Many hostas do have impressive flowers, some of which are even fragrant. Those are generally derived from Hosta plantaginea, which has 6-inch long, beautiful, white fragrant flowers.
I'm having friend send your query to George Schmid, who literally wrote the book on hosta ("The Genus Hosta", for those who are curious. He taught himself Japanese to learn more about the plants.)
I still am interested in knowing what kind of hosta, because I have never seen one looking like this, starting with the base hosta then with flowers then more hosta...so I will keep tuned in! It is lovely and I would like one like it. And my hosta flowers are impressive,,,because I am a hosta nut and "my children.".blah blah blah...haha!
Bernice H . . .no idea what kind of hosta. I bought it at my local Wal-Mart garden center. This is the 3rd year I have had it, but this is the 1st time it has done this.
The definitive answer comes from hosta expert Bob Solberg, who says "The plant appears to be 'Francee' or possibly 'Patriot'. Hostas will often produce a flower scape with leafy bracts, instead of the usual small ones, if their biological clock has been disrupted. Since this plant is blooming early it "thinks" it needs more leaves to produce enough food to support its flowers and hopefully seeds. The effect is environmental and will probably not appear next year once the plant has been
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acclimated to its new home.
"Many of these plants were harvested in the fields of Holland in the fall and this early spring has forced them up earlier than normal. In fact sometimes, a hosta will go dormant just as it is preparing to bloom and next spring only a scape, no leaves at all, will come up in the spring. It will produce a huge amount of crazy leaves to try to feed itself. The next year it will again be normal."
"Enjoy the beautiful scape this year while you have it. Hostas are amazing plants and continually surprise us. "
Thank you so much Walter. Some have suggested that if I remove this , I can root it and get a new plant. What say you? I have two other hostas that came up very early that seem to have some kind of offshoots on them. This is the fun part of gardening. What will Mother Nature do next??
Well how interesting this turned out to be!! This years bloom doesn't look anything like what my hosta's do - their flowers are a medium blue and doesn't happen til mid summer. I was thinking maybe this one mutated or something. Mother Nature has a way of helping plants & animals survive during unusual climate conditions. EVERYTHING is all confused this year!!
@Donna M. - your Hosta's have the same type of bloom as Beth's?? If so it must be a different type than the rest of us have. Mine are just kind of the "garden variety". They send up a tall stem later in the season and have blue flowers. Hummmm . . . .apparently there are hostas aned then there are HOSTAS!!!!
@Donna . . all hostas bloom every year, but this is quite unique that it sent up a mini hosta and then flowers bloomed underneath it. @ Susan . . read what Walter Reeves had to say about this. Seems to be the crazy spring we have had. I have 2 other hostas doing weird things. They came up extremely early . . almost a month before the rest of my hostas. Will post pics of these as well.
@Beth S. - well, I kinda feel cheated!! So far my hostas are behaving quite normally - darn!!! I did read Walter's post actually. He always has such a wealth of information to share. I was just wondering if the flowers themselves change from the norm or do different varieties of hostas have different flowers??
@Susan, I am not a hosta expert, so can't really answer that question, however, I am becoming more and more interested in them. Just found out we have a Hosta Society here in Indy.
@Beth - isn't it amazing how a simple post, a few questions, alot of comments and suddenly you've gained a wealth of information!!! So, who knows, you may become an expert after all - or at least quite knowledgeable ;~)
"Many of these plants were harvested in the fields of Holland in the fall and this early spring has forced them up earlier than normal. In fact sometimes, a hosta will go dormant just as it is preparing to bloom and next spring only a scape, no leaves at all, will come up in the spring. It will produce a huge amount of crazy leaves to try to feed itself. The next year it will again be normal."
"Enjoy the beautiful scape this year while you have it. Hostas are amazing plants and continually surprise us. "