Ah, yes! Love my Royal Standards.
I got my first one in September 2011 from Bob Seawright in Carlisle MA. It was in a container at his nursery, and I brought it south where it remains in a container. I also acquired a couple other RStandards, since it is so eager to grow and sets lots of seed pods. I'm hoping to find open pollinated volunteers in the ground around those pots this spring.

Two pots of it blooming in August 2013

Another 2 pots of it in August 2013, one from GreenMt, the other from Hornbaker. (I always get from several sources.) The streaker is Sweet Standard, another fragrant.

Then the Seawright Royal Standard in October with its set pods I think are showing. Things sort of tired looking.

And here is one of them this year, 2nd from right, with Living Water far right, and in the black pot looking wonderful is Bennie McRae, all 3 fragrant, with Bennie McRae being a super good grower and also a seed pod setter of the first order!

Oh yeah, that big dude on the left sort of in the rear is Victory, a 2012 purchase from Solberg.

oops....how did that happen

This post was edited by moccasinlanding on Fri, Apr 18, 14 at 16:06

I have royal standard too and really like how quickly it grows and makes an impressive clump very quickly. This is a side view picture and seems to glow. I only have the one but would be interesting to have two in different light so see who looks nicer. I do this with the Junes I have/ Not sure if it is suppose to have large fat eyes or they just have average skinny ones.. I will have to pay attention when it comes up

You guys have some nice looking hostas.
Besides the Royal Standard, I also have Abiqua Druinking Gourd, Blue Angel, and as I've stated easrlier Stained Glass, Guacamole, Earth Angel, & American Sweetheart.
I may have to replace my Blue Angels, Earth Angels, and Abiqua Drinking Gourd with a something else more fragrant. The heat and drying winds here in South-central Kansas burn up those three and any other blue type hostas by mid July. The Guacamole and Stained Glass hostas seem to be the least affected by the climate here. I'm waiting to see how the R. Standards hold up, since they are now established.
I would post photos, but I can't seem to get them to show up. :-(

Hi, Plantingman. You are wise to take the drier climate seriously, althoough the fragrant ones will need the usual amount of water. I hope they can deal with your climate to make you proud to grow hosta good looking as you wish.

If the Stained Glass and Guacamole are doing fine, you are on the right track, IMHO anyway. Royal Standard as someone else said earlier grows quickly, and there is a second flush of growth later in the season to make the plant look perky again. One nice thing is it is now among the less expensive to buy from reputable mail order nurseries.

Since I keep the majority of my plants in containers, I like to get multiples of the major players in the plantaginea family. Besides Mama plant herself, I have 7 other plantaginea. Then 3 or 4 of Royal Standard, Aphrodite, 2 Grape Fizz, 2 Stained Glass, 2 Guacamole (nothing crazy like TWENTY THREE......), 2 Frozen Margarita, and more than I wish to name of random other fragrants. They are my passion you might say.

Anyway, by keeping multiples I can experiment with different locations for the same variety. It doesn't take long to observe fried leaves with too much sun. Unless it is late PM sun, just before the sun drops below the pine trees across the street, they should not be in AFTERNOON sun. Some early morning through mid morning sun seems the very best exposure. And, good air circulation, important to keep disease at bay.

Not sure if southern blight stops at the Mason Dixon Line,but if you continue getting hot still days it could happen to you as well. So shade and fresh air are important to the sweating leaves.