It all depends on what the seeds were pollinated by. Generally seedlings will be plain and green. I have a lot of naturally propagated seedlings and while they are mostly plain green they do have different hues and textures and I think they are great to have around. If you had nothing but Hacksaw and there are no other hosta within pollinating range, you would get wavy. The chances of this are slim. If you want to do this you will have to learn how to do the pollinating yourself and cut out the bees and insects. Hacksaw is a great hybridizer and an aggressive grower so you should have good success.

You will have fun and you will have to cull a lot of seedlings, but good luck and hello and welcome.

Jon

Most open pollinated seeds would have been pollinated using own pollen by insects. Waviness many times does not show up in a seedling but lateron.
A very good resource for growing seeds / seedlings is the Hosta Seed Growers Forum. You can ask your questions there and get expert advice.
Bernd

Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta Seed Growers Forum

first ... good luck.. its fun ...

second... a lot of the lance shaped plants.. throw lance shaped seedlings ...

as to this comment: I am in big trouble if they all sprout!

third ... then cull out ALL the ones that dont look like you want ... and this is the hardest thing for seed growers to understand ... you start with a goal ... and get rid of anything not addressing that goal .... if you have more than 10 plants by feb.. you failed.. lol ... i would start culling by the second set of leaves ... and one easy way to do it.. is to dig out the keepers ... and then lob the rest out the door when you hit a certain number ... they are .. what they are.. almost immediately ... a round will never become a lance ... etc ....

you must have a goal ... e.g. that it looks like H ... if they dont.. gently pull them out and get rid of them ...

they will not. .and never will be H ... i hope you understand that ...

with the vagaries of genetics.. you might end up with look alike yellows.. greens.. maybe a blue ....

as to edge.. who knows ... it will be there.. microscopically ... even on tiny babes.. if you look close enough ...

if you have success... and want to do it again next year ... you would INSURE self pollination.. by being the bee ... and making sure you put H pollen on the plant ...

i am not sure about Bs claim that most OP plants are MOSTLY self pollinated ...but i am not going to research it.. to argue with him ... his link is to the seed growers.. not necessarily the claim made ... and it looks like you have to sign up if you want to play ... i know a bunch of those peeps.. i am sure.. its a great place to learn ...

ken

Here's a picture of a 3 year-old Hacksaw seedling, I call this one "Yellowknife". As you can see the leaves are lanceolate, as were the leaves of most of the other seedlings I kept. I had both green and yellow leaved ones, no blue ones. I kept mostly the lighter coloured and yellow ones. Notice the very long bract on the scapes. Unfortunately the day after this picture was taken a rodent -likely a rat- came along and chewed off most of them below the bracts. I had hopes for seeds out of it this year, guess I'll have to wait until next year now.

This is another Hacksaw seedling, I call this one "Mawashibiki" and it has VERY long flower stem. The first picture shows the plant better, the second shot shows how long the scape is.

The scape was so long it could not support itself. The leaves on this seedling have very good substance.

Both seedlings are from open pollinated seeds.
Pieter

This post was edited by pietertje on Fri, Nov 21, 14 at 23:09

Not trying to hijack this superb thread but what is the answer to the question "what do we grow" if you want to join the Hosta seed growers forum?
Looks like it accepts nothing...

Ontopic:

Love the Hacksaw, going on my long long wanted list!

Dutchgreener

I thought I had enough lanceolate hosta, but Hacksaw is a nice hosta. And it sets fertile seeds. Another plus. Love your Yellowknife seedling, Pietertje. And the other one too.

When I have tall unbalanced scapes I generally insert a skinny stake of bamboo and loosely clip the scape to it. I use the hair clips (look like claws), which orchid growers also use to hold those flower scapes. They come in all sizes for fat or skinny scapes.

Hope you enjoy growing your seedlings, Grantgarden2, and come back often. Be aware, hosta growing is an addictive thing. ONE will never be enough once you are susceptible to their beauty and variety.

Ken, somewhere in this or the hosta seed growers forum, or in the Hosta Journal, or in don_r's Hybridizer's Manual one experienced hosta hybridizer wrote that most open pollinated seeds were created with hosta mama's pollen.
Self-pollinated seedlings are usually not an exact copy of a hybrid mother plant because the mother itself has various genes creating varying offspring. I am certainly not an expert, hope I am somewhat correct.
Bernd

Berny ...... i am sure you are .... recalling what you read ...

i just question it???

but it no way.. am i thinking you are making it up ...

i am just trying to address it from a total newbs point of view.. and understanding level ... and frankly ... ANYTHING is possible with OP ...

either the bee went flower to flower on this one plant [as your source offers] ...

or it just flew in from the other 1500 flowering hosta in my yard [like they are all blooming at once.. lol] ... and the sky is the limit as to what is hanging on his furry rump and legs ...

put that way ... i suppose if you have a limited collection... there are only so many places the pollen could come from ...

anyway .... not questioning your veracity in any manner.... and i hope you understood that from the get go ...

ken

Thank you everyone! I am still waiting for the first seed to sprout! Pieter, all I can say wow! Im really liking the yellow one! Hopefully I can get something like that from my batch of seeds! Bernd, it seems like the link is broken? I cannot get it open. Ken, I have a feeling I will not be able to cull any of them, but it would be a great excuse for me to make a another shade bed! Thanks everyone for the info, I will try my best to remember to update all of you on the seedlings.
Grantgarden

Grant, I just clicked on my link and it works. On center left you then have to click on Hosta Seed Growers, see the link below.
I am a member there. Others here tried to become members, see the other thread.
Bernd

Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta Seed Growers Forum

*update* I have counted 19 seedlings sprouting today!! They are to small to tell if there's anything different! But there's one that looks promising, but again they may still be to small to tell!
Grant

might be the close up.. macro pic... but the media looks extremely wet ...

there is nothing worse.. than fungus gnats ...

they are hosta.. you can just about throw them on the driveway ... let the media NEAR dry.. in between watering ...

since they dont have a lot of deep roots.. mist the surface.. if it dries out too much ...

ken

*update* Pictures of the ones that I find most interesting. Im not sure if the yellow seedling are albino and not live or will they will most likely grow up to adulthood.
{{gwi:2130283}}
Yellow and light green
{{gwi:2130284}}
A possibly ruffled yellow. Is this one an albino? One of my favorites of them all.
{{gwi:2130285}} Pair of yellow and greenish blue. Most likely to cull the blue green.
{{gwi:2130286}} Looks like this one may be variegated!
{{gwi:2130287}} One of the darker green ones, may cull this one.

Yellows are NOT albinos, they'll do just fine. You may be confused with so-called lethal whites, which have no chlorophyll at all and therefor cannot photosynthesise light. The yellows may well turn green later on in the season, don't be disappointed and make sure you label the pots with as much detail about the seedling as you deem necessary.

Good luck with them.

Pieter

the only seedling I kept from my year of working with it was one Hacksaw x Neptune{{gwi:807}}. The rest were all thin leaved and looked like hacksaw. I like your yellows grantgarden2. Theoretically crosses with a green hosta should not create any lethal whites so if your pale yellows have enough vigor, they have potential.

Dan

This post was edited by dansgrdn on Thu, Dec 11, 14 at 11:03