H. 'Corkscrew'

No self-respecting, penny-pinching, pension-collecting Dutchman can resist a sale. Particularly when it's an end-of-season twofer sale on perennials at one of his favourite local nurseries. This is one of six Hostas that came home that fateful day, October 17th, 2009. Yes, I know, it looks a little worse for wear, but what do you expect this time of year...

Unlike a couple of others purchased at the same time, this one was divided when it was re-potted. So, not only was it a twofer, I made two out of this twofer. Does that make it a threefer or a fourfer?

For 2010 it would appear as if we have a bit of streaking going on... It'll be interesting to see how this progresses over the course of the year. Stay tuned.

Must admit that I don't have any pictures of it from early 2011, and I'm sorry to have to say this is yet another one I lost this year due to root rot from poor draining planting mix. I do like this variety though and I didn't need a lot of arm twisting to buy a replacement when the annual twofer sale mid-October 2011 was on at one of my favourite nurseries. This time around I resisted the temptation to divide the plant upon arrival and simply transferred it to a larger pot. Though a little difficult to see in the left hand picture -there's one in the left front corner of the pot-, there are two scapes developing this late in the season.

We're now near the end of May 2012 and it's looking good. Earlier in the spring the plant was in fact divided, with the smaller division being used as part of a trade. Now, let's hope it flowers for us this year....

Well, ultimately it did flower. But not until very late in the season, this picture was taken 22 October, 2012! Given the lineage of this cultivar that late flowering is not too surprising, 'Corkscrew' comes out of 'Tortifrons', which comes out of H. tardiflora, though the species status of the latter is very much in doubt.