H. gracillima

On the way home on Friday night July 18th, I stopped by a fellow gardener who was game for trading some Hostas. Another 4 varieties were added is the long -'Sagae'- and short -gracillima- of it. And here are 2 of the 3 divisions, they are sooooo CUTE!

There did appear to be some doubt on the part of the donor about the identity of this particular plant, but I feel comfortable calling it what I do until such time as a better suggestion comes along.

This is the third division, the largest of them and I've put a quarter coin in front of it in order to provide some degree of size perspective, this is one dimunitive plant!

As said, there is some doubt about the validity of me referring to what I have as the nominate species. It could easily be that what I have is in fact 'Sugar Plum Fairy' or perhaps 'saishu-jima', both of which apparently are gracillima selections. I'll be able to make a better stab at the true identity once it becomes better established over the next couple of years.

I'm sorry to say I lost 2 of the 3 divisions over winter 2008/2009. The remaining one though has shown good growth, although a few of the leaves look a little chlorotic in this shot from early September. A scape did develop late in the season -you can see it in this shot- and while buds formed, they never opened up. The buds looked close to being ready to open up by the end of September, but there were already signs of the onset of senescence on the plant, so I guess I'll have to wait until at least 2010 season before I get to see it in bloom. From what I've been able to gather it is a late bloomer, with an indicated flowering period of August/September. Hopefully with a somewhat more mature plant in 2010 we'll see it flower earlier than it did in 2009.

Hold that thought, it is not to be, it didn't come back up in 2010.

Some more info in Hugo's Database.