|
We
are by no means against Tissue Culture. We know that many of the
most sought after plants originate in Tissue Culture. Pete's
parents had a tissue culture lab in our basement and tissue cultured
Azaleas. Having said that, some tissue cultured plants, those
that rely on foliage color, can revert. We also know that some Hostas naturally revert on there own.
We
simply prefer to continue dividing plants to avoid Hostas that looks
like the following. Note: the Half gold, half green leaf is a
dead giveaway. It will not, in our experience, stay that
way. It would be cool if it did, but eventually, it will decide
to be green or gold or variegated but not half and half.
If
it's a really great bargain, maybe you don't mind and they are often
pretty interesting looking but if you're doing a grouping and want
three Hostas that remain the same, you might run into what my sister
did.
 Here's
my sister Bobby's reverted Hosta 'Gold Standard' in a fairly formal
planting in front of shrubs on the side of her house.
Her
other two Gold Standards, planted as a group with this, are gorgeous
and also this large and the 3 together look terrible! They all
looked the same when she bought them. So now she has to divide
this one, cull out the green eyes, and of course do this when the
leaves are up so she can tell which is which. She knows
that most divided Hostas revert back to their immature form, smaller
leaves, different texture and then she'll have to wait several years
for it to catch back up to the other two. They, of course, will
be growing all the while and so this one will never quite catch
up. Pain in the neck. But, hey, she saved a few bucks at
the 'Big Box Store' where she bought them -- right?????
(She
should have bought them from her sister!)
|
