Do hostas reseed themselves?

16 years ago

I am no hosta champion, but I have two that were poor victims of a hailstorm at Walmart several years ago, and selling cheap, so I bought them. One was larger and yellow with green edges, and one was smaller, with narrower leaves, and green with white edges. Could they have cross pollinated and made a new plant? Now, after six years or so, there is a large green plant with wide leaves with white edges growing next to the yellow one. I would think I would have noticed it after all this time if it was in with the yellow one originally. I've divided them and moved them around a couple of times since I got them, so it's not like I've ignored them. What do you think? Thanks.

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Comments (8)

lindac
16 years ago
Could be, but not likely....more likely is that one plant reverted to all green.
Linda C
keanaz5a
16 years ago
Sounds like the smaller one with the narrow leaves finally matured into what it was supposed to be. Possibly when you first got it, it was just a baby. Some varieties can look completely different when mature as opposed to what they look like at a young age.
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evermore_gw z 4/5 NB
16 years ago
Sorta like men's hairlines. Some reseed and others recede!

Steve
aseedisapromise
Original Author
16 years ago
Actually, the narrow leaved one is still the same, with narrow leaves and different flowers than the yellow one with green edges. So- what is this "reversion"? They can change color?

Maybe I'll try to post pictures. Here goes! The first one is the narrow leaved one. The second pic has the yellow one, with a few of the green leaves showing on the left.
schoolb1
16 years ago
Your top pic is an Albo-Marginata. I have been into hostas for several years now and I have never known any to reseed themselves.Judy
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
16 years ago
re-seed implies you get basically the same thing back.. like moss rose . portulaca .. or batchelor buttons.. straw flower ... etc ...

hosta drop seed.. but they will not.. be the parent ... except in a few extraordinary situations. ..

ken
idiothe
16 years ago
August Moon is a very common, very good yellow plant. It sports a lot. The basic sports are a yellow center with green edge, or a green center with yellow edge. If I had to guess, I'd guess you have one of the yellow centered sports of AM... I'm not going to go look them up right now... and that part of it sported to a green-centered one. Happens a lot. Look up the sports of August Moon and then watch to see how it compares in flowers and flowering season to nail it down...
aseedisapromise
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you all. This is helpful. There's always something to learn. I looked up some of the sports of August Moon, and although there aren't any in the list I found and used that look exactly like what I remember of the greener one on the left, now I have something to look forward to and think about and compare when they bloom. It's good to know that some hostas do this mutation thing. I haven't really given much thought to my two (three) hostas, they were an impulse buy that some years look gorgeous-as long as we don't get hail!