And here are the G4B x op x op seedlings.:

A lot of these will be culled out, all the green ones. At the end of April the final seedlings in their pots will get outside into a protected spot, and in September I will have 1 ft plants, so I do hosta gardening all year.

Looks great Bernd, I am going to sow my first seeds of the season tomorrow, or maybe tonight!

Bernd, I get so much pleasure out of watching your seedlings start their new life! Thanks so much for sharing! I really look forward to subsequent updates. This is almost as good as starting my own....not going to happen this winter though....maybe next year! ;-)

Very nice, will look forward to seeing their progress and to which you keep and those you cull.

I'm planning to sow in January in case we have a late spring here. I don't want to keep them inside so long they outgrow my lights set up.

Dave

Dave, Josephine, I am also in zone 5, and many years we had 3-4 months of snow cover outside. It is good for the mind to watch hostas grow in the warm (65 F) basement when it is -20 dgrs.F possibly outside, a coffee or a beer and reading The Hosta Journal always helps then too.

Bernd- What FUN! No basement or space available to grow seed here, but I still get that thrill of seeing little green shoots from your pics. Thanks!

Here I sowed a cover crop of Mighty Mustard seed outside in my 10'x3' tomato growing area to combat tomato root knot nematodes. They sprouted in 3 days and each morning I go out there to see how they are doing, and taste a few tender leaves.

-Babka

Bernd, your photos are tempting me to try this. Maybe next year I'll try my hand at cross-pollenating.

The wild seedlings I get I either leave them where they are or I transplant them to my empty corner lot along the road. I haven't had any that are special at all, but eventually it will make a halfway decent edging along the road and they are not anything to worry about if they disappear. I have planted things there that either people think are ok to dig up because they think they are wild or they just plain steal them.

Jon

Yes, Babka, it is great when you can go out and snack in the garden. I do this in summer with current, gooseberry and later blue grapes. Otherwise neighbor's trees are shading our vegetable garden such that we no longer get good tomatoes. But there is now a new chance for hostas.

Jon, I grow mainly seeds from streaked hostas which have a substantial number of streaked seedlings which later when maturing can have variegated divisions. Seedlings from variegated mother plants mainly become plain green. I did not do any hybridizing this year, ran out of time. My present seeds are bought or from own streaked seedlings. I do it for FUN. Next year I might do some crossing again. I have a very simple setup now, only four 10x20 trays on 2 shelves, will get perhaps 40 plants in August and give 25 away to our local hosta society sale. Anybody can do that!

Thanks Bernd, If I am going to grow seedlings inside I will have to educate myself on pollination techniques, fertile species and possible results. I read where Olga Petryszyn takes five to ten years and culls 10,000 or so hosta seedlings to get a hosta that she considers marketable. link; Olga Petryszyn I have no intention of getting that deep into it, I just want to have fun and come up with some interesting plants. Probably a lot like you your set-up.

Jon

Jon, Don Rawson did publish a collection of his and other's notes about hybridizing and growing hostas from seeds, the Hosta Hybridizer's Manual. He sells it at cost, at auctions on the Hosta Library. In case you are interested, you probably could send him an Email. I hybridized 3 years ago, like putting pollen of a large Blue on a streaker.