me of Royal Tiara (Royal Wave).

Totally Awe Sum - June 9, 2013