late blooming of these ..... could be a function of a cold late spring ... do you recall such???

my Royal Standard, Plantaginea and Fragrant Bouquet aren't blooming..bummer..I'm so thankful for my Honeybells..

Yes! My plantaginea started blooming, I adore the scent!

From how far away is the scent noticeable?

Ken, I do recall the cold spring, but my So Sweet bloomed in early September in 2019. Go figure......

debra

Mine are just about finished - just a few on the tip top of the scapes.

bk

Honeybells today..

My neighbor has her driveway bordered by many, many Royal Standards, and you can detect the fragrance 20' away. For a single plant, you'd need to be much closer.

'Praise Him' with a bee friend

when i was studying all this stuff.... NOT everything could be kept in the forefront of my mind ... i was raising the kids.. im actually surprised i remember what i do .. lol ...

i have some vague recollection ... that there is a requisite number of warm days.. from spring.. to bloom ... and that is why ... some years they bloom a few weeks earlier.. or later.. than the norm ...

they were called the august lily ... because they do bloom in august generally.. but it is variable..

what surprises me.. is that they all do it in august.. regardless of local conditions ...

some might suggest.. or did .. that its the inclination of the summer sun.. that is part of the trigger .. but again.. thats just a vague recollection ...

there is also a requisite number of days.. from flower to viable seed.. and the further north you go ... the higher the odds that you will NOT get viable seeds .. because they will be forced into dormancy before they accomplish that ... this is where the sugar water became a thing ... for those who were trying to breed new fragrant hosta... not to mention how few other usable pollen plants there were .. blooming in august ... sorta like that eric smith thing.. where he wanted smaller blues.. and the weirdo elegans/sieboldiana that rebloomed later in the season to start the process ...

i do not recall if fragrance is carried only thru the mother ... but that does tie into the lack of success.. and the late seed maturation ...

thats your lesson for the day .. mostly vague recollection .... so go suck on that ... may as well stare at your navel while contemplating it all .. lol... a few adult beverages might juice the mind ... too bad its all buried in some post never to be found again ... oh well ...

ken

As always ken, you are a wealth of information!! 🙏🏽

debra

Hmmm...well maybe my Royal Standard that I've had for decades really isn't RS after all. It was done blooming over a month ago along with most of the other hostas.

i was talking about plataginea ... not royal standard ...

i recall it is fast and grows huge.. with hundreds of flowers.. but i dont recall when it blooms ...

ken

Here's my Fragrant Dream, which I bought last year. Just reading about it, and see it can grow to be 50 inches wide! Hopefully it's a slow grower, because it's currently only inches away from its neighbours.

Ken, what is the “sugar water thing?”

Ikayetw, I have 4 Royal Standards and they all are blooming now. Why not post a picture in a new post asking for an ID on your plant?

debra

I confess I do not like fragrances or flowers on hostas. ..

They look good though, love pictures!

I believe Ken is referring to keeping scape in water with added sugar when trying to ripen seedpods from late blooming hostas. I have The sweetest thing blooming now and it will need at least 6 weeks to get ripe seed.

'Fragrant Dream' looks really nice. Is that a sport of 'Fragrant Bouquet' or something else? Here is my 'Athena'. Flower buds abort nearly all years, unfortunately. I am not sure if that is a problem that come out of tissue culture or if there is something else I can do to get it to open. 'Aphrodite' opens fine (as seen a few posts up) and we have had plenty of heat and water this year.

Like them all. Mine are done blooming now.

Love the fragrants. If you are a glutton for punishment or enjoy an impossible challenge. Try and breed for fragrance. Talked to Kevin Vaughn recently. He had a few fertile fragrant ones out of summer fragrance before they were stolen. So that is my lead.

Curious how such robust pods produce so few seeds.

these will have to go in the cloner to have any chance.

seventh heaven seedling. It’s got the strong fragrance mmmm

Good luck to you hosta_maker! It is unbelievable to me that people actually steal others plants......of course, I have read the story on Aden, but I thought maybe that was a one time thing....... I guess not!!! :-(

debra