{"id":1389,"date":"2015-07-20T04:33:04","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T12:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:31:57","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:31:57","slug":"fragrant-hostas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/fragrant-hostas\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragrant Hostas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Venus'--So<\/a>
‘Venus’–So beautiful in bloom; so finicky ninety-nine percent of the time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everyone I know grows hostas.\u00a0 They are unparalleled for filling up space in shady spots and will increase happily, as long as you remember to put out Tony Soprano-style contracts on the local slugs and deer.<\/p>\n

Some gardeners, who have made the appropriate slug and deer arrangements, might call hostas \u201cthe perfect plant.\u201d\u00a0 Perfect, that is, if you aren\u2019t fond of flowers.\u00a0 Typical hosta blooms are smallish, purplish trumpets that appear in summer atop gawky, nearly-naked stems that generally seem too tall for the plants.\u00a0 Fastidious gardeners clip off the stems, choosing to glory in the leaves and forget about the flowers.\u00a0 This hardly seems fair, since the flowers, despite their relative insignificance, provide sustenance for pollinators.<\/p>\n

I am not that fastidious.\u00a0 However, I do remedy the ugly-blossom problem by choosing fragrant hostas to help fill up my lightly shaded areas.<\/p>\n

Though they are less well-known than their unscented relatives, fragrant hostas\u2014Hosta plantaginea and its offspring\u2014are commercially available if you know where to look.\u00a0 They are old-fashioned garden plants with lots of nicknames, including August lily, Corfu lily, white plantain lily, white daylily, Japan lily and funkia.\u00a0 August lily is the most common, as well as the most appropriate, because the plants generally bloom in early August.\u00a0 As for the other nicknames, I am not sure what Hosta plantaginea has to do with Corfu.\u00a0 All hostas used to go by the generic name \u201cfunkia\u201d, but they are not and never have been daylilies, which belong to a different plant family.\u00a0 Unlike most traditional hostas, which are descended from plants native to Japan, members of the plantaginea species descend from Chinese hostas.<\/p>\n

There are over fifty, allegedly fragrant varieties, but according to plantsman and nursery owner, Tony Avent, fewer than thirty of those are truly fragrant and genetically stable, not to mention commercially available. Hosta plantaginea is a progenitor of all of them.\u00a0 If you are starting a fragrant hosta collection, this species form is the place to begin.\u00a0 It grows about twenty inches tall, with glossy, medium green leaves.\u00a0 The flowers are white without even a tinge of lavender and may be up to six inches long.\u00a0 Unlike the flimsy blooms of other hostas, August lilies are more lily-like–waxy in texture and substantial.\u00a0 Some writers describe the fragrance as being as sweet and pervasive as honeysuckle.\u00a0 Plantaginea flowers open in the late afternoon, so you can enjoy them after work.\u00a0 They are also attractive to local hummingbirds and make great cut flowers, if you can stand to bring them indoors.<\/p>\n

If you are paging through catalog offerings in search of sweet-smelling hostas or surveying out-of-bloom plants in the nursery, look for names that start with the word \u201cfragrant\u201d.\u00a0 Like other hostas, plantaginea varieties and hybrids feature a number of leaf colors.\u00a0 Some have golden-green or variegated foliage as well, which adds interest in months other than August.\u00a0 The large-leafed variety, \u2018Fragrant Bouquet\u2019, is an award winner with medium green leaves edged in cream.\u00a0 Left to its own devices, it may grow up to forty-eight inches wide.\u00a0 The tasty sounding \u2018Fried Bananas\u2019 features the same fragrant white flowers as its plantaginea relatives, but also boasts golden-green leaves.<\/p>\n

\"'Ming<\/a>
‘Ming Treasure’ features variegated leaves and fragrant flowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lovers of blue-leafed hostas may choose \u2018Ambrosia\u2019, which features blue leaf edges and a glaucous or slightly frosted coating on the foliage.\u00a0 It is a big-leafed variety that may expand to a muscular fifty-four inches wide.<\/p>\n

A few fragrant varieties also bear purple-shaded flowers. Little \u2018Sugar Babe\u2019, at only ten inches tall and sixteen inches wide, is one of them.\u00a0 It sports a thin white margin on each leaf edge and pale purple blooms.\u00a0 True to its name, \u2018Sugar Babe\u2019 is a natural for smaller garden spaces or containers.<\/p>\n

My experience with August lilies has been excellent, with one exception\u2014\u2018Venus\u2019.\u00a0 This gorgeous plant features very large, fully double white flowers with a divine smell\u2014or at least that\u2019s what I hear.\u00a0 In my own garden\u2019 Venus\u2019 leafs out nicely and forms buds, but only blooms about once every five years.\u00a0 To say the plant is finicky is an understatement.\u00a0 If weather, temperature, humidity and the alignment of the planets are not just right, \u2018Venus\u2019 will sulk and refuse to open her petals.\u00a0 It is almost a relief when this goddess is nibbled by Mr. Antlers.\u00a0 At least then I don\u2019t have to explain why it has failed to bloom yet again.<\/p>\n

If you are one of the few gardeners burdened with too much sunny space, take heart.\u00a0 Plantaginea hostas tolerate more sun than other types.\u00a0 Many of them, in fact, flower better with less shade.\u00a0 If you have a hosta bed that is shaded on one end and sunny on the other, use the plantagineas to fill the sunny end.<\/p>\n

Whatever you do, position the plants where they can be appreciated for their beautiful flowers and divine scent.\u00a0 If we had still had outhouses, they would be a perfect border for the path to the privy.\u00a0 Since most of us have moved beyond that, plant your August lilies near paths, under frequently-opened windows or adjacent to sitting areas.<\/p>\n

Find your plantaginea varieties and hybrids at specialty retailers.\u00a0 One good supplier is New Hampshire Hostas, 73 Exeter Road, South Hampton, NH 03827, (603) 879-0085, www.nhhostas.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Another wonderful source of hostas and all kinds of unusual plants is Plant Delights Nursery, 9241 Sauls Road, Raleigh, NC 27603, (919) 772-4794, www.plantdelights.com<\/a>.\u00a0 The print catalog is available for an unusual price–ten first class stamps or a box of chocolates.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone I know grows hostas.\u00a0 They are unparalleled for filling up space in shady spots and will increase happily, as long as you remember to put out Tony Soprano-style contracts on the local slugs and deer. Some gardeners, who have made the appropriate slug and deer arrangements, might call hostas \u201cthe perfect plant.\u201d\u00a0 Perfect, that … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[1229,215,1228,214,1226,1225,1227,1224,211,126],"class_list":["post-1389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-august-flowers","tag-august-lilies","tag-corful-lily","tag-fragrant-hostas","tag-fragrant-shade-plants","tag-funkia","tag-ground-covers","tag-hosta","tag-hosta-plantaginea","tag-shade-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}