Clint- I like your question: favorite fragrant hosta? But there could be several answers. Favorite plant, appearance throughout the growing season?
Most fragrant? Most vigorous through adverse conditions (drought, cold or hot temperatures, etc.)? I have a fairly large collection of fragrant hostas, and I would be giving different answers according to different criteria. Here in Minnesota, my fragrants are just now sending up the flower scapes, although one ('Dark Shadows') is already finished. That one is far from the "most" fragrant, but is very tough and is a beautiful clump. I started a personal project 2 years ago, of
evaluating degree of fragrance according to my sense of smell. As each cultivar bloomed I rated it as 1) very fragrant, 2) moderately fragrant, and 3) slightly fragrant. But 2012 was a poor year to start this project as I had moved many cultivars from the main hosta area to my new Fragrant Hosta Glade, and some of those didn't bloom. Last year I also had inconsistent bloom because of 2 years of very dry conditions. So this year I hope to get a decent "sniff" test for every cultivar! Then I will be able to compare my opinions on those that I have a record of and see if my opinion changes from one year to the next.
But I agree with all of the choices mentioned so far, and I especially like 'Moonlight Sonata' on all criteria. And 'Guacamole' is certainly high on my list of favorite hostas overall, both fragrant and non-fragrant. I'll try and come up with a "top-ten" list once they have started blooming, and that will be difficult to narrow them down to only ten!
