Hi Folks,

Newbie here..... Love your forums.. Wish I would have found you's sooner.

Have a question. Do you folks grow Hosta's from the seeds you can buy ( i.e Amazon, etc) ?
If so, what's the success rate? Any special needs? Etc?

Donna

I have not grown any plants from seeds purchased. But I have grown hostas from seeds collected from seed pods. It was easy to germinate them, hard to keep critters from digging them up, and I only got plain green hostas. However they are nice plants and I like them just because I did grow them from seed.
Just went out and took a photo and they are blooming now, they will have seed pods later.

Hi Larry,

Your Hosta's look very healthy, you should be very proud of them. Thanks for your information.
But Hmmm... I don't remember seeing seed pods on mine. Do they all get them?

No, not all and they don't come true from seed. In other words if you do manage to get viable seeds, the resulting plants may or may not resemble the parent plant very much.

Thank you for the information, I'll watch mine closely and see if they seed this fall.

What do you think about the packaged seeds?

I don't have any experience with them, perhaps someone else here can respond to that.

Why do you want to grow hostas from seeds?

I know that question was probably directed to one person, but I'd like to broaden it to everyone? Why would you want to grow hostas from seeds. Why tomatoes, why daylilies, why any plant?
Because we are gardeners and we enjoy watching the miracle of watching a tiny seed turn into a garden full of homegrown plants. Because of the surprise result you get and the wonderment and excitement waiting to see what result you will get! Because it is an interesting hobby and quite entertaining. Or even maybe because you want a bunch of cheap plants!

I have many seedlings started by Mother Nature. If they look interesting, I'll let them grow. If they're just a plain green, I pull them like weeds. I've had a couple of streaked ones come up and surprise me! I have two pretty yellows that seem to hold the color for most of the season. Several blue ones growing out there, too. Most of the seedlings are plain green though. Leave your flowers on the plant, let them produce seed pods. When the pods dry they will open and drop seeds that may produce seedlings! Have fun with it! I've never bought our trades seeds, but you may be able to find someone with seeds for sale or trade on here. Check out that forum.

Larry, I agree with everything you wrote, and I still want to know why Shy wants to grow hostas from seeds.

Like Rose, I have volunteer seedlings everywhere, and many are gorgeous. The are overcrowding many plants, and it would be nice if others would take them. Most people want named hostas. I do not want to be dishonest and give the plants a name just to satisfy these people.

Last week I dug up this one, potted it, instead of feeding it to the chickens.

Hi Rose & Profesora,

I have a large area in my yard, that'd rather shaded. I'd love to put some Hosta's in there. Not matter the color...
Green is fine. I would love to take your unwanted hosta's from you. I'll send yous a T-mail.

Thanks for the post.....

Shy_gardner said:Hi Folks,

Newbie here..... Love your forums.. Wish I would have found you's sooner.

Have a question. Do you folks grow Hosta's from the seeds you can buy ( i.e Amazon, etc) ?
If so, what's the success rate? Any special needs? Etc?

Donna

Hi,

I grow hostas from seed, but I wouldn't buy hosta seeds unless they have come from a known streaked plant. Any hostas grown from seeds will be hybrids and unless you are doing the pollinating yourself (getting up early enough to beat the bees), it can be a bit of a crap shoot as to what you will get. Well over 90% will end up being uninteresting solid green plants. You CAN get such characteristics as ripply leaves, red petioles, sometimes yellow or blue, but rarely variegated unless the pod parent was streaked. Also the seedling will take 4-6 years to mature - it's very difficult to guess what they will look like at maturity; so while you do need to be prepared to cull, you also need space to grow them until you decide whether they have keeper characteristics.

Having said all that, I've got a nice variegated seedling from 'Spilt Milk'. The margin is much wider this year than last - it's about 3 years old. I've also got a mature hosta from 'Last Dance' which is a reverse variegation from the pod parent and looks nearly identical to 'Dance With Me'. And I've got a lovely solid blue from 'Deja Blu' and some solid yellows. So it can be fun to try. But ask and people like me will probably send you seeds at no charge. (Tricky for me because I'm in Canada, but message me with an address and I'll send you an envelope with some of what I have left from last year. It IS possible they might not get across the border.)

Hi Ann,

How sweet of you, to offer.... Thanks for your post.

I wasn't aware that there is so much involved with the growing of Hosta.
I'd always loved them, just for their airy leafing. Sounds like it's not a good idea
to buy retail hosta seeds.... I'll send you a T-mail....

Donna,

I don't let most of my seedlings get very big. I usually pull them once I see they're not going to be interesting. I will keep an eye on my streaked hostas this fall and see if there's any seeds I can share with you. Fickle Blue Genes usually has seeds. Another plant that seems to seed itself in my gardens is coral bells. I'm not even sure where the seeds are on these plants, but there's two big ones in my yard that I never planted!

Welcome to the Hosta forum, Donna

Donna!

Hi Teresa & Rick,

Thanks for the warm welcome.... Look forward to this site...
Everyone is Awesome, and so helpful... Glad I found yous...

Donna

Donna,

I will ship this Saturday.

Hi Gerry,

That is so generous, of you to ship some....
Just let me know what I owe you in postage.

And, Please let me know if I have anything
I can send you....

Do you like Tropicals/Succulets ???
Joseph's Coat is pretty Awesome and is always
of interest when I have visitors..

Looks like snapping Crocodiles heads.

Donna

I am from the tropics and I sometimes long for tropical plants. I am from the Amazon Valley, Brazil.

What do you have?