Hostas have 30 chromosomes in each of the male i.e. pollen, and female i.e. egg, parts. During the normal fertilization process 30 chromosomes come from the mother and 30 from the father for a total of 60. This is called a diploid or 2n plant which represents 2 sets of chromosomes that make up the genetic information in the resulting seeds and seedlings.

Probably the greatest thing for the Hosta Rookie to understand in all this is that sometimes something happens in the cells of a plant which results in more than 2 sets of chromosomes being present. The most common variation you will encounter is when you hear of plants called tetraploids.

Instead of having 2 sets of chromosomes, tetraploids have 4 sets. This occurs occasionally as a natural mutation so there are plants in the wild who are tetraploids such as the species Hosta ventricosa or triploid i.e. 3 sets, like Hosta clausa. However, people have now also figured out ways to treat hostas with chemicals to create plants with extra sets of chromosomes.

Perhaps the first way was an unintended exposure of hosta plants to the herbicides named Surflan (oryzalin) and Treflan (trifluralin). Following this exposure, the nursery person noticed a change in the physical characteristics of hostas.

A second, much more common way that tetraploid hostas have been induced is through exposure to certain plant hormones during the tissue culture process. We will cover tissue culture in greater detail later but suffice it to say that part of the process involves the use of plant hormones such as indole butyric acid (IBA) and naphthalenic acid (NAA). For some reason, certain hostas exposed to this treatment will develop tetraploid plants.

Daylily (Hemerocallis) breeders have been developing tetraploids for several decades. They often use a chemical called colchicine which is an extract from the fall crocus, Colchicum speciosa. It appears that this chemical does not have the same effect on hostas, however.

So, why are we so interested in tetraploid plants? Well, not only do they have a unique genetic makeup, tetraploid plants also generally have some unique physical characteristics including:

1. Plant Size – Tetraploid plants tend to be a bit smaller than diploid plants of the same cultivar and have shorter leaf petioles. However, this more compact structure makes for a denser plant habit.

2. Substance – Compared to a diploid plant, the tetraploid has thicker cell walls and larger stomata guard cells resulting in a leaf with thicker substance. The petioles are thicker also.

3. Flowers – This is the area where the daylily people have made big advances with tetraploids. The flowers of these plants are larger and have thicker petals or, in the case of hostas, tepals. Also, flowers of tetraploids produce larger pollen grains than their diploid counterparts.

4. Flower Scapes – The flower stalks will be shorter and thicker on tetraploids. Often the flowers on the scape will be compacted together in a denser arrangement.

5. Seed Pods – On tetraploid hostas, the seed pods will be shorter in length and thicker.

6. Growth Rate – In general, tetraploid plants will have a slower growth rate than diploids of the same cultivar.

7. Roots – In keeping with the general trait of these types of plants, the roots of tetraploids will often be shorter in length.

8. Leaf Color Variegation – Tetraploids will generally have wider marginal variegation but narrower medial or center variegation.

9. Chloroplasts – Chlorophyll is, of course, the green pigment. The chloroplasts are the structures where chlorophyll resides and where photosynthesis takes place. In tetraploid plants, there may be up to twice as many chloroplasts as in the diploid plant.

10. Leaf Surface – For cultivars with corrugations or ripples on their leaves, tetraploids tend to be more pronounced.

CAUTION: Now that we have told you all the characteristics that may indicate a plant is a tetraploid, be aware that it is not that simple. Even if a plant has ALL of these traits, the only way to know for certain that the plant is a tetraploid would be to subject it to a bunch of different laboratory tests. Also, it would take a person well-trained in the science to examine the morphology of the plant and, perhaps, do some cross-breeding to tell for sure. Most of what you hear about a plant’s tetraploidy will be a matter of opinion. It may well be truly tetraploid but not proven yet by analysis.

Snowdrops – (Galianthus)

Now is the time to create those beautiful displays of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, crocus and other flowering bulbs for next spring. Bulbs planted in the fall must have time to establish roots yet this fall in order to get off to a good start next spring. Many types of bulbs must also be exposed to the chilling temperatures in order to form stems and flower buds.

When selecting bulbs, always avoid those which show any signs of disease, rot or are shriveled and dry. Buy the largest bulbs you can find for best results. Smaller bulbs are often cheaper in price but may not produce good flowers the first year.

For the best display, large groupings of individual species of bulbs should be used. A dozen or more large flowering tulips or two dozen small bulbs such as snowdrops or crocus planted in an area will give an excellent show. It is better to group the bulbs to form a “flow” of color than to scatter individual plants around a large area. Be sure to plant varieties of differing heights such that the taller ones are to the back of the bed and the shorter stemmed plants are in front.

Jonquill – (Narcissus jonquilla)

In mixed perennial beds, plant daffodils and other perennial bulbs toward the middle of the bed or the back of the border. They are the only plants in bloom at that time of the spring so, even though they may be relatively short, you do not have to plant them in the front row. Remember that the foliage of these bulbs must be left to grow until it turns brown and dies which can take until the middle of the summer. By planting the bulbs back into the bed further, other plants can emerge later in the spring and camouflage the browning foliage.

Planting depths vary depending on the size of the bulb. Generally, the bottom of the hole should be about two and one‑half times the diameter of the bulb. A one inch crocus corm should be placed in a 2 ½ inch hole while a 3 inch tulip bulb needs a hole about 6 to 7 inches deep. In heavy clay soils, the bulbs should be planted a bit more shallow while in sandy soils they can be a little deeper. Bulbs planted too shallow may not survive the winter while those set too deep will be short stemmed and weak growing.

For large plantings, dig the area down to the proper depth and work some bone meal into the bottom of the excavation. For a more informal look, spread the bulbs randomly around the planting area and then adjust for proper spacing between plants. If you prefer straight rows, align the bulbs with proper spacing so that the plants can expand properly and yet fill the area with color.

Flat Side Down!

On most bulbs, the roots come from a flat “basal plate” at the bottom of the bulb. When you place the bulbs, this plate should be gently pushed into the soil to assure good contact. Avoid using too much pressure or you may damage the bulb and prevent root growth.

Cover the bulbs with the soil that came from the hole and replace any mulch which was in the bed. For bulbs which are hardy for our area, you do not need to add any extra mulch.

Occasionally, squirrels will dig up bulbs or dogs will scratch away the soil in search of the bone meal. One method for preventing this is to place a layer of chicken wire a few inches above the bulbs and below the surface of the soil. This will allow the stems to emerge but will discourage the animals from digging down to the bulbs.

Those are a few basic tips for success with bulbs. As always, if you have landscape gardening questions or have a topic you would like to see covered, please let me know. Also, I have recently published a couple of eBooks that you might want to check out. The titles are, “A Rookie’s Guide to Designing Beds and Borders” and “A Rookie’s Guide to Implementing Beds and Borders“.

I am currently working on the next eBook, “A Rookie’s Guide to Hostas, Hostas, Hostas” which should be ready by the end of November, 2012. Also, “A Rookie’s Guide to Maintaining Beds and Borders” is in the works for February of 2013.

I think some of the confusion comes from a couple of factors. First, in their effort to make a quicker return on their investment, some nurseries sell tiny, little TC plants in two inch pots. Of course, it may take a year or two for these to grow to the size of a single division taken directly from a mature mother plant. But, they will eventually catch up.

If for example, both plants came from an H. ‘Sum and Substance‘ mother plant, they should both eventually grow to the same mature size given similar growing conditions. It may take the under-sized TC plant a little longer because it started as a smaller plant. If the TC plant is grown to a larger, more typical,  size at the nursery before it is offered for sale, there should be little or no difference between it and a similar size hand-made division. When both plants are grown under similar light, fertilizer, water and other conditions, they will be virtually identical when they reach mature clump size.

Another point of confusion may come from the fact that there seem to be a lot of sports produced during TC. Sports are “spontaneous” changes in the morphology i.e. external traits of a plant. These kinds of changes tend to happen to hostas more than most genera of plants. Whether in the wild populations, in gardens or nurseries, it is quite common to find otherwise solid colored hostas suddenly developing a set of variegated leaves. Or, for variegated plants to “revert” back to the solid base color.

If the new characteristics of the sport are unique or “outstanding”, this changed division may be separated from the mother plant and grown on. Providing that the changed foliage color “stabilizes” over a period of years, the plant may be introduced as a new, named cultivar. The process of finding these changed plants in the garden or nursery is called “sport fishing”.

Finding new cultivars from sports in a random garden is fairly unusual. After all, even the largest of all hosta gardens such as those at Wade and Gatton Nursery in Belleville, Ohio will have “only” about 3,000 different cultivars of hosta. The average hosta enthusiast may have 300 to 500 cultivars in his or her garden. Therefore, the odds of finding an outstanding new sport are rather slim.

In larger tissue culture labs, the number of worthy sports that are discovered is usually way, way above average. There are basically two reasons for this to occur.

One factor is that part of the tissue culture process is to expose the developing plantlets to a type of naturally occurring plant hormone called a cytokinin. In nature, cytokinins are involved in the development of new buds and in hostas, this includes those buds that produce new sets of leaves from the crown. This is a totally natural process, however, in the TC lab, it is pushed at an accelerated rate. So, the TC plants are producing many, many, many more buds in a relatively short time as compared to their counterparts growing in the garden.

The other factor in TC is that, over a period of 6 to 12 months, literally tens of thousands of an individual cultivar may be produced. So, in a greenhouse situation, there may be say, 10,000 H. ‘June’ growing side by side. How many gardens would a sport fisher have to visit to see this many of one cultivar?

Given the exposure to the plant hormones that stimulate buds and the creation of huge numbers of the same cultivar in a short time and space and you can see that the possibilities for finding outstanding new sports is pretty high. No wonder people such as Hans Hansen and Clarence (C.H.) Falstad who work at major TC labs have registered many outstanding new cultivars of hosta in the past couple of decades.

In the end, the key thing to remember is that all the “non-sports” that come out of the TC lab should be perfectly fine and just exactly like the mother plant cultivar. Quality control at the lab and greenhouse should separate the sports (good and bad) from those that are shipped to the ultimate consumer…the home gardener.

Want to learn more about hostas, the Number 1 selling genus of perennial plants? Well, we are in the process of writing several eBooks about hostas, their care and use in the home landscape. These are part of our “A Rookie’s Guide to…” series of landscape gardening ebooks.

The first in the collection, A Rookie’s Guide to Hostas, Hostas, Hostas, is now available in .PDF and .ePUB formats at Lulu.com. For more on this and our other ebooks…give us a click.

Seedlings of the boxelder tree (Acer negundo) have prominent “leaves of three” and are often mistaken for poison ivy.  As they grow, however, they soon form a tree-like central stem and stand upright on their own. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a vine and needs something upon which they can grow such as a tree trunk or fence to raise their foliage toward the sun.

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is not a fir (Abies species), however, Kirk Douglas was the star of Sparticus. Douglas fir was named after the plant explorer, David Douglas. It is a tree that somewhat resembles a hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) thus the genus name, Pseudotsuga. The specific ephithet, menziesii, is in honor of another famous plant explorer, Archibald Menzies. Gee, there some of these scientific names actually do have some rhyme and reason.

Dutch elm disease killed primarily American elms (Ulmus americana). The disease is believed to have come from Holland on some veneer wood, thus the name. You would be amazed at how many people think that it attacks “Dutch” elms when there is no such thing…as far as I know, anyway.

Oregon grape holly (Mahonia aquifolium) is not a holly (Ilex species). It may be from Oregon but the purplish fruit it develops are not good for making wine…at least not in the classic sense. I know that people make wine out of all kinds of stuff including dandelion greens so who knows.

The roots of black walnut trees (Juglans nigra) form a substance called juglone that is poisonous to many other plants. Tomato plants growing near walnut trees will often wilt and die in late July. However, many other plants do not seem to be affected. For those that are impacted by juglone, the chemical gets into the roots and soon gums up the water carrying vessels. Thus, the plants start to wilt during the hottest part of the summer when water demands are greatest.

Our beloved, Hostas used to be called Funkia after a guy named Heinrich Christian Funck. There was a rock group called the Funkadelics but I don’t think they had anything to do with hostas. Hostas were also called Plantain Lily but that too has been largely abandoned by the gardening public. Today it is simply, Hosta.

All azaleas (Rhododendron species) are actually rhododendrons (Rhododendron species). Only a small number of rhododendrons are azaleas. How do you tell the difference? Heavy duty fans of the genus have several ways they use to divide the thousands of species and cultivars of rhododendrons. However, one simple delineation is that rhododendrons generally bear their flowers at the tips of their stems. Azaleas generally have flowers all along the length of the stem too.

Spider mites are not insects. Insects have six legs. Spiders and their relatives have eight. Eight is Enough was a television program back in the 70’s. Perhaps the key here is to know that many of the commonly used insecticides are aimed at…guess what…six legged creatures. They may not be effective against the eight legged critters that are sucking juices from our plants. You can learn more about insects and even help us identify some…Name That Bug.

Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) has red berries borne at the tips of the branch. Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix or Rhus vernix) has white berries borne along the stem. Chuck Berry is one of my favorite singers. Poison sumac is almost always found in wet, swampy areas while staghorn sumac is usually found in higher ground.

Grape hyacinth are not hyacinths. They are in the genus Muscari. Their fruit makes lousy wine. See Oregon grape holly above for a discussion of wine makers.

Bats have their young during the first two weeks of June. The runt of the litter is always named Robin.

Yellowjackets, wasps and hornets live just one year. Only the queens survive the winter and re-establish new nests the following spring. The rock band, “Queen” minus their wonderful, late lead singer, Freddie Mercury, maintains a nest in England.

Design criteria such as plant form, texture and height are important considerations for any landscape. The ideal situation is to have a nice balance of such traits so the garden does not become monotonous. Too often, perennial gardens are dominated by rounded or mounded forms and daisy-like flowers. Here are a few tall, upright perennials that will provide contrast and variation in form, texture and height to the other plants in a bed or border.

Delphiniums

Delphinium – This majestic beauty is most associated with the magnificent gardens of England or the Pacific Northwest. They will grow in more temperate areas too but they may require a little extra care. Plant them in a site protected from the wind for best results. They emerge early in the spring, so be prepared to cover them if frost threatens. During the growing season, the very tall types such as the Pacific Giant hybrids may need staking and a shot of extra fertilizer if their leaves begin to turn yellow during the growing season. Finally, individual plants tend to be short lived and may need to be replaced after four or five years.

Foxglove (Digitalis)

Foxglove – Although there are perennial foxgloves, the most commonly grown ones are biennial i.e. Digitalis purpurea. The first year from seed, they form a rosette of low growing leaves only. The second year, they flower, go to seed and die. Self-seeding keeps new plants coming for future years. Fortunately, most biennial foxglove will “bolt” meaning that they will bloom the first year from seed. Colors of perennial and biennial types of Digitalis range from dark pink to yellow. The trumpet flowers are attractive to hummingbirds too.

Bugbane (Actea racemosa)

Bugbane – Actea racemosa (formerly Cimicifuga racemosa) is a woodland plant that bears tall, white spires of flowers in late summer. The foliage grows to about two to three feet in height and the flowers may stand up to 6 feet tall. They prefer a moist, shady location and may be grown as companions to hostas since their fine textured foliage and upright form contrast well with the generally more rounded and low growing hostas.

Hardy Lilies – Daylilies (Hemerocallis sp.) have grass-like foliage and survive the winter as a storage root or crown. Each flower lasts only one day. Hardy lilies (Lillium sp.) such as the Easter lily, are bulb plants. They have a single, long stem ranging from 18 inches to over 6 feet in height which bear several flowers that each last for weeks. There are many types and colors of flowers with some being extremely fragrant. Most lilies prefer sunny, well drained sites although the martagon lily will do fine in the shade.

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

Cardinal Flower – Lobelia cardinalis may have either green or bronze foliage. Brilliant red flowers emerge in summer from a stem that may reach 4 or 5 feet in height. Cardinal flower enjoys sun or some shade and a rich, moist soil.

In my garden, I have trouble growing cardinal flowers. It seems that chipmunks like to climb up the plant and strip off the “skin” of the stem. Perhaps they like to lick the sweet sap since they do not appear to eat what they have pulled off.

Gooseneck Loosestrife – Perhaps not as commonly grown as the other plants, Lysimachia clethroides would make a handsome addition to any garden. The white flower spikes arch gracefully from the top of 24 to 36 inch stems. It prefers full sun and a moist soil for best flowering but will do quite well in partial shade. Allow room for expansion since this plant will “move” a little by rhizomes beneath the ground but it is not overly invasive.

Although the name is similar, this plant is no relation to the pink flowered “loosestrife” which is clogging many lakes and wetlands. That one is in a different genus named Lythrum.

Dwarf Astilbe (Astilbe chinensis)

Astilbe – There are many varieties of astilbe ranging in height from 12 inches to 4 feet. Astilbe taquetti, the fall astilbe, produces a beautiful 3 to 4 foot tall lilac spike. It is good for the back of the flower bed and, like most astilbes, will do well in either sun or shade. They are also well adapted to wet sites such as next to a pond or stream.

Dwarf astilbe (Astilbe chinensis) makes a great companion for hostas.

Iris ‘Fiesta Time’

Iris - The tall, bearded iris provide a nice upright form and beautiful flowers in early summer. Remember that they need excellent drainage and should not be planted too deep. The rhizome should be just at the surface of the soil.

Siberian iris (Iris siberica) are a good alternative for the wet site. In fact, they may be grown right in the water of a backyard pond.

Gayfeather - The species Liatris provides several plants that display a tall, usually purple, spike during the summer. Most varieties are 3 to 4 feet tall although the cultivar ‘Kobold’ seldom exceeds 30 inches. Unlike most other spiked plants, the flowers of Liatris open from the top of the inflorescence downward.