H. 'Striptease'

Never mind it was named 'Hosta of the Year' for 2005 by the American Hosta Growers Association, soon as I saw it there was something fascinating about this 'Gold Standard' sport. It all revolves around the pattern of the variegation, which ties in with the irregular pattern of the veins in the leaf. The inner 4-5 pairs of veins are re-joined and the variegation centers on that pattern. These 3 leaves are still unfurling only 3 weeks or so after the root was planted.

9 days later many more leaves have unfurled and I sure look forward to seeing it in full leaf, and hopefully flower, by July. The planter this plant is in can be found on the north side of the house, in complete shade. Well, almost; it sees some direct sun from about 6PM on in the summer.

It was supposed to share this planter with 2 other Hostas: 'Twilight' and 'Brim Cup', but as of mid June '05 neither of these have come up from the root as yet and it's starting to look dim for anything coming up from either of these roots.

It's the very unusual variegation pattern that fascinates me, never seen anything like it.

Based on what I see out of this one root we planted early April 2005, I have high hopes for Striptease's continued success and fairly rapid growth in our yard. Based on the number and size of leaves we have after not quite 2 months it would appear as if the root system is developing nicely and hopefully we'll see one or more offsets before the end of the season.

We're now into the middle of June and, although you cannot see it very well from this particular angle, a flower scape is starting to show.

A month later and this is what the inflorescence looks like. This plant is located not far from a 'Sum and Substance' that blooms at about the same time. Don't know if either variety sets seed, but we'll keep you posted. Open pollination is the name of the game for us for this year. If either variety sets seed we'll start worrying about selective pollination next year, but the biggest problem we'll have with that is what you do with the seedlings when you grow them out; we don't have enough space the way it sits. We enthusiastically potted up a ton of open pollinated Lily seeds last fall and even though only about 25% germinated we're going to have trouble finding pots and space to grow them out. Lord knows what we'll do with Hosta seedlings, but I'm putting the cart before the horse here, first we have to germinate some before we'll have to cross the bridge to planting and growing them out. The only variety to have set seed and develop pods so far this year is 'Golden Tiara', but we'll wait and see what the others do.

This picture was taken August 30th and shows a very different variegation colour from what it exhibited earlier in the season. If you scroll back up to the picture prior to the one above you see the first signs of changes in the variegation becoming evident already by the middle of June....

It has been suggested that what we are witnessing here is a 'Striptease' that sported itself to 'Gypsy Rose', an unregistered cultivar. Let's wait and see what next season brings...

We did not see any new offsets showing themselves last year, but, on April 10th, 2006 it was quite evident that we have gone from the single shoot of last year to 4 shoots, the kind of vigour you do not mind. I toyed with the notion of splitting the root in half, but I'll hold off and see how they unfurl. They will make an excellent subject for the 'Rossizing' I'm going to try with a few varieties this year and that apparently works best when some of the leaves have started to unfurl, so it'll be another couple of weeks or so before it goes under the knife.

Well, a couple of weeks later and an even bigger surprise: looks as if we have another shoot developing off to the side!

We see the begining of the unfurling on April 29th . If I can leave well enough alone for this year and resist the temptation to split the root this spring, this will make quite the showing in the summer of 2006.

The temptation to split was resisted -as is evident here from the number of petioles you see here- and it's nice to see how it shows this year. Next year will be soon enough to take that first division.

At the end of August it has started to put up a couple of new flower scapes, the earlier ones are virtually completely dried up by now. I didn't worry about pollination this year, perhaps next year. One of the problems for me is how to accommodate all the seedlings that will result from the crossings I have been doing, won't worry about this one. I'll just wait for it to sport, it must do that with pretty fair regularity, seeing as there are almost 40 sports out of 'Striptease'.

2007 is the third year for 'Striptease' in our yard and will you just LOOK at the thing. We have gone from 1 to 5 shoots to 13 shoots, not any of the others I have are showing that kind of growth. I was ambivalent last year as to whether to divide this crown or not, well there no longer is any doubt about that, it'll get divided. This is a variety I want to be able to sell in my plant sales next year, along with 'Blue Mouse Ears' and 'Revolution'.

Our 'Striptease' is trying to outdo itself this spring (2007): not only did we go from 5 shoots to 14 this year, but there's this one sort of straggler way off to the side that showed up about two weeks after the others broke ground. Not unlike what we saw last year. It broke ground very pale and has stayed that way for a couple of days now. I would expect it to colour up though in due course. If for some reason it doesn't, we'll have another sport.

While it's a tad early for that far-off shoot to have started to unfurl, there is a leaf on the crown however that shows clear signs of sporting. Just as well I had plans already to divide it this year, this is all the more reason.

Into it's third year now and it had a great showing in 2007. It's getting to be a good sized plant, big enough to start thinking seriously about doing some divisions in 2008.

If you take a close look at one of the leaves in the lower right quadrant you will see the first evidence of how delectable the plant proved to be to the resident canine population.

There was the odd piece of missing evidence from time to time that would indicate Neka and Ace had been snacking, but never anything major until August 19th. Will you just look at how those minkeys decimated the foliage...

For 2008 the planter with the main plant in it has been moved out of the sideyard, spoiling the canine fun perhaps, but it's clear the plant has made a leap in growth. Last count there were 26 shoots on this beast! About time for it to get divided, for sure. But until that time, it'll make an absolutely fabulous display!

In 2009 I was getting a little anxious as to whether or not I might have lost my Striptease. All the other Hosta had come up already, including Strip's relatives Gold Standard and Hyacinthina, in several spots. Yes, I know its a late riser even compared to its relatives, but you figure I should have seen shoots nosing up by now. I scratched around in the top inch or so of the planting medium, couldn't find anything resembling shoots and I just couldn't contain myself any longer on April 6th: I emptied the planter. I was shocked at the size of the root mass. This in fact shows a good example of how Hosta -and presumably other plants as well- adapt their root structure to suit their environment. If this had been grown in soil in the ground the roots would be far fewer and much thicker.

With all those roots it was a bit of a task to clean them and be able to see where the best places would be to make divisions. It's a little hard to see perhaps in this picture, but there were plenty of developing shoots and apical buds and I was able to divide this into about 5 or 6 good sized divisions.

In this close-up you can see the new shoots starting to form, but they would have been too far below the surface to show in a light scratching. The planting mix in the old planter was actually quite dense, with a lot of sand in it, something not too good for drainage. The new mix the divisions were planted in is much more loose and airy, with lots of bark nuggets, and over time I think we'll see quite a change in the root mass' structure.

One of the larger divisions found its way into a nice-sized ceramic pot and was given some cuttings of Artemesia 'Silver Brocade' around the perimeter for some contrast. The location of the pot sees direct sun until about 2-2.30PM and it seems to be enjoying its new habitat.

Just for fun, here's a Striptease family portrait. 'Striptease' is in the #2 pot top right, below it is the newest addition, 'Gypsy Rose', which proved to be HVX infected and was disposed of, beside that on the bottom left is 'Hanky Panky' and top left is 'Risky Business'.