A flower...

The underside of a leaf...

Looks like Halcyon to me.

Steve

I don't know where you are, but my Blue Cadet has finished blooming. My Halcyon is blooming now.

bk

my Halcyon blooms

Thanks!

Ok, Halcyon was my second guess. I'd thought maybe not though, because the bottoms of the leaves on mine look more rounded and heart shaped than your halcyon there. The flower definitely looks similar though. Pics I am finding online of the Blue Cadet flowers seem to be more on the lavender side than the white side, I am in Ohio, close to Cincinnati, btw.

This post was edited by spazmelda on Wed, Jun 18, 14 at 19:28

Mine is young. I just got it this spring. It has not reached it's mature size and shape. Use the photos in the hosta library to compare with. Actually, the bloom time is perfect. My Halcyon was raised in New Jersey which might match your zone. Next year, it will bloom on Texas time.

bk

Wrong color for Blue Cadet.
And personally, I think wrong shape for Halcyon. The leaves are more heart shaped.

Other than that, ya got me!

Wow, and I thought we might have a name! Melissa is pretty good at this, so maybe it's time to bump it up and get another few opinions. Solid colors are hard to id sometimes.

bk

is there any way you could have picked up ultramarine???

you dont really tell us.. if you are shopping bigboxstore... or are a collector... some suggestions are not going to be commonly available ...

it does NOT strike me as halcyon in any manner ... but there is no scale ... it looks to me.. like it has a lot more potential the H ever will ...

ken

Most of my blues are now blue-green and very UNblue looking. Although some are in bloom now, none have the tall scapes your NOID has, with a nice bell shaped flower. The light lavender stripe on the inside of the leaf should be definitive. This is the perfect time to get an ID for the hosta.

All we need is someone who recognizes it! :)
Assuming you have lived here for some time, is there a mature hosta around which could be the pod parent for this? There is a smaller clump of blue hosta behind this one (in the first picture) and it is blooming too but on a shorter scape. The leaves look similar in color.

And, does it hold the blue color all season? WHEN it loses the blue, does the leaf become very shiny?

I know how hard it can be to identify a hosta. My very first order ever was all mixed up, several I did not order turned out to be what was delivered to my DH while I was gone. He planted them and that was May 2010. It took me a long time to realize I could not match my order with the hosta because I did not get what I ordered. It was this problem which brought me to Hosta Forum in the first place. Now I am down to ONE NOID to properly name. It's been a merry chase, but sooner or later--if it came from nursery stock and not a volunteer seedling--it will reveal itself.

So hang in there. Meanwhile, you need a few new hosta to keep you entertained. Something like Gypsy Rose? :)

Thanks for the help everyone. Sorry to say that I really have no clue where these came from. I did not really start collecting (known) varieties of hosta until last year. In the past I have bought from big box, local nurseries, and online as bare root plants. If I bought these they were most likely bought as bare root from an online seller, (I probably wouldn't have bought 3 of something from a box box or local nursery unless I was doing something specific with them).

There is probably zero chance that they came up as seedlings. The only blue hostas I have are Empress Wu (planted as bare roots last year) and Abiqua Drinking Gourd, Blue Mouse Ears, Neptune, and Blue Mammoth (all planted this year).

I checked through all the online places I was likely to purchase from, and couldn't find anything. I looked back on the past 3 years credit card statements and couldn't find anything either.

I believe they stay fairly blue and not shiny through the summer, but I will have to pay attention to them this summer to be sure.

Oh, someone asked about scale... That brown metal thing in the picture is a bed edging for the bed I built yesterday (laying on it's side in the pic). So, the width of that piece of metal is 4".

Ultramarine looks good for a match, but the name does not ring a bell as something I might have purchased. I will have to see if I can find some pics of their flowers.

So the possibilities on where they might have come from are...

-Ordered online and don't remember
-Planted by previous owner and rescued from an old bed gone to weeds in the back yard down by the creek
-Gift from my mother
-very small chance they came from a big box or nursery.

The good news is that now that I am seriously collecting varieties I have ordered some zinc plant markers and I am recording name, date, and where I purchased. Lol.

I am trying to get into doing crosses, and I want to know for sure what the parents are. I pollinated these unknown guys with pollen from abiqua drinking gourd (that's all the pollen I have available at this time). Unless someone can miraculously identify these I will just have to be satisfied with knowing that the pod parent is some unidentified blue guy. Lol, I guess that's okay.

Moccasin landing, your gypsy rose is very pretty! I've just planted quite a few new hostas this year. Um, let's see if I can remember all of them.

-Abiqua Drinking Gourd (from lowes, and I'm honestly not sure it's named right, going to give it another year and see if it looks more like it should).

-Fried Green Tomatoes (local nursery)
-Margarita Gold (local nursery)
-Neptune (local nursery)
-June (The Hosta Farm)
-Blue Mouse Ears (THF)
-Blue Mammoth (THF)
-Broad Band (THF)
-Striptease (THF)
-Guacamole (THF)
-Rare Breed (THF)

I just saw one, maybe on this board, that I have to have. Snake Eyes. Looks amazing, I NEED!

I hate to say this, but 75% of the hosta I've bought from Lowe's has been misnamed.

bk

I thought about Ultramarine too.
Let's see what picture I have of that one. Most of my hosta are maximum 3 years here, some less. So maybe within the right range of maturity as yours?

Here is a picture of my blues when they WERE blue.

That was in April.This is a closer picture of Ultramarine in late April

Now the wax melts and sort of puts a spit shine on the leaves. Hard to judge things for color then. But Ultramarine again in bloom taken on July 7, 2013 last year. That's rain not a normal shine.

I think this is Tidewater. It looks like a sieboldiana except for the flowers which have a tall scape with large gaps between the flowers. Tidewater is kikutii leuconata x sieboldiana Elegans. Thus the white backs on the leaves.

Steve

Okay, I will look at tidewater. That actually sounds familiar.

I Looked up ultramarine, and a few places says it blooms in September. This would be way early for that. Though moccasinlanding has hers blooming in July, but that's in alabama right? Way hotter in Alabama than here (I'm originally from decatur/huntsville).

I'm really doubting the hosta I got from Lowe's is actually abiqua drinking gourd (I didn't think it was when I bought it, but it was flowering and I wanted pollen). The leaves aren't cupped at all, but maybe that happens when they get older (that's what I said to myself at the store, lol).

My Blue Mouse Ears was labeled Love Pat. It was two years before I figured out it wasn't getting any bigger. Of course, I'm kind of slow sometimes.

bk

Does anyone do genetic testing on hostas? I need a paternity test :)

Seriously, I do wonder how closely related a lot of these are. The differences seem so small. Of course, I'm not experienced. I'm sure the differences are more noticeable if you've been looking at hostas for years and years.

No, you're right. A bunch of them look alike.

bk

I think it is just an immature Blue Angel. The leaf shape is right and so is the timing on the flowers.

Funny, I was just coming here to ask if anyone thought it might be Blue Angel. Color of the flowers seems to be right as well.

That is kind of disappointing as they are not supposed to be good at making viable seeds.