Some thoughts on sterile hostas

[waldo]

9-13-2019 I just thought I would share my experiences, thoughts and observations regarding “sterile’hostas and hybridization. When I am planning my strategy, I try to do my homework/research and online information is a big part of it. So when someone registers a hosta as unknown, seedling X seedling and seedling A X seedling B for example it is NOT helpful. That being said, I understand that sometimes you just find a weedling or a very old hosta where the lineage is truly unknown. I am guilty of that myself, the only hosta that I have registered was H. ‘Brandi Nicole’ and I truly didn’t KNOW the origin and unfortunately it was lost to voles when I was not paying enough attention. But when you have people that are very well known for producing large numbers of Hosta and unknown and etc., keeps appearing it seems to be about secrecy and the money. Sorry, I got a little too far a field, anyway I have had some experience with hosta that are said to be sterile, or “not fertile” and so I try a lot of difficult to impossible crosses. One for example, I have been pollinating H.’Tea at Bettys’ which is a ‘Rippled Honey’ (ventricosa X plantaginea) sport for the last three years, this being the third year pollinating literally hundreds of flowers and knowing that due to it’s plantaginea background it would be difficult at best. Well this year I have one pod (last one on the top) forming, but I won’t be successful until I have viable seeds-and heathy growing seedlings. Another example, I have grown H. ‘Kross Regal’ for more than thirty years and never had it to set a seed, so I believed the “no” in the fertile box in the Hosta Library. But then I saw ‘Beryl Black’(Hicks 2011) and now ‘BaysideRegal’(G & S Hicks 2015) at Maine Hosta http://mainehosta.com/hostas_b-1. I bought some seed from Sharon Hicks and then found some OP Krossa Regal seed from a person in Buffalo, so it seems that it can be fertile under the right conditions. And then my hosta buddy stopped by with a gift plant for me,(thats what started this whole post) Aquamarine (Gossett NR) in early September so I have started another experiment/challenge. It is listed as unknown in Origin and “no” in the Fertile section on The Hosta Library. Aquamarine blooms very late (October) here and my plant produced two scapes and I pollinated every flower. 12-11-19 Zero seed set on the Aquamarine! Well maybe next year. On a brighter note I did get seed set on Tea at Betty’s, no germination so far (plantaginea background?) and after three plus years I got seed set on Lederhosen and I presently have one seedling (probably the only one). The Hosta Library list it as NO in the “Fertile” section of the MyHostas database. I hope some of you find my ramblings of interest.

[playinmud]

I understand what you're saying. I went through a long period of hybridizing my own hostas for my own pleasure, and kept track of every cross; I've been picky about what I keep, and I don't keep weedlings. As a result I have a few that I love, although I'll never register them. Funny thing, I always wanted to get seed off of 'Blue Angel', but figured that had to be sterile even though the Hosta Library says otherwise, because it never even tried to set a pod in all the 14 years I've had it in the garden, whereas I always had seed pods on 'Ventricosa'. Anyway, fast forward to this year...my time spent in the garden was nil, so I did not play with pollen, and wouldn't you know it 'BA' not only set a seed pod the dog gone plant had massive quantities of them on every flower scape, I was floored, all I could figure was that all the stars must have been aligned. I didn't save any of the seed, because I want to know the parentage, it's important to me for some reason, so I'm hoping it repeats the seed setting in 2020 and that they are a result of my crossing them with pollen from other plants in my collection.

[Tigger]

Seed pod set on Blue Angel (and its sports) is not that uncommon, but seed fertility is generally next to nothing. Bill Meyer believes that lots and lots of water during seed ripening may help. To that end I collected seed (both OP and controlled crosses) with Dream Maker (a.k.a. Confused Angel) this year, after watering and watering for the full 8 weeks before I harvested the seed. I'll keep you posted on fertility.

David

[Chris_W]

I had noticed that Blue Angel never seemed to set seed but I found a seedling that came up in a bed of Blue Angel which is just massive - bigger than Blue Angel and approaching Sum and Substance sized leaves but blue and corrugated. The flowers are identical to Blue Angel and blossom at the same time so the parentage seems right though there was possibly some crossing going on with the bees. There were no other hostas within about 10 feet of this guy.

I mentioned it to Bill Meyer and he said it couldn't be a blue angel seedling because they don't set seed. I started to wonder and after no seed production at all in 2018 I thought maybe he was right, but then we had a bumper seed crop on Blue Angel in 2019.

Here is a picture of the seedling in the summer and also a picture of the seed set on Blue Angel from the fall. I had to take a picture for the proof!

[Chris_W]

And I wonder about Dream Maker - when it sports to a solid blue hosta they don't look anything like Blue Angel. For that matter Guardian Angel also doesn't sport to Blue Angel when it goes solid - so there is some other sporting going on with those plants or there is variation of Blue Angel out there in production.

[waldo]

Chris, I had the same experience with Blue Angel, but Guardian Angel has set huge amounts of open pollinated seed. Like you I like to know the background of my hostas, although on occasion I will use OP or unknown plants if they will further my plan. An example, I usually buy seeds from Doug Beilstein and he always sends a Bonus pack and last year one seedling had “bluish” flowers and it “worked” on Lederhosen so my Lederhosen seedlings have an unknown pollen parent. Also I bought some OP seed in the Hosta Seed Auction.

[Pieter]

And I wonder about Dream Maker - when it sports to a solid blue hosta they don't look anything like Blue Angel. For that matter Guardian Angel also doesn't sport to Blue Angel when it goes solid - so there is some other sporting going on with those plants or there is variation of Blue Angel out there in production.

Chris, the real issue here is are you seeing sporting or reversion. Just because you get a solid blue out of 'Guardian Angel' doesn't mean it's a reversion to 'Blue Angel' but a sport in its own right if it doesn't look like 'Blue Angel', as yet unnamed.