H. 'Dream Weaver'

Another addition to the Hosta assortment in '07. And yes, this one is a Costco purchase as well, 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. An interesting side note here: the picture on the package these roots came in looked VERY different from the pictures shown in the Hosta Library for this cultivar, as is the spelling 'Dreamweaver' on the package and 'Dream Weaver' in the Hosta Library.

I can now tell you that now that the leaves on these four crowns have started to colour up that they would appear to match the pictures shown in the Hosta Library. This is supposedly another 'Great Expectations' sport, like 'Dream Queen'. Certainly at this stage the variegation this shows is very similar to DQ, the colour isn't quite the same though, but that may be a function of the fact these haven't finished colouring up yet.

As you can see, VERY different from what the package shows. Yet, when you look at the Hosta Library pictures it is precisely what you would expect them to look like. Though the leaves are mostly green, they were very pale when I planted them and would expect that they'll become more glaucous as the season goes on. I would also expect that I'll have a hard time telling 'Dream Weaver' from 'Dream Queen' as they start to mature, we'll see.

All 4 of the crowns are developing, slowly but surely. Given the heritage -'Great Expectations'- that is not terribly surprising. All I can wish for is that they develop a nice, strong root system and will be ready with more shoots next year. None of them have more than just the one shoot and at the moment there are no signs as yet of offsets or apical buds, but, the season is still young. By the same token, I'm not holding my breath either.

By the end of June of their first year we actually have two of these in the process of putting up scapes. Like the 'Revolution' scapes it is variegated. It'll be interesting to see what we get out of these in terms of seedlings next year. I wonder if it's like 'Revolution' whose seedlings for the most part are heavily variegated to a point of being almost cream in colour with little if any green. Without the green those seedlings have no chlorophyl and they usually die before it has 4 leaves; most of the time they don't even make it to 3 leaves.

It's now May 2nd '08 and we have 1 'Dream Weaver' left, which would be the one to the left in this picture. The plant on the right is 'Dream Queen'. Outside of the obvious difference in size, I cannot see much if any difference between these 2, which means one of two things: either one of the plants was mislabelled or, as has been speculated by others, both are sports of 'Great Expectations' but they occurred in different years in different countries and ended up getting called something different whereas they are in fact the same sport.

Regardless of what you call it, it certainly is striking in its appearance. Neither of them have proven to be terribly vigorous thus far, which given the progenitor's reputation, is not surprising.

A couple of weeks later and the Dream Queens are well along in the process of throwing up scapes. This picture shows Dream Queen -left- and Dream Weaver -right- side-by-side again. If indeed they are as labeled, at least this year -2008- there would appear to be a slight difference between them in terms of the width of the center variegation. There is a third Great Expectations off-spring called Thunderbolt which looks frightfully similar to these, it's variegation is perhaps the narrowest of the three from what I have seen in pictures, but all of that could well be due to individual differences among various plants, rather than something that can be used as a reliable guide.

Unfortunately it looks as if this plant was lost over winter to crown rot, likely the result of the soil mix not being aerated well enough. Seeing how much it looks like 'Dream Queen' and I have always been hard pressed to tell them apart, I don't think I'll go out of my way to replace it any time soon.

Hugo's Database has more information on this sport.