H. 'Undulata'

Another addition to the Hosta assortment in late March '07. And yes, it's another Costco purchase, so I'll have to keep a close eye on it and be on the look-out for possible early signs of HVX. It was packed and sold as 'Night Before christmas' which is shown on Hallson's list as possibly infected with an unknown virus, so obviously close scrutiny will be given to these new additions.

All 8 roots in the package of 7 were already sporting leaves, most nicely curved of course from being squished inside a plastic bag. The majority are rather pale looking right now, but that should correct itself in a couple of weeks or so. They certainly are colouring up after only 8 days in their new home and hopefully we can encourage them to grow a little more upright.

There were several roots that had more than one shoot, and depending on how well they go in the coming garage sale I'll probably take one of those and divide them in preparation for next year's sale. Some of the roots with just one shoot had a VERY fat one and they would probably be an alternative choice.

A month and a half later and we're starting to see some of the colouring you would expect. Not all 8 roots have done well, a couple of them are borderline and look like they are rotting.

By the middle of June it is becoming clear to me that this is not as billed, definitely not 'Night Before Christmas'. I'm leaning heavily towards them being one of the Undulata varieties possibly 'Undulata Univittata', but I'd better get input from others more learned than I before I state it's proper name. Perhaps I'll wait until they look a little better and fuller before attempting to make that determination.

Perhaps I should be happy they aren't as billed: there are plenty of reports out there of HVX infected batches of NBC, at least I got something that looks as if it's clean and I didn't have it yet anyway, although it would not have been high on my want-list. I'll get some more pictures to post, there's one with very undulating petioles, looks quite nice actually.

Here it is. It has the kind of waviness to it that reminds one of 'Atom Smasher', I rather like it. This is a keeper, regardless of what it is.

I might be terribly mistaken of course, but I believe this is the same plant you see in the previous picture. Needless to say I'm anxiously waiting to see if the waviness comes back, but, almost more interesting will be to see what actually becomes of those leaves towards the back of the pot.

To make things a little clearer I have cropped to the leaves in question and I think you'll agree they look more like shoots coming off Lily bulbils than anything Hosta, but who knows at this point. Time indeed will tell that story. It is not at all impossible that the soilmix I used for this pot may have had small Lily bulblets in it, I have a habit of re-using old pot soil mixes whenever I mix up another batch in the wheelbarrow, and that would include of course soil mixes that had previously had Lilies growing in it.

'Undulata' has a deserved reputation for being an early riser. With that early rising comes early blooming, and as you can see here on May 25/09 it is only a matter of a few more days before we can expect to see the first of these buds open up.

Some more details about this variety can be found in Hugo's Database.


Guestbook use seems to have fallen out of favour, so we have deleted it, but, if there's something you'd like to say, simply use the form on the contact page.



Pages last updated 28 November 2018