H. 'Wide Brim'

'Wide Brim' is another new cultivar for us this year (2006) and for the time being three of them are potted up in #1 pots that are sitting, along with many other Hostas, on the rim of what we refer to as our Hosta nursery. As it happens these three are sitting right beside some 'Twilight' and while you can see lots of similarities there are also some very noticeable differences. 'Wide Brim' is quite corrugated, even at this early stage of unfurling. Plus where 'Twilight' leans towards the blue side of green, 'Wide Brim' is very much green and you can also notice some differences between them in terms of variegation: 'Wide Brim' has creamy variegation whereas 'Twilight' leans more to the yellow side. At the moment that is. Undoubtedly the colour of the variegation will change as the season rolls along.

We have two out of three left -sold one in the plant sale in the spring- and they're both doing quite nice. By mid June both are showing plenty of new growth, with this one going from the single plant it was to a nice clump of four. The new growth however occurs in both of these in a slightly different fashion from what I'm accustomed to seeing, rather than sprouting from outside the leaf cluster some of the new growth actually occurs within the leaf cluster at the axil of two of the leaves. And it isn't just one plant, they both exhibit the same growth pattern, very unusual.

I'm also happy to note that I have no sign in either pot of HVX, something that wouldn't have been unexpected given the source of the bare roots. Next year will be a better indicator of where these two are in that regard, but at least we're off to a promising start. At the rate these two are growing I would expect to take at least one of them and do my 'slice-n-dice' routine which seems to have worked so well for me this year.

By mid July the new growth has nicely unfurled on this one, and the other, being a little slower, at last shows some new growth at some leaf axils, which makes me think this is normal behaviour for this cultivar.

We're now in mid September and they're not showing any signs of going into senescence as yet. They filled out very well and certainly one of them will go under the knife for division next spring, the other will move to a #2 pot.

I don't have any pictures of them in March 2007 as I'm writing this, but the two remaining ones from last year are proving to be early risers. It's a toss between them and the 'Blue Mouse Ears' for growth this early in the year. They are fat and healthy looking, and I have no doubt one of them will get divided and Rossized in mid May.

A day later, here they are.....Not a bad start for March 29th, wouldn't you say?

Of these two I think the one with 3 shoots will make it into the plant sale and the 5 shoot one will be kept back for division in mid-May.

Not quite 2 weeks later, and they're unfurling so fast you could almost stand there and watch them progress.

Another week has gone by and there is no sign of slowing down. Both of them are such a sight for Hosta eyes this early in the season. I don't think I'll put either of them in the plant sale this year. One's destined for larger accommodations and the other may get divided in about another month or so in order to have some for sale next year.

And then again, maybe I won't divide it. It would appear as if I may well have another batch of single plants which I thought were 'Twilight' but they could very well prove to be more 'Wide Brim'. I'll have to keep a close eye on them and compare the leaves carefully, 'Wide Brim is much more corrugated, but they may not be mature enough to make a definitive determination this year.

Over the few years we've had this cultivar, I've grown to quite like it. It's reliable, not too late a riser in the spring and it's not the first to slip into senescence in the fall. It's a Paul Aden 1979 registration, so it's been around a while and is not uncommon.

In 2008 my sister-in-law Sue gave me a small division that had one shoot with an unusually wide variegation on it, as you can see. I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could do something with it, knowing that dividing off that particular shoot would not be a good idea: not enough chlorophyl for photosynthesis. It did alright I suppose, but, not unexpectedly, the bulk of the growth was on the 'normal' side of the crown. BTW, this shot is from July 1st, 2008.

In 2009 it came back a bit beefier, with the mutated shoot actually going almost completely without any green at all, not a good thing. Even at a fairly early date, May 17/09, the mostly yellow leaves are already starting to dry up. I do not have any later pictures of it, but seem to recall the mutating shoot started to show more as normal shoot later on in the year. It'll be interesting to see what 2010 holds for this.

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Pages last updated 28 November 2018