Foliage looks a lot like it but you can be sure once it blooms. The flowers - a deep purple edged in white - are pretty unique.

Ruffed Up?

I saw the same pic in a different catalog labeled as Purple Sensation.

looks like a wholesale dutch bulb company plant ... ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hosta+Purple+Sensation&t=ffcm&ia=web

Donna, 'Ruffed Up' has pale lavender flowers....Closest I've been able to come up with is 'Stirfry', which I have and I'll check my files when I get back home to see what colour the flowers are...

Pieter

looks like they grow gobs of ventricosa seed and call it purple sensation

ventricosa is pretty ruffled in spring then, settles out some.

Found it on the bakker website and on some others selling plants in Europe in general, not specialised on hostas, same picture as shown above on all...It's a nice looking plant, makes me wonder why there are no other pictures...

Another hint that makes me think this is 'Stirfry', one of the website you get to via Ken's link is K. van Bourgondien and if you look at the navigation link it shows as stir-fry... and here's a cropped picture of one of my 'Stirfry' flowers...

Well, now you’ve done it. I’ve already placed my orders. But now I want Stirfry.

i wish chris would chime in .... in the mean time .....

im not all that impressed with those flowers being so unique .... but i dont have any comparisons off hand ...

my best guess ... this is just a seedling chosen first for wavy leaves.. and then cool flowers ... and then simply mass produced by dutch growers.. and then marketed ... all the power to them ...

but i dont know why you all think there is some other mystery other name that applies to it ...

i guess i am thinking back to the big marketing hype about the sun hosta.. a few years back ...

ken

'Stirfry' doesn't appear to have the distinct white edging to the flowers that 'Purple Sensation' does...........

Since new hosta varieties are popped out on almost a daily basis, I wonder why it is so difficult to accept that this may be a newer selection with Dutch origins rather than a mislabeled existing variety? Is everyone so on top of all hosta developments that they know of ALL new introductions?

No, I'm NOT on top of all new Hosta introductions and the fact an unknown variety I cannot find on either the HL or Hugo's database is being offered cheaply by a wide variety of marketers made me suspect we're dealing with a re-labeled cultivar rather than a new one. Truly new and unique varieties have a habit of showing up at somewhat higher prices than this one's being offered at.

Having said all that, I think I'll get one and we'll see over the summer how the flowers compare. Stay tuned!

Pieter

The hosta behind the trillium in this shot is Stirfry - very upright.

I think yours might be Holly's Dazzler.

'Stirfry' and 'Holly's Dazzler' have the same parentage: 'Holly's Honey' selfed so the family resemblance is no coincidence, however the flower colour appears to differ when you look at the pix on the HL.

This is a screen capture of the web page referenced above.

If you look at the address bar in the browser you can see it points to https://www.dutchbulbs.com/product/hosta-stirfry and a crop of the capture below:

All of the on-line pictures I've seen thus far appear to be the same shots with the colour saturation on the flower shots varying -as if someone's trying to draw attention to it in some of them- but when you look at the flower itself it should be obvious you cannot have 2 or more different flowers when the petals, tepals, stamen and pistil are all at the exact same alignment.

Pieter

This is pretty maddening. Being sold by some capable sellers, but not hosta specialists. The (British) Thompson & Morgan site even claims that this hosta has "a delightful fragrance." A blatant lie from a company I generally respect. (Bakker says the same.) Breck's—certainly not a quality seller—flips and color-enhances the flower picture and shows what may or may not be the full clump (with scapes) in an inset pic. The fact that De Vroomen is selling 25 starts for $60.50 (wholesale) means this isn't some new hosta where someone is getting royalties. Someone just took one of the Holly's Honey offspring and sent it to TC.

We can't really stop this sort of thing from happening. In the end the only difference it makes is that you can't enter this in a "named" section of a Hosta Show.

I'll see if I can flag this thread for Hugo to consider.

Hugo's opinion is that it's Stirfry, but I have to wonder, when Stirfry is a perfectly marketable name, they would slap something else on it. The flowers are unlike H. ventricosa (assuming the picture is at all correct), but it could be one of the other Holly's Honey group out of ventricosa. Which makes me think maybe they got their hands on 'Holly's Velvet Piecrust', which is not a terribly marketable name. Unfortunately there's not a single close-up picture of an HVP flower on the internet. But since Vik Serafin has provided a picture of the flower for the Hosta Library, maybe she can weigh in.

Yes, it is Hosta 'Stirfry' being introduced with a new name. I came across it a couple months ago and got confirmation through a couple wholesale catalogs where it was listed it as also being known as Hosta 'Stirfry'.

So this a marketing ploy and we should properly call it Stirfry and ignore the Purple Sensation designation?

'Stirfry' is indeed a registered variety, see here.

Pieter

There would appear to be a naming issue here, in as much as some are marketing this as Purple Sensation Hosta and others as Hosta Purple Sensation, which to some might appear to be the same thing but at least one of the on-line vendors, Breck's, markets this as Purple Sensation Hosta with the 'botanical name' being Hosta 'Stirfry' -which is the way it should have been done by all those selling this product- with the following details:

Description Rare, Intense Purple Blooms!

This vibrant
green hosta makes a pretty statement in shady borders and pots, but it's
the summer blooms that really shake things up. Unlike traditional hosta
varieties that produce pale lavender or soft white flowers, Purple
Sensation features rich purple flowers edged and striped in snowy white.
The perfect follow-up to your spring-blooming bulbs, hostas make great
ground covers and attract beneficial pollinators to their bell-shaped
blooms.

Details

Botanical Name Hosta 'Stirfry'

Form Perennial

Hardiness Zone 3 to 9

Flowering Time Mid to late summer

Light Requirements Full Shade, Partial Shade

Flower Color Purple with white stripes and petal edges

Flower Form Bell shaped flowers

Foliage Type Oval with a rounded base, rippled edge and a distinct, twisted leaf tip

Growth Rate Fast;Medium

It would appear as if Purple Sensation is being used by the source of the plugs as a Trade Designation rather than a varietal name.

The ICNCP prohibits the registration of more than one cultivar name for the same plant as stated below:

"The
naming of taxa governed by this Code is based upon priority of
publication. Each cultivar or Group with a particular circumscription
and each grex with a particular parentage may bear only one accepted name: the earliest that is in accordance with the Rules, except as is provided for within this Code."

ICNCP, Eighth Edition, Principle 3 (page 3), http://www.upov.int/edocs/mdocs/upov/en/caj_66/caj_66_www_219065.pdf

With this said, assigning trade names is allowed by the Code and is common practice, even though some may view the practice as unethical. Trade names must follow these rules:

Article 13 Trade Designations

13.1 A trade designation is not a name regulated under this Code but is a device that has been used for marketing a cultivar, Group, or grex in place of its accepted name.

Article 17 Trade Designation Status

17.1 Trade designations may not be placed within demarcating quotation marks.

17.2 If cited, trade designations must always be accompanied by their accepted names.

17.3
If cited, trade designations must always be distinguished
typographically from cultivar, Group, and grex epithets. [e.g., all
upper case letters or different typeface]

Thanks to Don Rawson for pointing me in this direction and the ICNCP information.

All in all pretty confusing and deceptive, I knew I smelled something fishy...

Pieter

i wish chris would chime in .... in the mean time .....

==>>> apparently he can be summoned at will ... lol .. ken

Very sloppy marketing from shady producers (no pun intended). Is anyone listing it as PURPLE SENSATION (with our without ®, and if with, then who is it registered to)?