Night Before Christmas - a decent growing white center hosta

nigrescens - 2nd year

Northern Exposure - like this one, seems easy to grow and looks good

Paul

Night Before Christmas moved to a new home this year.

New this year, seems fast and "rubbery" like Lederhosen

Also New

I read somewhere that several sports of Elegans were named Northern Exposure and sent off for tissue culture. It wasn't until a few years later that the introducers of this plant realized that the sports were not all the same. Whoops! Thus there may be several different Northern Exposure plants out there.

Steve

Paul,
Your Night Before Christmas looks much better than mine, which has some slug damage. I agree with you about Northern Exposure, being easy to grow. I have mine in half & half sun/shade, and it sure can take the heat!

Nigrescens is blue-green-grayish in the Spring, but seems to turn more green later in the season.

Mctavish,
I sure like your Niagara Falls. Do you also have Jade Cascade, and if you do, how would you describe the similarities/differences between the two? I have Jade Cascade and would like to add Niagara Falls to my wish list, but only if there's a significant difference between the two.

Julie

Julie - OOH and AAH, those are beauties. BTW noticed we share a birth date - go Leos.

I have ordered a Nancy and Neptune for '11, anyone have a pic of these.

Paul

Julie, what nice mature plants. I must move my Northern Halo to where it won't get water spotted this year.

As far a s Niagara Falls vs Jade Cascade - they are both must have's for me. I would replace them with out a doubt. Both are the "feature plant" in the area where they are planted. Niagara Falls gets a lot more morning sun but in spite of that is darker in color. Jade Cascade is in the woods and gets bits of sun but not very much. It is one of the rare times I put a hosta where I intend it to stay. Below is a picture of the two of them that is pretty well representative of color and shape. You can see that the Niagara Falls has a wonderful, even piecrust margin compared to the Jade Cascade slight waves. The proportion of the leaves make them look much different too. The sizes quoted are from the Hostapedia but I noticed this morning that Grenfell says Jade Cascade can get up to 21" long. That's the first time I've seen her measurements be larger than Zilis so I don't know if that's accurate but it really has a unique look unlike anything else that I've seen. My Niagara Falls leaf is mature but the clump will get bigger. The Jade Cascade is only about half to 3/4 full size. The Niagara Falls has grown faster for me but that might because it gets more sun.

Paul & Mctavish, thanks for your comments.
Yes, Paul I noticed the same birth dates a while back:)

Mctavish,
Wow! Thanks for the comparisons/differences between NF and JC.
My Jade Cascade is only a couple years old, so it's full beauty hasn't been seen yet (in my garden, anyway.) I love both of them and will now HAVE to add Niagara Falls to my wish list. I now see quite a difference, seeing them side by side. Both leaf shapes (rounder on NF and pointier on JC) are "eye candy" for me.

Thanks so much for taking the extra time to post and share the comparisons of the two hostas!

Julie

Hmmmmm Paul....the #2 pic doesn't look like nigrescens...but is a nice hosta!

Don, you may be right, it's from a local grower who I'll see again in June. Vase shaped and going to be tall, any ideas. 2010 was a creep year so will get a better idea in a couple of years. Here is an 2009 pic....

Paul

Thanks for the pictures of Niagara Falls. I planted one last year and now really look forward to it in a few years, what a beauty! Jade Cascade looks great too, but no space anymore.

Well Paul, the leaves on nigrescens are more of a dutsy blue-green (more like Krossa Regal in color, I think...and more cupped than the pic you posted...and don't come to a sharp point like your pic...and don't have a rippled edge.

So, what do you have? I don't know...kinda looks like Moonlight Sonata...What color are the flowers? Be sure to post some more pics of it this summer...

For comparisons, here's our Hosta nigrescens:
{{gwi:939754}}

Now for further fun here's our Hosta 'Tenryu':
{{gwi:938706}}

At Wade and Gatton last summer Mr. Wade and I cut leafs from each and couldn't ID the difference, hmmmmm.

The time of day lighting was way different, hence the blurriness of the second shot, sorry.

During our comparison at Wade and Gatton all light was the same, yet we couldn't find the difference back at the picnic table by the write-up area.

Tis a fun arena, huh?

hh