Out of the pot. Knock off some soil.

A hose was used to wash off the soil from the roots

Now divided into individual plants. Sometimes you need a knife but this separated easily by hand. Time to find the good eyes and discard the culls!

These are good.

Maybe discard this one ( or give a neighbor)

brilliant tutorial ....

only thing i would have done different.. was tape it up ...

and what did you mean.. you were throwing all the earth angels away??? ... i understand they arent streaked.. but they are still EA.. arent they???

ken

More likely will give them away. ‘Earth Angel’ is actually one of my favorite cultivars but my small yard space is limited!!

Great tutorial, I didn't know I needed to separate the streakers more often than the other hostas.

Beth yes for the most part the streaking is unstable and they want to revert to edged or center variegated or solid colored. The greener sections especially are stronger because they have more food and more often overpower the streaked eyes. Besides being desirable for breeding this is another reason streakers are more expensive in general.

Thanks for tutorial!

Would you say that some streakers are more stable than others?

Sigh.I hear that a lot. Yes it is true but really you have to understand the streaking. A plant with lots of fine streaking through out the leaves will be more stable then one with a few streaks. Varieties such as ‘Korean Snow’ are there for more stable because they have more fine streaking throughout the leaves. You could however have two plants of the same cultivar And one will have a good streaking through out the leaves but the other just a little bit of streaking on one side. The more streaked one is the better plant. if a plant is only streaked on one side the side with the streaking will produce more streaked eyes the normal side just normal eyes, in general. Slower growing cultivars are considered more stable just because it takes them longer to produce reverted eyes.

of course.. for the newbs .... the reason we want the streaker... is that if it sets seed pods.. a percentage of those seeds .. will give streaked kids ... for those of us who grow steeds ....

and from new streaked crosses ... or open pollinated ... we can new hosta cultivars ....

its the basis of hybridization .... ken

You have to have a streaker hosta for new cultivars.... or just to get variegated or more interesting cultivars?

In other words - can’t I have seedlings from a couple of solid hostas, or solid/variegated crosses?

To get a good percentage of variegated seedlings you need a well streaked POD parent. Yes you can get lots of green and maybe some blue or yellow seedlings from nonstreaked Hostas

This was a great tutorial! Thank you for doing this!

newbie question here:

for me, since my garden is so young I want big hostas. Would you devide a big Hosta, get the streaker, than put all the other shoots back into the pot/ground? Would the plant look “natural” growing the following year?

I actually bought a streaker formed on only one eye. The nursery told us to devide it off next Spring.

You can do whatever you want with the rest of the plant. It will look like nothing happened when it grows out next year. I would cut that streaked eye out ASAP ! If you do it soon they will look ugly this year but establish new roots and be ready to pop in the Spring.

In other words - can’t I have seedlings from a couple of solid hostas, or solid/variegated crosses?

==>> well of course you can.. and you can have a lot of fun in winter playing with them ... in the house.. under lights ....

but you will usually end up.. with just a lot of one color plants.. without edges ... but God help us.. we dont need another green hosta ... IN THE TRADE ... there are already a couple ten thousand or so ...

so when we say 'something new' .. i suppose we are talking about something that turns the whole industry on its head ... the new 10 foot plant.. that everyone just has to have ...

the eggheads ... would probably say ... we are introducing new genetics into the cultivar pool .... and i say.. all the power to them ... lol...

ken

So is there any way to encourage a mildly streaked plant to become more streaked? Possibly more sun (or less), shocking the plant by cutting roots or throwing it on the driveway? If I have a Galaxy plant where every eye is still streaked, but predominantly less streaked than normal is it destined to become solid colored or could next year bring back better streaking?

I have some seedlings from streaked mothers that started out solid green, but look like they may be developing some streaking - or is that just wishful thinking? Like the bottom row second from the left.

Also, is a single streak in one leaf meaningless in seedlings?And is the bottom right plant a lost cause?

you could try rossing it.. to get multiple buds to open next year.. hoping that one of them might be better streaked.. otherwise ... odds are.. it will be gone next year.. with the caveat that anything is possible ...

this would probably be a death sentence to a first year seedling ....

now i wonder where i will find a link about rossing.. lol ...

ken

http://www.hostalibrary.org/spec/indexspec.html

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/gardening/hosta-propagation-ross-method.shtml

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ross+method+for+propagating+hosta&t=ffsb&ia=web

Steve nice group of seedlings! Of course I like those two on the upper right best! : )

The better streaked a leaf is, the better chance you have of getting a better streaked eye. Along that line if half your plant is solid green, half shows streaking, new streaked eyes will come out of the streaked half, the solid green half will produce only solid green eyes. Now if there is slight streaking in an area you have a CHANCE of getting streaked new eyes, though most likely they will be plain. A single line of variegation is most likely not going to get you anything. Clear as mud?

Yes, that all makes sense. The eyes in Galaxy are evenly but mildly streaked. So, if I can follow a streak to the crown I can Rossisize it there and hope for the best.

A single streak in a mature plant is pretty common. I was just wondering if in a seedling it might mean more.

One more question. I received a nice 4 eye division of Sea Prize this year. One of the eyes is solid. Is it better to keep the solid eye this year to help the plant get established and remove it in the fall or just get rid of it now?

Personally I would get rid of the green eye ASAP, even just by cutting it off at the base so the existing roots etc. go to the 3 streaked eyes.

Steve - I can see less prominent streaking on other leaves of the plant that you said had streaking on only one leaf - so you will like have at least one streaked eye.