H. 'Blue Mouse Ears'

'Blue Mouse Ears' has been on my most wanted listed for some time. I wasn't quite prepared to do a mail order for just one variety when I knew there was at least one local nursery that shows it on their stock list. It's just that they are rather out of our way. Well, during my 2006 holidays we made a point of stopping by there and as is quite evident from the picture you see, I bought one. Only ever having seen it in pictures and having seen it described as being of heavy substance, I must admit I was not prepared for how substantial the leaves actually feel, they're almost like leaves of a succulent. This particular one came with its very own slug in the pot, but they have since parted company.

There are three shoots on this crown and as soon as the opportunity presents itself it will be division time.

This is one addition to our collection that was just one of those inevitable ones and I really look forward to next year and working with its flowers.

While the effect doesn't last long, this is one Hosta that looks very nice going into senescence.

The 3 divisions that were made late August were all moved under cover for the winter by mid November to keep them from getting wet feet. One of them was already showing signs of an additional offset!

If any of these divisions show additional offsets in 2007 at least one of them will end up as part of our slice-n-dice routine by probably mid May, depending on how they've come along at that point.

By early January 2007 it was obvious that at least two of the divisions had 3 apical buds on them, the third one was planted a tad deeper and it wasn't quite as easy to figure out how many buds it has, we'll find out in another 7 weeks or so I guess, once they start poking their noses through the soil surface. This is what they looked like January 6th. Since then the crown and buds have been given some additional covering to make sure we have no ill-effects from frosts. And it's just as well I did that because by January 10th we had another dump of snow and night time temperatures dropping to -7ºC.

We're now well into March (the 14th), and looka here, this division actually has FIVE noses poking up, quite remarkable when you think about it. Even more so when the supposed reputation for this cultivar is to be a fairly slow grower....wish they were ALL that slow. This is just fabulous. There may have been -and is- a BME division with 3 shoots on it, this one shows more vigour yet! Remember, last year's purchase was of a single plant that was divided late summer into three divisions, this is one of them...

On one of the Hosta forums I frequent there was a brief discussion of BME's vigour and it certainly sounds as if my experience this spring is not a unique one, most who took part in the discussion reported a very similar growth pattern. If this is a slow grower, I'd hate to see a fast grower...

It does seem a shame to take this one and divide it again in a couple of months. At that time it will make a darned nice looking plant, I have no doubt. Now that I have two others to work with I think I'll end up doing the slice-n-dice on the plant with the three shoots.

Not quite a month later, April 8th, and look at how they're unfurling. At this stage you can clearly see the veining of the leaves. They will become less prominent the farther we get into the season, just look at the picture at the top of the page.

Two weeks later and they get better looking every day.

'Blue Mouse Ears' simply continues to impress me. You may recall the 3 shoot plant we obtained late last summer (the August long-weekend) was divided into three, with one of these coming up this spring with FIVE shoots. That would be this one here. The other two were a single and another three-shooter. The latter two will be allowed to grow on for next year, the fiver will get divided mid to late July, so I'll have some available for sale next year, 2008, when it will be the Hosta of the Year as selected by The American Hosta Growers Association, a first for a mini since they started this back in 1996.

'Blue Mouse Ears' has been in flower for about a week or so. This grabbed my eye Friday June 22nd 2007, the light and the tightness of the tepals just begged to have this picture shot. Supposedly this is not a cultivar known for its fertility, so I'm not holding out any hopes for OP seed from it.

You probably figured out by now that I have a thing for Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears'. It isn't just the basic plant I like for the almost succulent-like substance of its leaves, their shape, as well as the overall appearance of this cultivar. Now that it is in bloom you can add the flowers to what I like about this plant. Unlike most all other Hosta flowers I have seen, these do not flare open. They stay this tight, heavy substanced cluster of tepals, quite unique.

It's really quite difficult to see in this picture, but there actually is some pollen that has found its way onto the bottom of the stigma.

This cropped portion of the above shot shows pollen right where the stigma meets the style. This picture was taken around 7PM and clearly illustrates all the anthers brimming with pollen near the end of the day, with a small amount of pollen spread around the filaments.

The division with the 5 shoots had 3 of those in flower and they make quite a nice, tight and tidy cluster on the short scapes.

2008 we sold out of all the BME divisions we had on hand during our spring plant sale and could easily have sold double the number. We made sure one of the larger divisions was kept back to allow it to mature and I was pleasantly surprised to discover one of the scapes actually has a seedpod developing on it. Supposedly BME does not set seed easily, all the more reason to be pleased. Now I cannot wait until next year to see whether any of the seeds will sprout, never mind who's your Daddy..... though odds are it is selfed, knowing where it was and what else was in bloom at the same time (not much).

Nothing much to see yet except for noses working their way out of the soil on March 20, 2009, and doing a head count shows 10 of them on this division, which is easily double last year's numbers. Once it gets firmly established -and that only takes a year- this is a vigorous grower. My biggest problem is that I seem to sell out of it every year and can never get enough of them for the following spring, in spite of that growth rate.

This is the actual plant you see pictured above. It turned out there actually were 14 shoots on it and while it would have been nice to just transplant the whole plant from its 1 gallon pot into a spot in the yard, it was plain too tempting to do divisions this early in the year. So, this became 4 divisions, with one 5 shoot one going into the ground in a hopefully permanent spot, the others destined for sale in our plant sale.

A good sized division ended up in one of the raised planters in the yard, 2 smaller ones were sold and this larger division is being kept back for further division some time in June. It seems I cannot have enough BME divisions in our plant sales, so I'll have to keep at least one back for that purpose, the one in the planter is off limits in that regard.

The 'Blue Mouse Ears' pod mentioned above held about 6 or 7 seeds, wasn't a big pod, isn't a big plant. Of those seeds 2 germinated and this is what they looked like on September 25th, 2009.

This is by far the better looking of the two seedlings and you can already tell the strong family resemblance. With 8 leaves on it, this is probably the best growing Hosta seedling I have raised. I'm really looking forward to next spring to see how it comes back up and how much bigger it'll get next year.

By the date these pictures were taken there hadn't been any signs of new growth for about 2 or 3 weeks and it's indicative of the plants going down for the winter. They're both still looking quite green though, with not a hint of browning as yet.

It's a little early in the life of these two plants to get a feel for the substance of the leaves, certainly the shape is unmistakeble: them's 'Mouse Ears'.

Both of these seedlings came back up in 2010, but the smaller never really looked particularly vigorous and kicked the bucket in mid-May. The second one however is going gangbusters. Here it is in early June, not quite up to the size of its neighbouring 'Green Mouse Ears', but hey, it's only in its second year. Unfortunately it succumbed to crown rot in August, yet another victim to the lack of proper drainage with commercial soil mix.

For more details on this variety check Hugo's Database