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Old 14-07-2004, 05:03 PM
Frank
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hosta Plantaginea Aphrodite advice requested

"Vox Humana" wrote in message ...

I would have planted each section of the crown in its own hole, reducing the
competition for water and nutrients. Hostas do best in soil that has been
amended with organic matter and that stays evenly moist, but not wet. I
would give them some fertilizer now and move them in the spring.


I will do as you suggest, especially since it appears that if the
small plants continue doing as well as they have been, they will soon
be too crowded in their present arrangement.

There
seems to be a trade-off between fast growth and flower production on one
hand, and retention of color and avoidance of sunburn on the other hand.
Planting in more sun generally yields more flowers but the leaves can get
burnt and the color can fade.


Then I may have a no-win situation with my Aprhodite. I won't give
up for a while, though. A house on 6A has several striking clumps of
Plantaginea that bloom profusely and fragrantly in early September. I
can't be absolutely sure that they are Aprhodite, but they sure seem
like it [double white flowers, intense scent, blooming season,
apple-green foliage color]. The present owners have no idea what they
are and say the previous owners didn't either. But they also say that
I wasn't the first to pull over in traffic and walk back to comment.
[That gives you some idea of what I meant by 'striking'! ]

The blue hostas don't seem to do well at all
in the sun.


Agreed. In my experience some leaves on Love Pat go green with as
little as 2 hours of intense [noonday] sun even if shaded the rest of
the day, and Krossa Regal tends to lose its 'frosting' with as little
as 1/2 sun.

You might want to read the comment posted he
http://plantsdatabase.com/go/3421/ as one poster seems to have experienced
the same problem that you report


Thanks for the link. My experience with the varieties mentioned there
has been slightly different. For me, Francee grows in almost any
degree of sun, although in full shade it is much greener and the clump
tends to be smaller. Paul's Glory seems to be extremely light
sensitive. I have two clumps with classic coloring, brilliant yellow
centers fading to yellow-white. A third clump, barely a foot away,
gets about 30 mins less sun per day and stays two-tone green. My
Frances Williams [the original was a gift from her to my mother years
ago when we lived in Winchester] shows striking text-book colors in
1/2 sun at my place in Maine. Here I can't seem to get anything but
two shades of green no matter where I put it; the proper pattern is
still there but both colors are clearly green, not even a hint of
bluish or yellowish. I wonder whether soil acidity or too much
organic matter may be a factor.