Hi All,
When I purchased this hosta a couple of year ago the tag read H. 'Great Expectations' . Recently it has been brought to my attention that it is not Great Expectations. I own the Hostapedia and several other reference books but haven't been able to pin point an I.d. Does anyone care to weather a guess ...any ideas?

Thanks - dash

Describe it more. Is it leathery, what size, how old, etc. Look at the sticky thread on this forum.
If it is leathery, could be whirlwind.

This is the young Whirlwind I bought last year. They do look alike, and that's two people who said that... so now I'm leaning that way. I'll watch it grow up and see . Thanks for the insight - dash

Do the leaf centres get gradually greener during the summer? Most Whirlwinds will do that. This was my Whirlwind in early June last year.

Bu Aug. 10, they were a LOT greener. In warmer zones, they get nearly all green, (but you shouldn't seen too much greening). BTW, 'Whirlwind' is NOT a fast grower. Mine is about a decade old and has been divided just once.

Yes as you can see in the photo from 09/01/09 it has darkened up some,but I do not see this happening with the older hosta I thought was Great Expectations. They sure do look related though. Thanks for your insight ViolAnn - Dash

Dash - I'm not sure that your hosta is NOT 'Great Expectations'. GE is a large hosta, but grows very slowly. Do you have a vein count? What colour are the flowers and when does it bloom? Leaf size? And I've seen pics of GE that look somewhat different from mine - its one that can vary depending on how much light it gets. This was mine last June and it's a mature plant - about a decade old although I DID have to remove an eye which reverted to green several years ago.

Here's a link to the registry listing for 'Great Expectations'.
http://hostaregistrar.org/deta...

ViolaAnn - I think this hosta was only a couple years old when purchased, so it's still pretty young. The leaf size is 5 x 6 1/2 with 9 vein pair , clump size 31" x 11" . First scape showed up 7/10/09 and started forming seed pods 8/13/09. Had three scape and only four pods total. Lavender flower 2" x 1 1/2" wide, no fragrance. Leaves have good substance and seem pretty pest resistant .That's all I took for notes . I also notice the leaf doesn't lay like yours. BTW that's a beautiful plant you have. - Dash

That DEFINITELY rules out GE. Its flowers are white.

I'll look through my references and see if I come up with any candidates, but probably won't have time today.

Ann

I just came across a pic dated 9/01/09 and now realize that it does darken up , I believe the mystery is solved... I bought two Whirlwind. Thanks for your patience Ann, I have more to I.d. if your up for the challenge - Dennis

The vein count matches too. Let's call it ID'd.

I'm sure up for the challenge of trying to ID more. But it really helps if you give us as much info as possible - see http://cubits.org/Hostas/threa...

Probably also a good idea to have no more than 3 in one thread. However, I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that EACH have its own thread - particularly if you post them all at once, because it will push other people's posts off the page.

Ann

Not sure if I can post more then one pic at a time, but I'll give it a try. I've studied this one for a couple of years and think I might have my finger on it but I'm not total confident. It's had many names and the latest is Montana macrophylla. Clump size 46" x 20" w , leaf size 9" x 12 3/4" L, 14 to15 vp, scape: 33 1/2" , began to flower 7/18/09 , flower : pale lavender 2 3/4" L x 1 1/2" W, slightly fragrant, petiole & scape glaucous green, many flowers @ 50 seed pods.

I guess it's one pic at a time. This is the photo of the same plant 2 months later. - Dennis

It's a nice green, but I'm not real knowledgeable about really big hostas since I have a city lot and specialize mostly in small-medium hostas.

Hi ...anyone home Here's one I picked up at a library sale last year, no tag . Clump size 20" x 8" , leaf size 4 1/2" w x 6 1/2 " L' , v.p. (8-9) first scape started 7/16/09 started to bloom 8/13/09 lavender flower 2 1/2" x 1 . sterile. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks- Dash

I haven't looked up the specs but that looks like an Undulata or Undulata Univittata. Do the leaf centres darken during the season? They are more likely to with the former.

Hi Ann, I had it marked in my photo album as Undulata Variegata but I needed confirmation. I have two others very similar I bought from a catalog six years ago. I bought a pack of eight hosta , not one of my brightest moves but this was before I even considered collecting. I was so discouraged the first year, they came up so tiny . Now I'm growing from seed and I get excited to see anything come up

Here's the other. This bed started as a wildflower garden so it still needs a lot of work.