Do you have a photo of the stem? I'd love to see a picture of that.

welcome ...

so many things to learn ...

there is no hosta named h. Varigated ... i think you need to know the heritage of your mother plant to come to conclusions as to what the child will or may do ....

next ... there is no hosta that i am aware of as h. Gourd ... perhaps you mean abiqua drinking gourd??? that is an all blue plant ... frances williams is a variegated plant ... IF you made the cross .. you should not be confused... if you relied on the bees .. as in open pollinated .. then you are guessing wildly as to the heritage of the seedling .... but for the mother you took it off ....

so much to learn .. and we are here to help ..

failure to put up leaves and flowers in proper order is due to some injury to the pip .. or growing point... during winter or spring, before elongation occurs... could be a frost.. a freeze .. a dogs foot ... your foot ... deer ... so many things ...

it is really weird that it has happened a couple times in a row ... but i am aware of no hosta that does this repeatedly ...

but hey .. they are hosta.. and they do weird things .... even grow on the driveway with no care ...

keep up the enthusiasm ... ken

Welcome. I see you just joined 2 days ago and are from Canada. We have a few Canadian members here. What part of Canada do you live in?

Thank you all for your responses. Permit me the pleasure to answer your questions.

Schenly: I wished I had taken at least one snap shot of the solitary stalk when it appeared. However I promise to provide the photos in spring as the growth proceeds.
Ken: Thank you profusely and I have no doubt your knowledge surpasses nearly every one. You are correct on the abiqua drinking gourd and FW. The h. Varigated (that's the name appearing on the label) was purchased at a nursery in the lower mainland beside Vancuover. It was the largest hosta I came across, standing close to 3 feet high. The leaf is medium green with a yellow margin. Now that nursery doesn't carry it anymore and I had never come across this name anywhere else.
True knowledge is power, period. I chose h. Variegated because it had so much vigor as the mother. One stalk I pollinate with a. d. Gourd, the other f. Williams. I believe I reverse the pollination as well. I wished I had been more meticulous when hybridizing and in labelling the seedlings, which were growing in a prepared bed. Then I moved them to another location, was careless and got some seedlings mixed up; thus my uncertainty of the parentage.
I had the same thought when the solitary stalk first appeared, that it might have been confused. But it did likewise the following year then I suspect it was no accident. Let's wait for the coming spring to confirm the findings.
Teresa: This forum is imbued with friendliness and I am beginning to love sharing knowledge. I come from Coquitlam, a suburb 29 km from Vancouver. Now I am more into Japanese maples creating them into bonsai (style is more Chinese than Japanese). I also dabble into rose hybridizing as I am intriqued by what comes out from a cross. Curiosity kills a cat. My spelling can be atrocious so I entreat your genorosity.
Many thanks again.

Your h. Variegated is probably Sagae. I saw at a nursery last year some Sagae Hostas with the old Fluctuans Variegated labels in them. That is what Sagae was called before the name changed, because 'variegated' cannot be used in a cultivar name.