H. 'Patricia'

As you may have noticed by now as you're browsing my site, I'm always game to trade Hostas, be that with someone local or out of town or province. The trades I have been involved in have mostly been initiated on my part, but I have also been an eager participant in so-called 'secret trades' in one of the Hosta forums I frequent, Hallson's. Early August I contacted a lady in Brandon, MB, about doing some trading, and these are what arrived at my doorstep on August 14th 2008. They were soaking in rainwater when I got home that day -Waita put each division in its own container with water from our rainbarrels- and after supper it was potting up time. Some were smaller than others and the largest of them is actually missing from this shot, it hadn't been potted up yet when I took the picture, I couldn't make up my mind what size pot to put it in. I was the lucky recipient of a total of 8 Hostas, 7 of which were new to me and a fair number of those were on my 'most wanted' list.

This particular cultivar does not appear to be too common this side of the pond and is registered in the UK with Plant Breeder's Rights, rather similar to what in North America we would call patented. It is a 'Birchwood Parky's Gold' sport of Dutch origins. The leaves are slightly wavy. Apparently it is a vigorous grower, we'll keep our fingers crossed next year...

We're now into late April 2009 and I couldn't help but take note of how close 'Patricia' looks to 'Golden Tiara' at this stage of growth. The margins are slightly different, with one being mostly chartreuse and the other yellow, but compare this early margin on 'Patricia' with what it had in last year's pictures and notice how much greener it was when I received it. The difference is directly attributable to lighting, this year it has been in mostly full sun. The slight wavyness visible last year has not yet manifested itself, let's hope it does soon.

For a while there in its early growth stages in 2009 it didn't look as if it was doing much and then all of a sudden in mid-June I noticed a lot of new growth starting to develop. Here it is on June 22nd and just look at all those fresh green leaves beginning to unfurl. A growth spurt like this is a sure sign there is plenty of new root growth as well. By now the gold on the first flush of leaves has gone through cream to near white.

This picture here was obviously taken quite a bit later in the season, September 15th to be precise, and I continue to be struck by the resemblance of this variety to 'Golden Tiara'. You can see all the new growth -and some slug damage, but that's a different story- and it would appear as if this new growth does not have the semi-stoloniferous growth habit of the members of the Tiara family. It could well be when all's said and done that the growth habit may be one of the key factors of determining which cultivar you're dealing with. I'll probably do an early season division on it next year when it breaks ground at which time I'll get a good look at the crown and root structure.