Two of them did it for me years ago...Krossa Regal and, like you, Thunderbolt! Yours is a beautiful specimen! I have heard it's supposed to be a finicky grower but mine does fantastic also.

400+ varieties later.........................

If it stole your heart wait till it's mature and 36" across they are stunners!

This year one surprised me. For the past 4 years it didn't do much but "Queen of the Seas" just matured and is now 36" and growing. The blue and the pie crust edges have just matured and it is a standout.

Other standouts so far is "Orange Marmalade" 4 years old and "Eye Declare".

My favorites "Pauls Glory" (10 years old 4 ft), Sague & Liberty hands down are favorites.

Now 20 years later they all have a place in my heart!

My neighbors full grown S&S. The size blew me away, and that's why the giants are my favorites.

Something like 17 or 18 years ago a friend invited me to her back yard to see her hosta....that was at the time I thought there were about 8 to 10 varieties. She had a 5 year old Elegans! oh Wow!!!
I was hooked!
Linda C

For me it was a hosta that was already planted at our house when we moved in just a few years ago. It was a good ol' Francis William. Until then, I had no idea that there other hostas besides the ventricosa style. When I started looking at all the different varieties, it was a real eye-opener. -- And I had been a Master Gardener for years at that time!

Indyrose

It was Sagae until I got Liberty! The sight of Liberty makes my heart skip a beat! It is breathtaking! I also love Thunderbolt. I have heard that both are slow-growing but mine aren't. And then there is Guacamole, I don't know what it is about this hosta but I love looking at it. Its leaves are just so lush and it just says tropical to me.

I had undulutas for 10 years, they were my all time favorites in my gardens. I was in Philadelphia in '06 & saw Sum & Substance planted all over , they were absolutely stunning. I got on line wondering why my hostas were not that big LOL . I found a whole new world & ended up ordering Blue Angel, Earth Angel &, Grenfels book the same eve. :) Last spring I found this forum & have become addicted like everyone else who comes here . What fun & knowledgeable folks I have met. And just now I must type fast as I am awaiting my first surprise swap package , & have to keep checking on the mailman :) oh.... & admire my own new Sum & Substance on the way in & the way out.

The first hosta I ever planted put me over the edge. It was a Shirley Vaughn, and I got it from Plant Delights nursery in NC.

It was Sagae..... That was the first hosta I bought almost 6 years ago. That was when I found out there were more than "the green and white one" and "the all green one".

Alexa

I've told this story about selling for Walters Gardens about 1975, don't hold me to the exact year. Walters grew fields of undulata, maybe 100,000's and don't hold me to the numbers it was a bunch and that was about all they had.

One day after a sales meeting John Walters took us to his home and asked if we could sell a plant they were thinking about putting into production. Remember they were growing the "green" and the "green and white" hosta and maybe a blue.

The hosta was H.'Gold Standard', I told him to grow it and I would sell everyone he could grow. Go to you yard if you have undulata period and someone showed you H.'Gold Standard'.

That was the day I decided I liked hosta, also it was before or at about the same time Mark Zilis came to Walters TC lab. They didn't put hosta into TC at first because they had other more important plants to TC.

All this was just before the earths crust cooled.

Sometime after the earth's crust cooled, but before the invention of the eyelash curler, I fell in love with Great Expectations. I really fell in love and killed 4 of them before I decided I didn't like hosta after all. Some time went by and the eyelash curler was invented. Then I saw Thunderbolt. I toyed with the idea of growing one for 2 years before I finally got one. I knew I would kill it, though I had been successful at growing everything else (well okay I killed a few orchids too.)

Surprisingly, Thunderbolt did very well for me, so I bought Sagae, and then Pineapple upside Down Cake, and then Abiqua Drinking Gourd, and you know the rest of the story. Today I have sixty hosta, not a huge collection, but I've been growing most of them for several years and now they are magnificent.

Oddly, the Thunderbolt that got me started again, is not as big as the Thunderbolt that is 3 years younger and planted in Highjack's pine bark medium style. A lesson for me.

Lainey

"Today I have sixty hosta, not a huge collection,"
botanybabe

Don't worry about how many, look for good ones that fit your landscape.

Thanks for the responses everybody. It's fun hearing everyone's hosta stories. I'm starting to notice houses on the way to work that hadn't caught my attention before, that have big hostas in their yard. Is this another stage of hostaholism? : ) Thanks, Dan

Dan, I have a Thunderbolt/Dream Weaver that looks like yours and it just got my DH really liking that one...
[insert guilty enabler snickering]
June did it for me.

Yes, that is the next stage is hostaholism. Soon you will know most of the names of the hostas on the way to work...

I don't have very many (yet) but I still love my Gold Standard! I also really like my Cliffords Stingray and Cliffords Comet even though I haven't had them long enough to know what kind of growers they are. Just the fact that they made it through a very late planting and lack of good care over the winter is a good start.

What really got me to the "hooked" stage was seeing Hyacinthina the year after we moved it...my girlfriend started asking for pieces of it and I started looking closer and saw many "pseudo-sports." Then I started buying others...got about 15 waiting to go in the ground right now...I want to rip out a small ivy bed but I know I won't get enough help from the rest of the family...

Some I buy for the name, some I buy for the look...and then I figure out how I want to arrange them.

My favorites are Guardian Angel and Leading Lady.

Becky

I bought a couple of those bagged hostas around 2000. They didn't do much, but I tried an unnamed green one the next year. It grew so when I found some at a nursery, I tried a couple. One of those was Krossa. I loved the way it looked. One of those tabloid nursery catalogs showed Sum and Substance. I got curious about the hostas of the year, so I got online. Liberty was one of the first that I bought. I also tried Dancing in the Rain, but it died that first season. In 2006 either voles or some fungus was decimating my garden. I potted almost everything up using pine mulch thanks to highjack. Now it is beginning to look like a garden. I have played around with EO's pot within a pot and standing in water, and in our heat, they do much better using his method. I like the standing in water best because I can monitor the water level, but I am tired of fighting mosquitoes.

I am starting to see more and more hostas at local nurseries. They don't always carry the best for our climate, but maybe some day...
Long story short-Krossa, Liberty, and Sum and Substance.
Mary

The first one that I bought with really big fat eyes was Frances Williams. Those big eyes were so different from Gold Standard, Halcyon, Fragrant Blue and others that I bought maybe 13 years ago when we moved here. In 2005 we bought 10 Patriots and 5 Revolutions to give substance and color to a dull area. My husband liked the effect, so I started looking online while on vacation. The real blame goes to this forum. What an eye-opener! I'd never imagined that there were so many different varieties! June, El Nino, Stained Glass, Striptease and Dream Weaver were my favorite purchases that fall. Many others were so small that they didn't yet show their "character."
The first one that ever made me crazy, partly because it wasn't for sale, was Orange Marmalade. I'd heard the name, and seen pictures, but hadn't seen a real plant. They were on display, but not for sale, and the Gardenscape flower show in Rochester in March 2006. I searched online, found them at Direct Source, ordered one. Liked it so much that I had to have 3 more. They ship early, so I put the 4 little pots in an empty hanging basket in my kitchen window. What happiness! I would rather have duplicates of varieties that I adore than to add only types that I don't already have. (I do that too.) I have over 250 different hostas, and keep buying more of my faves. My husband really likes them, which surprises me. He never was much of a garden guy.

I went to a garden center in Michigan with my sister, and was planning some new plants, when I happened upon a huge, huge elegans! I was enthrolled! I then started searching, and found that there was more than plantaginea, lancifolia, albomarginata, and even elegans! I was hooked! My house at the time had limited yard space. We had the opportunity to move, and now I have much more room to keep the addiction going? My one sister asks me what I find so facinating about hosta? Well they have beautiful leaves, are easy to care for most of the time, and give the garden a tropical look.And you know what? Not everyone has a hosta collection! I now have over 100 plants, and want more!:)

Dan I went to a hosta leaf show the summer of 2005 and was fascinated by the hundreds of clear vases with leaves in them. Then I went downstairs to look at the plant sales and bought 'Candy Dish'. It was fabulous!! Now I've got over 300 hostas, and run out of garden space, so this year I've curtailed my spending to $0 on hostas. Its tough, but I can't add another thing until I find more open spots.

Ok, y'all I know this is an old thread, but quite fascinating, and I thought it deserved to be resurrected.

I bought my first hosta bare-root from Park Seed and Flowers 20 years ago. It was a Frances Williams, and she has been a faithful friend to me all these years. She's been shared with my sisters and my best friend as a parting gift when I move 5 states away. I planted her in my first flower garden as a new bride, and took her with me on three moves since.

Lots of other hostas have followed FW, (Hillbilly Blues, Choo Choo Train, Sum and Substance, Undulatas, Ventricosas, Gold Standard, Golden Tiara and more) but Miss Frances Williams is still my favorite, because she was the first...

Now that we have a property that has more shade than any one before, I have lots more room for more hostas. Yay!

The first hosta I ever saw put me over the edge. It was modest little Honeybells in 1969, I think, when visiting my in-laws, and my SIL dug one for us. When we got home I divided it within an inch of its life and shared it.

My first of very many varieties, and it has a place in my heart.

Sunny

After years of planting annuals I decided it was time to do start planting something more permanent so I bought ONE 'plain ol' green' hosta. The first 2 years it didn't do much but when I ammended my soil it TOOK OFF!!! My wimpy Invincible became a glorious green that did fabulous even in the hot Texas sun and OHHH the scapes were so pretty. Even into the fall it looked pretty darn good. You can imagine what I did the next year... I bought a few inexpensive Golden Tiaras and a few other cheap ones just to try and holy cow did they grow!!! They are about 5 times the size they were 2 years ago. So... it was the simple Invincible that did it for me. Beautiful shiny green leaves, grow like gang busters last year and the first time I knew about scapes!

Patriot

-Babka

9 years ago when we moved into our new house, my wife bought 12 assorted hostas from Wayside Gardens. I was into roses at the time, and didnt really care for hostas as they were "only leaves". After the first winters rest they came up so nicely that I had to take notice. She had me label them all, which wasnt easy as the tags were gone. It was the research that got me hooked. I couldnt believe all the diversity! Id haveto say the Sagae and Sea Fire were my first faves. My Sum and Substance is now 8 years in the same spot, 24+ eyes and HUGE leaves......Got to love the giants:P

Im over 260 named cultivars, not including my own hybridization and OP seedlings. I have finally come to the realization that its not all about quantity, but quality. Im past the days of EBAYing for small divisions just because they were something I didnt have.

In fact, you know you have the addiction bad when you KNOW you should divide some plants because they are encroaching on each other, but you cant bring yourself to disturb them because they look so good. LOL

Dave

I just posted a pic of the one that put me over. I don't know the name yet, hope someone can ID it for me. I have a lot of the normal, usual hostas. But,

dan, you should come to the fall swap up in Skokie.

There are two ladies, next door neighbors, that garden. One of them, has a whole lotta hostas. Very very nice ladies. And, very very generous too!

Hostared, you should come too.

Go to the wintersowing board to check it out.

Hosta montana "Aureomarginata".
I believe I started with hostas when we moved into the present house in 1987. The backyard was bare, so I also planted the usual hostas of green, blue, yellow, white and yellow margin, 30 varieties. I gave many divisions away.

This spring I got hosta-renewed. When waiting for my grandson's Pre-Kindergarten I saw this pointed large green-yellow leave of Montana "Aureomarginata" which let me to redo my backyard and sideyards, adding 35 new varieties of hostas, still need 14 to plant. Now I have baby plants interspersed with mature ones, can not wait for the 3 or 4 years to see the gardens with mature plants of these modern hybrids.
Bernd

In 1985 a friend gave me pieces of a Gold Crown, a Hyacynthina, and a Plantengiea. I let them grow in a corner of my yard for 10 years and paid them no attention. Then in l994, it occured to me that they these Hosta were growning beautifully without having had any attention for all those years. So i figured I'd get more of those magic plants. Then I discovered a Montana Aureo Marginata, and the rest is history. Mary

It was- and still is- "Oh look at that one! I have never seen that before! I wonder how that will grow on in my yard?!"
And alas- I see and understand that symptom in others so often and so well- that I may never have a mature clump of any thing but lancifolia- royal standard and undulata ever again...

I did see a "hedge row" of Hosta montana "Aureomarginata" this spring. Each plant was well over 3' tall and wider than I could stretch my arms wide on top- and so impresively and massively clumped together at the bottom- it was truly an amazing sight to see!

Julie

A picture of Great Expectations, then the real thing. Have had mine @ 15 years .... needed to move it 3-4 times till I found the best location. GE remains one of my all-time favorites.

Tough question. My best performers this year (which would be the ones that put me over the edge) are "So Sweet," "Stained Glass," "Sum & Substance," "Patriot," "Vulcan," and probably my favorite this year....'HANKY PANKY' because it is so unique and looks so very healthy.

Seeing the hosta garden of a friend when I visited her in Iowa two years ago is what really put me over. Also the gorgeous June she has. (and gave me a piece)

The one that sealed it, I think, was seeing Dream Queen for the first time in a nursery. WOW! I had never seen anything like that. It was the last one there and you'd better believe I bought it!

christine