H. 'Déjà Blu'

I guess most would be tempted to put an 'e' at the end of the name, but this is how it is registered. 'Déjà Blu' came my way through a trade in August 2007 and was a variety on my 'Most Wanted' list. I'm looking forward to see how it fares in 2008.

This cultivar apparently is also available under the name 'Wooly Bully', originating in Holland.

The batch of 8 varieties I was blessed with in this trade looked a little battered and tattered. That would be primarily because the lady who grew them had been hit with 2 hail storms within the month prior to shipping. No big deal though, it's fairly late in the season, I'm seeing early signs of senescence all over and as long as these get a decent chance to establish their roots for the winter I don't really care.

In retrospect those were not early signs of senescence I was seeing, they were signs of the presence of foliar nematodes, unwelcome guests that hitched a ride on some of the plants, at least 4, maybe more, of the batch of 8 I received early August 2007. While this particular plant never showed any real signs of nematode infestation, it did share a water bath for about 5-6 hours with those that did and I was not prepared to take a chance on carrying those nasty little worms over into next season. So, after some humming and hawing I decided in mid September to take some action. That whole sordid affair is detailed a bit more on another page and while some fairly drastic steps were taken, the short horizon is mid August 2008, the long term outcome of the success of the elimination procedure is at least a couple of years away.

While not as big as last year when I received it, it was nice to see it coming back up in 2008 after the bleaching it was subjected to last fall. This picture is from mid-June and thus far there isn't a hint of the nematodes on this plant nor any of the others treated that way, so I'm cautiously optimistic the bleach bath may have done the trick.

By late August we can see an additional offset on this crown, that bodes well for next year. As with most of the other 'bleach babies' there is no sign of recurrence of the nematodes some were infested with last year. And I'm not really sure this one ever was, I just couldn't take a chance on the nematodes having been transferred when the lot of 8 was being hydrated after the 3 day journey from Quebec. Curiously, the new offset does not show the creamy edge variegation, perhaps it is sporting.... and that would be very exciting! A quick check of Hugo's Database (see link at the bottom of the page) shows no known sports of this cultivar, which is a sport of the solid coloured 'Blue Boy', so we can rule out reversion. Stay tuned for possible further developments!

A little over 2 weeks later and I took the bull by the horn and separated the sport. As I'm sure you can well imagine I'm excited and eager with anticipation to see what shows up next year. In the interim I have come up with a working name for this cultivar. I wanted a name that in some way continues what was started with the original name, play on words, and seeing as this one is more blue than its parent I thought 'Déjà Blewer' or perhaps even 'Déjà Blew'er', though the latter may be considered a little too racey by some.

It had been suggested when I posted pictures of this on one of the forums I frequent to perhaps temper my exuberance since the parent plant can have greenish edge variegation when the leaves first unfurl and later on it lightens up to cream to white. Time will tell.

Having seen pictures of this cultivar from a variety of sources now, most of what I've seen show a decidely blue coloured leaf, whereas what I have shows leaves that are mostly green, with one leaf, the one dead center in the picture above, that actually shows blue on the bottom half and green towards the top. When you take a look at the first picture, the one taken when I first recived the plant, the leaves look more green than blue. It's all very exciting to see this going on with not just this particular division, but also the main plant. Can't wait to see what will show up next year!

Well, nothing much showed up for that division in 2009, it rotted, which it too bad. Oh well, that's the way it goes...

The main crown however showed good growth, and as you can see from the picture, it flowered this year. For some reason though I don't seem to have any pictures of the flowers. Next year perhaps....

For more information on this variety go to Hugo's Database.