bkay,

There's a QOTS on the Library Auction from Naylor Creek. There's also a Lakeside Old Smokey with a much better picture on the Auction.

Steve

Ah yes, hyacinthina with the white backs....sigh....
And I thought of another one, which stands up tall and shows its bloody legs, JAWS. Serrated curly edges, very unique looking.

Then if you have Invincible already, try a nice Invincible Spirit, a SM I think it will be, it has red legs and is dark out of the box.

If you are interested in a gold with heavy substance, take a look at Rosedale Golden Goose. Almost like cardboard it is so stiff, and very very gold.

Maybe I should read your question again before I go off on a tangent. I totally understand trying to clean the palate like at a wine tasting, the greens rest the eye.

If you want pictures, let me know. My plants are all young and do not have the mature look you wish to see....but, they are trying!

I vote for Lakeside Old Smokey also

and Manhattan (can't believe i don't have that one)

here are a few more for you to contemplate,,,all are good growers in my yard

i will leave out the blues as you don't want those

Bridegroom (speaks for himself)
Edge of Night (very dark)
Fried Green Tomatoes (nice roundish leaves)
Honeymoon (just a nice one)
Maui Buttercup (a nice chartreuse)
Moonlight Sonata (ok,,,this one is kinda blue)
One Man's Treasure (green with red stems and red coming up in the leaves)
Potomac Pride (another dark one)
Spinach Patch (very crinkly)
Squash Casserole (Wavy and Limey)

good luck with your search
jill

I have coveted Spinach Patch and Potomac Pride for a long time. sadly, no room. :(. I like that Rascall too- how big does it get, Steve?

Coll,

Rascal is somewhat upright, about 25 inches tall and 48 inches wide. It's large.

Steve

bkay,

great thread idea, and I have lotsa suggestions, but want to take the time to include pics, so I'll try to remember this a few days from now, as tomorrow, a least, has me out of garden (town).

Several of the already mentioned are goodies!

hh

I agree your should still get Queen of the Seas. Beautiful! And you already have Invincible. I also really like these of my solid greens and yellows:

Clovelly - medium green with rippled edges
Dancing Queen - bright gold with rippled edges
Dragon's Eye - greyish green with purple petioles
Fire Island - bright gold turning to chartreuse
Irish Luck - shiny green with rippled edges
Jaz - satiny smooth light green
Marilyn Monroe - lighter green with rippled edges
Nancy - bright green with wavy edges
Prairie Moon - translucent golden
Teaspoon - green, cupped round leaves
The Razor's Edge - slender green leaves with wavy edges and red petioles

That photo on the Monrovia poster may have been Manhattan. Although Rosedale Spoons is beautiful, most of my shade is is under pecan trees, which sheds something all year long, so cupped hosta just collect debris.

Does Lakeside Old Smokey grow well? I looked for some dark ones a while back and loved the look of Ebony Echoes, but Jim is the only one who has it.

Is Fried Green tomatoes similar in appearance to Plantaginea and Venus? It's also fairly plain, except when it blooms, which is why I didn't consider it.

I'll get a photo of that poster tomorrow while I'm out. I told the manager of Calloway's that if he had hosta that looked like that, I'd be buying them. They had some nice ones last year, but this year, they only have the most common varieties. They're huge, but common.

Coll, you need to tell us about growing in pots under trees. My red oak has shaded out the grass on one side of the driveway. Our soil is VERY dense. Couple that with tree roots and digging a bed is nearly impossible. Planting hosta in the ground requires significant amendment or replacment of the soil, which I'm not up to.

bkay

Hey, BKay, I hope you share the poster child picture when you get it?

Did not realize that you were dealing with pecan trees too. That is what I have in my own yard, with sweet gum and water oaks in the immediate neighbor's yard. With all the recent rain, one of their big limbs fell across my fence into the hosta staged in the courtyard space. I sank up over my feet to go out there and nibble away at that limb on Monday. The bigger part of the branch was still on their side, so when I cut off my side, and pushed, it fell into their shrubbery. Not that they've noticed, it is so overgrown there. But the limb was a big ole sweetgum that's done it before. Thankfully, nothing was damaged, and I still have enough shade.

BKay, you might try some monkey grass under your red oak. It grows on almost nothing, and the root system has little bladders to hold water. It does not require any help to grow. Then put in some pockets of aspidistra...you can get varigated striped leafed ones from PDN, they grow with root competition too. After that, do your hosta in pots among the monkey grass foundation plants. We use liriope as a ground cover too, as well as a border, and check out holly fern. It can spread over bricks, so it would deal nicely with tree roots. I think evergreen even in your zone. I've taken a pot full of it and just sat it on the top of the soil, then scooted some more dirt around it like a mound, and it never stopped growing, never wilted. How high up do you limb your red oak? Think about the big magnolias and their root system above the ground, and you know you have to put something to hide all that mess, you learn how to fill in the bare ground. Plus magnolia leaves are so oily they do not compost very well, nor do they decay quickly, and they harbor ROACHES....EWWWWWWWWW.

Eleven, thanks for listing The Razor's Edge as a good one. It is one of my favorites, and I bought a special pot for it. Mine is less than a year old but it has grown so quickly and it is unbelievable in how round and full it looks. It's like a spiky green Afro hairdo....plus dark green, but not so much substance it looks like a yucca (NOT). I'd say it grows quickly, and looks good in a pot.

RE your thought that Ventricosa might be too big.

My Ventricosa is not what I would call big, but it is a little loose in the way that it grows. The clump is not tight, which can make it a bit more spread out.

The attached picture is what the leaves look like in heavy shade. When given more sun, the leaves are significantly smaller and more narrow and lose a little of the gloss on the leaves. The flowers are a nice purple and are very tall - I like the look of them!

BettyLu

And you NEVER want to throw Magnolia leaves onto a burning pile (GAG - and thats no joke!)

Les

I love the greens. There is an amazing amount of variety in green.

The selections below are none too large for pots. The largest is probably Terpsichore but I do have mine in a pot because it looks great where it is. I've included two shots of it because it starts out a bright green and then darkens by June.

All the pictures were taken this year except the second one of Terpischore. The date shown is when they were purchased and from which nursery. It starts with the newest and goes to the oldest.

Niagara falls, QOTS, Millenium, Komodo dragon, blue Betty Lou...... Oh the list goes on!!!
Dave

bkay, I moved everything in that bed into Agroliner bags a few years ago. I did so for a few reasons-

One, browsing this forum made me think I must be an irresponsible hosta owner for even thinking I should let my hosta roots cohabitate with tree roots. (that is a red maple tree)

Two, this part of my garden had some vole damage, and I wanted to give everything some protection- either a bag, a pot, or a cage or a combo.

Three, I think this particular tree has been on it's way out for some time. There was a branch removed before we moved here and that scar has rotted...I assume that extends into the center of the tree. When I made this bed, I added soil to make a raised be, which I figured would help it's demise along. It seems to be taking it's time, however. I thought that when it comes time to take the tree down, having everything in a container of some kind will make it possible to remove the plants and let the tree guys stomp all over without me having a nervous breakdown.

All my garden is comprised of added soil- nearly everyone here has homes and yards that sit on top of solid ledge. If I don't add soil, I can't plant. For that reason, I also have a number of hosta in pots- nursery liners sitting inside more decorative pots. At the end of the season I simply take them out of the decorative pot and find a spot in the garden beds to bury them for the winter. This year I am trying very hard to be better about fertilizing the ones in pots and Agroliner bags, and I make sure everything is in really well draining potting mix. That's about it.

I am concerned about the Agroliner bags for long term use...I put big ones in big bags, but fear it still won't be enough room. And I have found that it is much easier to get a hosta out of a nursery liner for repotting than it is to get one out of an Agroliner bag. So I'm not too sure how I am feeling about those these days, to be honest.

The one hosta planted directly in the soil in that bed is the biggest in my whole garden- Parhelion. I couldn't deal with digging it up and trying to bag or pot it at that point. I do hope the voles won't get it.

I really like 'Babbling Brook' I can't really describe the color, but it's almost a silvery blue. It's not a color I normally see in hostas.

Jen

Moccasin,

What are you calling monkey grass? Here, the term is used interchanably with loriope, both solid green and variagated. People also call ophlopogon dwarf monkey grass.

Aspidistra burns here in the winter. You have to cover it with floating row cover when the temp hits some low point (I'm not sure what that number is.)

The problem with oaks and pecans is not the fine roots that strangle hosta, but the big roots you have to cut out or dig around to amend the soil. Our soil is like concrete when it's dry and like glue when it's wet. It's dense and also alkaline. I decided to do a bed under my pecan tree. I gave up that idea in a hurry. The roots (1 to 2 inch diameter) are just below the surface. It's not too bad to dig a bed in an area that has no roots, but it can be very difficult under a tree. I was at my grandparents farm a few years ago and dug up some iris for my aunt. It was a dream. You just step on the shovel and it goes right in. (Actually, I was using a camping shovel.) You can stand on a shovel here and it won't penetrate the soil if it's dry. What I wouldn't give for sandy loam.

Enough whining.

Thanks for all the ideas.

bk

Bkay, I can't stick a shovel in the ground here, either. When I want to dig, I have to use a pick axe to break up the rocks. You should see how many rocks I've removed from my soil over th years. What soil is there is actually very good....dark... from all the years of oak leaves falling and decomposing there, I guess. Below that is clay, and more rocks, and edge.

I don't have anything to contribute here, but after a while I begin to feel uncomfortable due to excessive lurking. So I wish to say thank you to all of you for giving me many ideas, especiallly those of you who post photos.
Christine

Jimmy Crack Corn has luminous chartreuse/yellow leaves with pie crust edges. Slugs don't touch it.

Jimmy Crack Corn has luminous chartreuse/yellow leaves with pie crust edges. Slugs don't touch it.

Looks like GWeb is double dipping today. Many duplicate posts.

BKay, orphiopigon can be a larger "monkey grass" and not just the dwarf,....somewhere between the ground hugging dwarf which is really dark dark green, and the larger liriope. I have some fantastic wide blade liriope, and it grows aobut 2 foot tall, beautiful stuff. Too bad about the aspidistra not enduring your winters. I thought it could do to zone 7 without croaking....but maybe it dies back to the ground....

What I'm planning to do in my Back Forty, between the two larger pecan trees, is put in a couple loads of pine bark over multiple layers of newspaper. MOUND up the bark, make a big hill, and then I can set the hosta in pots like they were sitting in bleachers at a football game, or sitting on the sand dunes at the beach. I have to watch that squirrels or raccoons do not turn over the big pots, which is why I want to nestle them into the pine bark. There should be fairly good drainage as well.

I saw somewhere, hmmm, think on Pinterest a few days ago, that some folks are using a couple of coffee filters (paper ones) to cover the holes in the bottoms of flower pots to keep dirt from washing out. Of course, the water can pass through no problem. Neat idea. It might even keep the blasted slugs out of the pots too.

Imagine my surprise last summer when I took a big pot which was set up on clay feet and pulled out the plant to discover at the bottom coiled up a small snake about 2 feet long, going in there to keep cool I'm sure. Or maybe eat slugs. I did not mess with him.

Bkay,it's too bad you don't live here. My local nursery has plenty of QOTS's. I know that doesn't help you much. Myrle-your One Mans Treasure looks just like my Cinnamon Sticks,which has mothered many different seedlings for me. Phil

Your post subject was about 'solid colors', but the body of the message seems to indicate you're specifically thinking 'green'.

OK, I too like the plain ones, to juxtaposition with all the variegated ones.

Here's the first one I thought of, an old classic, a great clumper, a good grower, and . . . bonus, fragrant flowers.

Hosta 'Royal Standard':

The use of the word 'standard' in some if not most plants is appropo, eh, as is, in this case, the word 'royal', huh?

FWIW,

hh

A newer greenie:

'The Razor's Edge':

hh

'Neat and Tidy' and 'Ringtail', I don't think have been mentioned.

Michelle

Here is a link that might be useful: Green-leaved Hostas List

Nobody has mentioned 'Red Stepper' so far. Very glossy strong green leaves with wavy edges and reddish petioles. Very nice medium size, fast grower. Here is picture of mine from last Sunday.

I forgot about Neat and Tidy. Dark green and very unruly.

Steve

No pictures handy but you could pickup a plantaginea or her offspring Aphrodite (double flowers), Venus (triple flowers). I have plantaginea and while she isn't that showy in leaf form the flowers and the fragrance are worth the wait.

She'll tolerate some sun too.

Here is a link that might be useful: HL Link

Nice interesting hostas shown in the photos.

'Tequila Sunrise' has an interesting form and color over the years. Photo was taken in sun so the true color is not showing. In the fall it gets a nice golden yellow.

Ops forgot photo!

my 2cents...'summer olympics'. upright, strong, solid color. just a really nice looking hosta.

good ol' 'Pearl Lake'

hh

Not interesting to collectors, probably, but F. Hyacinthia, Halycon & Blue Angel are beloved shades of solid colors to me. And all happily growing in pots for years, I just keep repotting in larger pots.

I guess I should have mentioned the solid colors I already have:
Elegans
Sum and Substance
blue angel (does terrible for me, it's being re-homed soon)
sieboldiana of some kind (which looks like Hyacinthia)
Invincible
Birchwood Parky's Gold
Plantaginea
Venus
Blue Cadet
Blue Mouse Ears

I usually say that I'm not too crazy about yellow, but love Parky's gold and Sum and Substnace. However, many of my variagated ones lean toward yellow. I have plenty of blue.

Coll, I looked up spinach patch and potomac and they are beautiful. That's what I was looking for.

HH, you're right. I think I'll pick up a Royal Standard. I can get that locally. I like the tight clump of Pearl Lake.

It's disappointing that Ventricosa is sprawling. It looks like a beautiful color. Is there anything that has that nice shiny, dark green, smooth look that has a tight clump?

Terpiscope, that looks interesting.

Now, for the Monrovia poster - the only problem is that it's cuppped:

bkay

{{gwi:1042274}}

Yeah, I want Spinach Patch bad- if I ever decide the daylilies have suffered enough in the shade, I will yank them and that one will definitely be going in there.

I think the DH must have named this one. We once had a German Shepherd named "Spot".

bkay

{{gwi:1042275}}

OK, I looked at the Monrovia website. It's either Big Daddy or Blue Ice. Take a look. See what you think.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Monrovia Hostas

It has to be Big Daddy. There's something about an Aden hosta that grabs me - everytime. I don't know what it is, but I'll look at multiple hosta and find one that really looks great to me and it's an Aden.

Yes, it's blue. I'll order it this fall. I'll order it along with some nice green you guys have suggested. (I really wish I could get something locally.)

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

bkay

I just got Midnight Oil this year from Bev Stegeman, and it's a beauty! I don't have a pic of mine, but am linking the pictures on the HL.

One of my favorites is the good old fashioned lancifolia because of the awesome flower display. It makes a perfect mound of foliage and takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', whether it's drought, late freezes or whatever Mother Nature dishes out.

Deanna

Here is a link that might be useful: Midnight Oil

Wow, you're right. Midnight Oil is a knock out.

It's my intention to stay at about 40 hosta. When I visited the Arboretum this spring, I was blown away by how big everything was. My hosta are still young and small. I've acquired most of mine since 2009. When they mature, I'm going to have some good sized pots of hosta and not enough space.

I took the first baby steps. I gave away 2 this week. I chunked the nematode infested one. I gave away one of my Wide Brims a couple of weeks ago. So, now I have room for the Queen of the Seas I found at the local nursery, the unknown I picked up marked as Forbidden Fruit and that Royal Standard I can pick up at Northhaven.

Then, this fall I can pick up some of these great suggested hosta.

Thanks,

bkay

Some greens on my list and also mentioned above. Pictures from National Convention 2012:

Bridegroom:

Elvis Lives:

Moonlit Sonata:

Celtic Dancer:

And the one I actually bought at the convention, Mojito:

Royal Standard is one of my favorite, you will love it.

Beverly

What fun! Now I have a new wish list, lol!

I got Lakeside Old Smokey last month, spotted that color from way across the shade house at Hilltop Farms. Had to have it!

That Monrovia must be Big Daddy, Blue Ice is small and has a lot more frost on the leaves. Both of these were Monrovia plants, BD was just one eye and 6" tall when I planted it last spring, with lots of growing room! Blue Ice is in its third year.

Wish I had a name or two to contribute, but you've all already covered most of my suggestions, haha! Tho Powder Blue and True Blue are both good blues for me, for solid green I like T Rex and Fuji-Botan, for gold my fav is still Sun Power but Piedmont Gold and Daybreak are right in there too.

Sandy

Moonlit Sonata is making me swoon!!

Deanna

Yep, that's a definite on my list.

bkay

OOps, typo... I meant Midnight Oil is a definite.

bkay

Look at H.'Cutting Edge' on the HL, mine is still small. I also have a beautiful clump of H.'Elvis Lives', as above.

bkay: No one seems to talk much about this hosta, but I really like my Sea Lotus Leaf.

You can barely see the flowers on the short scapes. This is the first year they didn't barely clear the leaves. The largest leaves are measuring 11.5"x11.5". Could have to do with this years odd weather.

Les

Cutting Edge looks like a UKhostaman hosta. He's bound to have that one.

Sea Lotus Leaf is interesting for sure. How old is it?

Some of these nice solid colors are hard to find. I decided to make a spreadsheet for where to get some of them this fall.

bkay

Some beautiful pictures on this posting site. Someone was interested in dark green hosta and should be looking at this one for ideas.. I see many I really just love and need too!

Well, so far I've picked up Queen of the Seas and Royal Standard. I got a beautiful Royal Standard. It's in a two gallon nursery pot and it's full. The QOTS is kind of ugly and burned, but it's has 5 eyes and will look good next year. There will be more solids to come in the fall. I will have to wait until Oct. 1 to get anything shipped because of the heat.

Thanks for all your help.

bkay