doesn't tokudama flavocircinalis look a lot like obl and fw?

It sorta resembles a young FW,but it is so sloooow growing! Phil

Sagae and Regal Splendor
Jimmy Crack Corn and Choo Choo Train
Paradigm and Brother Stephan
Hole Mole and Avocado

Lakeside Black Satin..........Ventricosa

I have both sagae and regal splendor... sagae is more mounding and green gray and regal splendor is more vase shape and blue gray... I'm I right?

I find Sagae and Regal Splendor very different. Regal Splendor always passes the 10' rule for me.

I knew that comparison would set off some discussion. In addition to the differences already noted, Regal Splendor is more of a cream-edged hosta for most of the season, whereas Sagae is more of a yellow-margined hosta though it's margin does change toward cream.

Both Grenfell and Zilis list "similar types" in their books. I've always found it interesting/irritating. Similar sort of implies the option of replacing one with the other, yet I've often had serious quibbles with their lists, finding one mentioned hosta quite inferior to another they list.

I think Sagae and Regal Splendor might make it in the "similar" distinction - both vase-shaped upright hostas with green centers and light margins. But they don't qualify as look-alikes...

Tokudama Flavocircinalis may have similar coloration to FW, and leaf shape and corrugation is similar - but TF leaves and mound size will, I think, always be smaller than the sieboldianas.

Regarding the topic - some of the look-alikes are very similar plants, while others are actually the same plant... identical sports named and registered in two different places. Marketing has removed all of the compunctions from the old days about growing a plant to maturity and splitting it and observing it before registering it and releasing it into the market. Now it is common for two different tc labs to get the same sport from a plant and to name a very young plant and provide registration information that is based on speculation based on the source plant. Holy Mole and Avocado, for example, are often described as being the same plant.

On the other hand, I've grown three white-centered sports of Patriot... Loyalist, Fire and Ice, and Flash of Light. As many have observed, Loyalist seemed much more vigorous than Fire and Ice, and Flash of Light has stayed small but has grown well in comparison with F&I. After running down F&I for years and being told I had it in a poor location, I moved it last summer and the experiment was successful - it died, so no I don't have to worry about it any more!

So those may qualify as look-alikes that have the same parent but may all be slightly different sports.

I look forward to the day when we'll have a hand-held DNA reader so we can reliably and inexpensively compare plants to settle the whole sport-and-reversion issue...

In my yard:

Paradigm = Dick Ward = Inniswood = September Sun = Midwest Magic = Darwin's Standard

I am hard pressed to find a difference between any of those six.
Unfortunately, most are huge and take up a lot of room in my gardens. (Please, if you have my name in the secret swap, don't send my anything that looks like these :) ).

Also, Wolverine = Yellow Splash Rim

Joan

Doesn;t Don R have a look-a-like list? Or was that Papou from years ago. I know someone here documented an extensive list.....

Alexa

The list is to long....Go to the Hostapedia and it will tell you which ones look similar.

I have a two 15-20 year old Francis Williams (FW) and just got two single eye divisions of Olive Bailey Langdon (OBL). OBL is much larger -even those divisions- and does NOT look the same as FW.

Paradigm looks like Paul's Glory and Gold Standard at this time, and all 3 are very different from Brother Stefan.

Bernd