They turn green as the season progresses.

White hosta emerge white, but turn green as the season progresses. So, don't plan your garden on having a white hosta stay white all season. Look at Outhouse Delight. It might be your best bet, as it was bred by Tony Avent of Plants Delight Nursery in Raleigh. It's my observation that people like the nursery much more in person than by mail order. He has a website.

I've never tried a white one, so can't speak from personal experience. I think Ken has had every hosta under the sun. Ask him. Be aware he's in Michigan, so your mileage may vary.

bkay

oh, i knew i have never seen an all white i just thought nobody around me had one. That makes sense.

Pure white plants are unable to photosynthesize - they have to have chlorophyl (green tissue) to do that or they will die. The more white that remains with the plant, the weaker it will be, the less sun it will tolerate and the slower it will grow.

While they may be an appealing oddity as part of a hosta collection, I wouldn't bank on a mostly white hosta being a vigorous grower or even a long time survivor and so would not be inclined to invest much $$ in acquiring one.

Without starting a new topic.. how much difference is there between Autumn Moon and Golden Standard? They both look similar in color. I see some pictures of Golden Standard with a dark green ring and some just yellow. Is it more green than Autumn Moon or similar yellow green color?

'August Moon' would appear to be a solid-colored hosta, 'Gold Standard' is variegated. How similar can that be? And yes, it would have warranted a new topic....:-)

Pieter

haha thanks, I just meant the main color. I haven't seen a single photo with both hostas in it to tell. Sometimes you see a pictures and it appears lighter or darker than in person so if i saw one picture of them together i would be able to tell how much lighter or darker it is.

fine bkay.. throw me under the bus ...

in growing seedlings.. infrequently you get all white ... they die as soon as they ue up the stored energy in the seed ..... as gal notes.. they are called terminal whites ... simply no green to to process sunshine into plant food ... fert is not a remedy ...

the foo foo market hype whites ... are a VERY TEMPORARY spring phenom ... here in MI ... it seems heat related as to how fast it greens up ... if we have a long cool spring.. it might last a week or two ... but as soon as it starts warming up ... bam ... a very ugly otherwise non-descript green plant ... and they never seem to 'thrive' ...

you MUST own gold standard ... period ... its one of the color change hosta ... the center going from yellowish .. to white.. to a parchment color ... as the season progresses .. to die for ... right bruce .. lol ... its one or pauline banyai's best..

im not at all familiar with AUTUMN moon ... i presume you mean the old standard AUGUST moon ... another old standard ... can be slow to mature ... but worth the space when well grown ...

http://myhostas.be/db/view/August+Moon

i have been surprised at how slow the forums been.. i dont care where you post .. as long as you post ... but the key is usually a searchable title .. so that the next person with a question about whatever.. might find it ...

ken

Autumn, August.. same thing right !? haha. I had just finished researching he Autumn Leaves Heuchera.. i got my A's wrong :)

I knew those white hostas were a bad temptation. I am sure they would be pretty neat if there was a such thing that lasted.

If you say a MUST own Gold Standard, then i suppose i have to ! I do like it a lot, but with so many out there in the market i thought id get opinions first. The ones I saw at the store had more of a single color and not verigated at all. Is that due to the time of year, like you said it does change colors, or is it because it is young, etc. ?

I had my eyes on Halcyon because it was not another gold next to each other, Do you think placing Gold Standard next to my August Moon will look good, or will they blend together and look very similar ?

bsmith, you need to know about the hosta comparison tool. On hostalibrary.org, there is a tool that you can use to pull up the photos of two hosta and compare them. It's down in the lower part of the home page - the link says "comparisons". With the tool you can pull up one hosta in the left and a different one on the right of the page and see the differences.

Of course, most all the hosta in the photos were grown by different people, in different climates, and different amounts of light. So, you can get a good idea of what the hosta really looks like.

bkay

bkay, that is a neat tool. thanks !

I have White feather. Think of it like tulips or daffodils - a spring show - and plant it accordingly, so that it will be background the rest of the year. It burns easily while white so put it in spring shade. I will be moving mine next year.

Check out White Christmas, mine stays quite white most of the season. It would probably get dwarfed next to August moon but maybe elevate it in a pot. It is a slug magnet for me so maybe by potting it you could also control the slugs better.

If you say a MUST own Gold Standard, then i suppose i have to ! I do like it a lot, but with so many out there in the market i thought id get opinions first. The ones I saw at the store had more of a single color and not verigated at all. Is that due to the time of year, like you said it does change colors, or is it because it is young, etc. ?

'Gold Standard' should be looking about as 'good' or 'bad' as your 'Patriot', they're part of the same family and GS should be almost parchment centered. If the ones you see are solid-colored they are mislabeled and NOT 'Gold Standard'. I'll take a couple of pictures of mine when I'm back home and post them.

Happy to hear you like my Hosta Comparison routine, bookmark it, you'll find it quite useful.

Pieter

I like the bright yellow from 'Stained Glass' in my garden. The plant keeps good color through the summer for me.

One with a good white center that I added this year was 'Vulcan' and so far so good but it hasn't gone through winter here yet.

Vulcan has been easy to overwinter here. It's also a very fast grower.

I just got Vulcan this year too! I took a leaf picture a few weeks ago.