H. 'Emerald Isle'
This is another new variety for us in 2008. When I first saw the picture on the package of dry bare roots I was rather taken with it, even though it was the first time I'd seen it for sale anywhere. A fellow Hostaholic in Ontario told me she had purchased a package with 5 of them at Wally World and in hers there were 2 roots that were most definitely not as billed. Surprise, surprise. While I seemed to recall seeing it there a couple of weeks ago, I purchased mine at a local specialty nursery that offers a 20% Seniors Discount on Wednesdays. As you would expect with bagged roots, most of the shoots were at an awkward angle, but that'll only be for this year so we'll persevere. When I was potting them up I couldn't help but notice that only one of the four in the package had in fact the type of variegation the package showed, so it could well prove to be that I have one correct one and three who's identity I'll have to establish yet. Welcome again to the crapshoot that is the world of bagged bare root Hostas!
A close scrutiny of the cardboard label stapled to the bag showed the url for the supplier's website. From there it was simple to e-mail them to find out what's going on here. And this is what their response was:
Thank you for your interest in our Florissa's Choice of the Year.
The Emerald Isle Colourful Companion is a mix of Hostas. We name our Colourful Companions with inspiring and playful names.
In each package there should be:
-a blue leaf cultivar
-a yellow edged green leaf cultivar
-a white edged green leaf cultivar
-a greenish-yellow leaf cultivar
Happy Planting!
So, fooled. And it explains why the label in fact showed 4 different cultivars - like they describe in their e-mail. Whomsoever picked the 'inspiring and playful name' quite obviously did not bother to check and see if there could be a possible overlap with an already named cultivar. Caveat emptor, and now it'll be interesting to see whether or not there may be an issue with HVX with these 4. And which cultivars these are in fact.....
Hugo's Database shows no additional details on this cultivar and there aren't a lot of pictures of it in the Hosta Library either.
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Pages last updated 28 November 2018