My Little Hostas

Ladies and Gentlemen
I have often seen accent plants in exhibitions and many of them are magnificent.
To my mind they are often too large to compliment the tree.
With this in mind i set out to find smaller pots and plants to make as small as possible for exhibiting with my smaller trees
Gordon Duffett helped me a lot of the pots and i had to have some of celia bartons as they are also special.
i have used a pound coin so you can see the scale, since taking the pictures i have now got some of my hosta leaves even smaller than my little finger nail.
regards
steve
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Lovely accents Steve! How long have they been potted? I presume the leaves take a while to reduce in size?

Those are really nice Steve. I have been searching around for dwarf hostas to try and get a collection started. Do you happen to know the name of the ones you have? Thanks for sharing them.

The most common is Hosta venusta. Responds very well to a small pot, but gets much bigger if you give it room. Nice flowers. The variegated forms of this species are lovely, but I have found them too delicate. One of the easiest mini hostas is H. gracillima 'Saishu Jima.' It has narrow pointed leaves. Susceptible to chlorosis. Flowers are disappointing. It blooms every year, but opens only one flower at a time, and they only last a day. There is a variegated form of this species, 'Kifukurin Ko Mame,' which is pretty sturdy. I think you can get these from the mail order houses.
Iris

Jim Doiron wrote:Those are really nice Steve. I have been searching around for dwarf hostas to try and get a collection started. Do you happen to know the name of the ones you have? Thanks for sharing them.

Hello Jim
I got mine through the RHS Plant finder and ebay but the best one for you will be Bali-Hai Plants in northern ireland where he has all of his hostas listed from tiny to extra large. He has some good descriptions and photos of most of them and he posts plants world wide.
The owner is Ian and he is very helpful.
regards
steve

will baddeley wrote:Lovely accents Steve! How long have they been potted? I presume the leaves take a while to reduce in size?

Hi Will, I have roughly halved the size of the leaves in 2 to 3 seasons and i cut out any larger leaves and it produces smaller ones similar to pruning trees, they are also liquid fed and placed away from where id watered them , this is so the slugs and snails do not home in on them. pelleted fertiliser is a no-no it attracts them from miles away.

Jim Doiron wrote:Those are really nice Steve. I have been searching around for dwarf hostas to try and get a collection started. Do you happen to know the name of the ones you have? Thanks for sharing them.

Sorry Jim i forgot to add Hosta Venusta is a very good start and Hosta Minor , baby bunting is the blue one in the photo, i will add some more pictures soon.when looking on the bali-hai website look for the ones which make mini to small mound for best results.
regards
steve

Or you could take a look at over 40 mini Hostas on my site here. Not all are still available, as I am building stocks back up after a bad winter. I'm always adding the best mini varieties that I can find and breeding some new ones.

My favourite at the moment is Blue Mouse Ears.

Kev Bailey wrote:Or you could take a look at over 40 mini Hostas on my site here. Not all are still available, as I am building stocks back up after a bad winter. I'm always adding the best mini varieties that I can find and breeding some new ones.

My favourite at the moment is Blue Mouse Ears.

blue mouse ears is a really good hosta and i will be getting the frosted mouse ears next year they are a lovely blue colour.the only problem is getting them really small but i will try!

I've found pure Akadama helps in dramatically reducing leaf size after a couple of years.

Kev Bailey wrote:I've found pure Akadama helps in dramatically reducing leaf size after a couple of years.

Same here but as mine are really small they dry out easily so i put some leaf mould in and a bit of grit but the leaf moule is for the water retention. Especially with Duffett pots for some reason they dry out really quick.

If they are drying out too fast, I'd lose the grit, it's inert and just an aid to drainage, after all. Mine all sit on a bed of well watered sharp sand, to keep them damp. They drop roots down into the sand occasionally but I pick them up and inspect often enough to prevent the rooting becoming "permanent"!

Kev Bailey wrote:If they are drying out too fast, I'd lose the grit, it's inert and just an aid to drainage, after all. Mine all sit on a bed of well watered sharp sand, to keep them damp. They drop roots down into the sand occasionally but I pick them up and inspect often enough to prevent the rooting becoming "permanent"!

thanks i was thinking of that but it was in my mix this year i will modifiy it a bit more for next year
regards
steve

Jim Doiron is in the US. Try Meehan's Miniatures, http://www.meehansminiatures.com/. Also Julian Adams in Lynchburg, VA. There are others. Try Googling.
Iris