# Hosta Breeding and Other Perennials



## PlentyCoup (Aug 22, 2021)

So I have been collecting hosta since I was in elementary schools. My mom started me with a love of perennials, plants and hostas. So ive been collecting for probably 22 years and have over 100 hostas. I will probably list every single one of them lol.
My main goal for this thred is to document the seedlings I will be starting in doors probably in December-January. I have tried this before but not to this scale and with this level of purpose. All of the eventual seedlings will hopefully inherit the traits I want from their parent plants. I will explain the particulars of hosta breeding next for now here are two of the pod parents I have high hopes for.








Front is "Curly Fries" behind is "Fragrant Bouquet." 

Here is a favorite hosta of mine which despite supposedly being a recultant pod or pollen parent I had a 100% fail rate for all crosses too or form this hosta.
Meet "Kiwi Full Monty"


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## PlentyCoup (Aug 22, 2021)

When I decided to purposefully breed hostas this summer I had to take stock of what I had, what were goals for the crosses, what could use improvement and what had been previously been done by other hybridizers. 

For this reason I decided not to cross most of my hostas that fall under the _sieboldiana _family. Almost all of these hostas are large to giant, they usually have a wonderful growth habit, thick leaf substance, great texture etc. There are also 1,000s of them and are probably one of the most popular types.
I think it was estimated that there over 5,000 hostas that have been named by cultivators of that number roughly 300-500 are distinct enough to make it into landscaping and just a fraction of that are available in garden centers. 
The American Hosta Society classifies hostas by size, shape, leaf blade, venation, substance, finish and color.
There are 5 classes for size
Class 1 Giant 144" and larger
Class 2 Large 81-144"
Class 3 Medium 25-81"
Class 4 Small 6-25"
Class 5 Miniature 2-6"

Within these size classes fit all the other classifications.

Leaf Shape or the ratio of lenght to width.

Round 1:1
Oval 2:1or 3:2
Broadly Oval 6:5
Elliptical 3:1
Lance Shaped 6:1
In actuality many of the leaf shapes fall somewhere between the categories.
The base of the leaf or the lobes where the leaf attaches to the petiole are also classified along with the leaf tip.
The leaf blade itself is a huge consideration. Is the leaf level, undulating or twisting? Does it cup shallowly or deeply? Is the surface smooth, dimpled, seersuckered, furrowed or puckered?
Color and variegation are a whole nother catagory as are flowers. 

Totally off topic and not a hosta here Dahila Wildcat!


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## PlentyCoup (Aug 22, 2021)

So i am working on getting space set up for the hosta seeds i am going to post a list of my successful crosses but first i had to share this because it completely floored me.

Last month we bought a Eastern Red Bud from Kytes greenhouse in Bay City. It was $119 half off so only $60 for the tree. It was on a pallet on the side of the building with 2 other Red Buds in clump from.








Picked up the single trunk one with the white paper wrapped around it about 8-10ft tall. Paid for it and said we would pick it up the next day.
So came back and the lady that cashed us out said the owner was going to give us a refund for the tree.
She said that thry were not looking the best and had been set there to be thrown out but we were welcome to take the tree if we wanted. She had forgotten to tell her workers that they were technically not for sale.

So of course I have to rescuse the possibly dead but you cant tell because its dormant tree. Its in a 12-15 gallon pot and now that i have it planted it and knowing what i do, it should have been a red flag that three strong adults could hardly lift it into the back of jeep.
It was cmplete hell trying to get this thing into the jeep. Complete. Hell. I swear it weighed 175-200lbs. Which is strange. A 12-15 gallon pot of soil/compost/pine bark should not weigh that much.

So it gets home and of course figuring out where to put it and then bad weather. Thankfully the the weather has turned around and it got planted today.
So i haul the sucker into the wheel barrow start pulling off the burlap wrapped around the root ball and this is what i find.
















Red Clay. I was floored. So i start trying to dig down and find that it was pot put inside a larger pot. So i thought ok, maybe they were the using the clay as a weight to hold the pot down and it was just dumped on top of the actual potting soil....... nope i was dead wrong.
















This poor tree was dug up, maybe from a grow field, the roots trimmed to fit into this wire basket and planted in 100% red clay.








I am still in complete shock i have never seen anything like this. That tree would have had no drainage just nothing. No wonder it was not growing well.
I add Mykes into the soil around the roots as i planted and i hope the poor thing is able to recover and grow in the spring.
No wonder it was so heavy it was a 15 gallon pot of wet clay.


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