H. 'Chinese Sunrise'

Another addition to the Hosta assortment in '07. And yes, this one is also a Costco purchase, so I'll have to keep a close eye on it and be on the look-out for possible early signs of HVX. It is NOT shown on Hallson's list as possibly infected with HVX, nonetheless, close scrutiny will be given to these new additions. And you gathered correctly: I have no pictures as yet...

And I'm not so sure there will be either. The roots we received look like no other Hosta root I have ever seen and I'm starting to have my doubts they actually are Hostas. They have not yet died, but they haven't exactly shown a lot of growth either and they have been in their pots for going on 6 or 7 weeks now.

2 of these roots ultimately did show some growth, but really quite late in the season. They certainly did NOT look anything like what they were supposed to be. My best guess is that these roots are actually 'Gold Standard' ones, but I'll hold off making that call until their second year, seeing as the leaves never grew much larger than about 1x2 inches.

The picture is from early August 2007 and shows what is sometimes referred to as a 'stoloniferous proliferation'. A week or so later the pot's soil mix was topped up to the rim of the pot to try and encourage root growth near where the leaves come off the stem. Spring 2008 will tell us whether or not we have been successful, and if so, hopefully we can get a decent shot at identifying this mystery cultivar.

While I don't have any pictures of them just now, both of them came back up in 2008 and they're starting to look more and more like immature 'Gold Standard'.

And here they are. And I think you'll agree with my observation that they are immature 'Gold Standard', they most definitely are NOT 'Chinese Sunrise', the one below IS though.

Early July 2008 and here's a shot of the real thing: 'Chinese Sunrise'. A small division of it was acquired in a trade on Sunday July 6th, along with 4 other Hostas, all blue ones, of which only one was positively identified at the time, the others had no labels left in their pots.

This cultivar has a reputation for being an early riser. Going into it's second year in our yard, this potted one sure lives up to that, it's easily the farthest along of any of the Hostas in our yard. And that's such a sight for sore eyes on March 21st, 2009, it's been too long of a winter.

Just noticed I hadn't posted any pictures as yet of it full regalia, here it is on May 1st '09. It is such a nice, bright beacon in the garden this time of year. I'll keep it in the sun and see how well it keeps that bright colour over the course of the year.

A few divisions have been spread around, including one in one of our hanging baskets, and this is the largest potted one in early May 2011. By season's end it had pretty much filled the pot. Odds are this one will get divided again in the spring.

As you can see, it flowered this year. This is the scape on the division planted in one of the hanging baskets. Seems to me I read somewhere this variety isn't too fertile. Some of the smaller divisions did set pods, so we'll see soon enough if they in fact set seed.

Some more info in Hugo's Database.


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Pages last updated 28 November 2018