Love the name for your new acquisition. What you have is a sport of tok. flavocircinalis. There is an all gold sport already named "Golden Bullion", but short of a DNA test, it would be tough to prove.

Aside from that, however, your post rang a bell in my head. The "HAPPY HIPPO" name was discussed in a thread from a few years agol See link below. The whole fiasco of the trademarked renaming of Tokudama Flavocircinalis, is a marketing ploy to sell the same hosta under a different name. The proper, registered name of the plant is Tokudama Flavocircinalis.

-Babka

Here is a link that might be useful: The ref. is toward the bottom of the thread

Aww poo. And here I thought I had something totally new and unique. So does that mean my hosta is a Golden Bullion or since it arose independently is it a new variety?

I'm not totally clear on how naming of varieties works.

And thanks for the info about the trademark name. I thought something like that might be the case since it said Hosta x "Tokudama Flavocircinalis" under the Happy Hippo name.

Kind of a sucky thing to do renaming it like that, though with a name like Tokudama Flavocircinalis I see why they'd want to do so in the american market.

I'd keep the name Harry Hippo (with an asterisk) and watch it over the next 3-5 years. Toks are s-l-o-w. When you get some maturity, you can compare the overall form of the whole plant, leaves (size and veins) and the flowers (time of bloom, color form, etc) to the description given for Golden Bullion and see what you have. Patience. You might indeed have something different, so keep that cute name until you can confirm that it is something else.

-Babka