Please share photos with us later in the season, they look promising!

Sherry

Count on it, Sherry!

Pieter

I received a veritable plethora of seedlings from sunnywood last year. I am pleased to say that I see one of them has broken ground. It's a seedling of Jade Cascade. I am optimistic that others will make their appearance soon, but JC was in a rush! Also, it was nearly 80 degrees here today and tomorrow they are predicting several inches of snow and very cold temps for the next 3-4 days. This time of year is a real rollercoaster!

I found a second of Sunnywood's seedlings. A seedling of Sagae. Yay! Yes, I went for the rhyme.

It seems like the sea octopus is intent on growing its arms quickly living up to its name with 5 new pips. :)

Question: how much care does a young one a seedling or a plant liner need? In a growing pot as Pieter or in the ground as popmama? What is the method to make sure they grow and return next spring, grow lights if in a pot or left outdoors?

And this may be a silly question but what is the "age limit" how many years for the hosta to no longer be a seedling?

Context: my very first hostas (online order) I received very tiny hostas - I have since learned the size that was sent were tissue culture plant liners- one baby pip.

I planted the tiny things in the ground and many never returned the following Spring.

Good luck to you both with the seedlings- I hope they develop interesting features!

Angie:

Question: how much care does a young one a seedling or a plant liner need? In a growing pot as Pieter or in the ground as popmama? What is the method to make sure they grow and return next spring, grow lights if in a pot or left outdoors?

And this may be a silly question but what is the "age limit" how many years for the hosta to no longer be a seedling?

Angie, I grow a lot of my hostas in pots and when growing them in pots the biggest concern I have over the winter is to make sure they don't stay too wet in our climate. To that end I put almost all my potted hostas in a couple of unheated greenhouses and under an overhang in my potting shed from about mid-October to late March. Seedlings move to a 3 inch pot when they reach 3rd leaf stage and they'll stay in that usually over winter. When they come back up in the spring I take a look and see how vigorous they are and will up-pot them to a 5 inch for their 2nd year. It's all done outdoors. There are plenty of breeders who will begin sprouting seeds and growing them under lights indoors as early as December but I'm not that dedicated and I haven't got the indoor space for that so even the sprouting gets done outdoors starting late April/early May depending on how high the temperatures are any given year.

In the Hosta Library is a Hosta Glossary and it makes the following note on 'seedling':

seedling a plant of seed origin resulting from the fusion of an egg and sperm (pollen).

As you can see there's no age reference as such. For me the word 'seedling' has really 2 related meanings: obviously it's a seedling when it sprouts and it can be used as relational reference as inferred by the glossary definition. For example I have a 4 year old seedling out of 'Hacksaw' that I call 'Tousled Hair' and it's a seedling as opposed to a TC morph. The plant itself at its age I no longer call a seedling, once they go into year 2 I refer to them as yearlings and beyond that no other reference other than the possible relational one in reference to its origins.

Pieter

A follow-up from the April 9th posting, we're now @ 4 leaves for the yellow 'Hacksaw' seedling and as you can see by the tag in the pot it has a garden name: "Yella Fella".

The one that came up with 5 shoots has a name as well: "Octopus' Garden".

While I was out there yesterday afternoon on a windy day I kept wondering what name to use for a very sizeable blue seedling out of 'Hacksaw' and it finally hit me: "Blue Me Away" it is! It's easily the largest of last year's seedlings and a couple of extra shoots are popping up!

Pieter

Thanks for sharing.

bkay

They are all looking great, Pieter! Thanks for the update.

Sherry

Love "Blue me away!"

Looking good, Pieter. Here is one I was gifted last year from Sunnywood, a Galaxy seedling. Just one or two "pips" last season. Coming up with EIGHT right now. Nice.

but what is the "age limit" how many years for the hosta to no longer be a seedling?

===>>> it will always be a seedling .. its a descriptive term.. meaning its not a clone or tc of a mother plant .... its a cross between two different plants [though technically it can be the same plant pollen and ovaries ... aka: self pollinated]

i think you mean how long would they be babes ... well.. until they grow up .. lol ...

many peeps do winter seed growing indoors.. so all the plants are potted ... depending on your success.. they can be planted the following late summer or early fall ...

but mostly they are kept in pots.. just for some tlc.. until they grow a root mass sufficient to become free range ...

the same could be done in a nursery bed.. where your attention can be maintained ... as compared to just planting them all around the garden.. and hoping for the best ...

ken