H. 'First Frost'

I'm starting to gather more and more members of the 'Halcyon' family. This is the second one this year, 2010, the first one was 'Blue Ivory'. This particular one came to me as part of a 'Secret Trade' from Port Hope, ON. Others in the family include 'June' and 'Touch of Class', though I'm not too sure of the real identity of my specimen of the latter, at present it looks way too much like an immature 'June' for my liking, which is the main reason I haven't put it up on the site as yet.

Hosta of the Year This cultivar was selected Hosta of the Year for 2010 by the American Hosta Growers Association. To receive this honor the plant must be readily available in the nursery trade for retail distribution and meet the criteria for pricing, which is around $15 in the year of selection.

Hosta 'First Frost'It has done well in its second year in our yard. This shows the second flush of growth, late August, and is a nice illustration of how the colours change during the course of the year, going from blueish green with cream edges to a decidedly blue and white one.

I must admit that I'm very impressed by how good it still looks on 25 October, 2011. While it didn't flower this year, it more than made up for that with additional offsets and its staying power. I'm looking forward to what next year will bring.

While I don't have any pictures of last year's plant by itself yet for 2012, here's a family portrait of sorts. From right to left we have 'Blue Ivory', 'First Frost' and a small 'June' that came to me as being 'Touch of Class'. This shot is from late April 2012. Later on in May all three were divided....

This is one of the divisions by late June 2012. This is only the 3rd year for this cultivar in our yard and the comments I've seen on some of the online forums about slow growth of this variety are certainly not born out by our experience. It's been a good grower. Remember, it came to us 2 years ago as a single division and I've been able to divide it into 2 multiple shoot divisions just 2 years later.

Unfortunately I lost both divisions over winter 2012/13 due to rot brought on by the planting mix. However, I ended up with more of them in March 2013 when I found it as a mix-up in a bag of Costco Hostas which was supposed to be 'Blue Ivory'. So, I'm back in business....

Some more info in Hugo's Database.

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Pages last updated 28 November 2018