This one has been on my want list for a very long time, however it is easy to miss when not in flower. This time it was flowering and quite impressive.

H. 'White Triumphator' has pure white flowers that are held horizontally on very long scapes. Although my plant is still young, it's scape already reaches 100 cm. What I find special & quite attractive are the white flowering bracts that are covered with green veins. It reminds me of a Freesia, without the smell of course!

The plant isn't that spectacular, with upright leaves that have very glaucous backs. The scape is also very glaucous. Here is a picture of my new plant:

Hosta 'White Triumphator' is listed as an introduction from the famous Dutch garden designer and nursery man Piet Oudolf. Piet has also written a number of garden books. It is described as a selection of rectifolia with very tall scapes of pure white flowers. The rectifolia background clearly shows in the upright habit and the long scape.

There is also a hosta 'White Tachi' in cultivation, Tachi Giboushi being the Japanese name of rectifolia. As I don't have it, it remains to be seen if it's the same plant as 'White Triumphator' or a different one.

'White Triumphator' in the Danny Van Eechaute garden

These are the fragrant flowers of 'Essence of Summer' (Jan van den Top & Marco Fransen 2004). It is a tetraploid conversion of 'Warwick Essence' (Gil Jones 1993).

At the start of the nineties 'Warwick Essence' was a hybridizing breakthrough, being the cross of 'Northern Halo' (a sieboldiana 'Elegans' type) and plantaginea. It isn't the easiest cross to make because of the different flowering periods. Gil succeeded, the result being a hosta with substance and fragrance, a "fragrant sieboldiana".

To even further improve it's substance and maybe it's fragrance, 'Warwick Essence' was artificially converted to the tetraploid 'Essence of Summer'. It has very thick leaves on strong petioles. Best of all, the flowers are still fragrant, a bit larger and have more substance. This is the first fragrant tetraploid I've seen, although I've heard some rumors about a tetraploid 'Fragrant Bouquet'.

We'll have to see if it's pod and/or pollen fertile, I tried some tetraploid pollen on it. In the morning the anthers were still closed, so I had to come back in the afternoon to collect the pollen.

'Essence of Summer'

Last Saturday the fishing season has started for me! A lot of hostas are just emerging, but I was charmed by this sport of 'Cat's Eyes'. A small fish to catch, it has five small noses, none of them looking like the original. One is the reverse sport, a few others are streaked.

I noticed these two seed pods on an unnamed seedling of 'Schwarzer Ritter'
(Klose 1994 - NR). I had to look twice, my first reaction being: what's growing there between my hosta's? The combination of color and size produced something unexpected.

'Schwarzer Ritter' is a ventricosa type and these produce very typical thick pods, but these two were almost as long as my pinkie.

Afterwards, seeing the pictures I realized that there was nothing to compare with and that I should have included a ruler or my own finger. So the next day I went back in the garden to take more pictures. But wait, where are they? Looks like not only I was tricked but also a bird? in thinking that these were some juicy fruits. I found one squashed with lots of unripe seeds So he/she didn't like it after all.

Another one to add to my collection of hosta flower oddities like 12-petalled flowers or green-edged flowers. Only problem is that they flower shyly.

I recently acquired this H. kikutii form. What makes it interesting is the big difference between the front and the back of the leaves. The front of the leaves is dark green and with a bit of rain they even look very shiny as the next picture shows.

However from below the look is dramatically different: the undersides of the leaves are covered with a thick white coating and the back of the petioles are also glaucous.

It could be a form of H. kikutii f. leuconota (white-backed kikutii), the one I already have has smaller, stiffy leaves that are also glaucous above.

Another interesting feature of this hosta is that the leaf edges tend to curl down, giving the leaves a swollen look.