Hosta seeds

Discussion in 'Outdoor Gardening in the Pacific Northwest' started by coast, Sep 6, 2011.

  1. coast

    coast Active Member 10 Years

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    Does anyone know where I can buy hosta seeds in Canada? Thanks!
     
  2. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Were you hoping to find specific cultivars (not possible to procure via seed, as the seed won't be true to parent) or species?
     
  3. coast

    coast Active Member 10 Years

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    I'm not fussy - someone told me that I could grow hostas by seed - do you think this is worthwhile?
     
  4. Pieter

    Pieter Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Depends on what you expect. Only species will come true from seed, as said above, provided you can be sure they have been self-pollinated and not open-pollinated. With open-pollinated seeds you never know with certainty who the pollen donor was and it becomes a crapshoot, even more so with open-pollinated cultivars, which would be the vast majority of hosta seeds you will encounter.

    Having said all that, growing hostas from seed can be fun for no other reason than you never what you'll get. Fertility varies greatly among the 100's of cultivars, with a good many only setting seed sparingly whereas others can be just laden with pods and seeds. Personally I enjoy dabling with hosta seeds produced from my own intentional crosses as well as open-pollinated seeds. For example, I have a 2nd year seedling out of 'Sea Octopus' I'm keeping a keen eye on, but that was just one out of probably 100+ I sprouted. Most others ended up in the compost at the 4-6 leaf stage and of the dozen or so I kept back there are at the most 3 that are sufficiently interesting to grown on to maturity.

    I have not seen hosta seed offered for sale at retail level, but, why don't you google 'hosta seed for sale' and see what comes up.

    Pieter
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2011
  5. coast

    coast Active Member 10 Years

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    Interesting points to consider, thanks for passing along your experience. I'm sure your hostas look great - especially with a name like Sea Octopus!
     
  6. WesternWilson

    WesternWilson Active Member 10 Years

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    Daniel, I never thought of collecting seed from my hostas and growing it out...one of my first gardening projects in my teens was growing out packets of coleus seed (you could not then buy coleus plants at garden centres) just to see what I got. It was a lot of fun.

    Could you detail "best methods" for harvesting and growing out hosta seeds for the home gardener?

    Regards,
    Janet
     
  7. Pieter

    Pieter Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    While I'm not Daniel, let me answer your question from personal experience.

    Harvesting hosta seeds is done when the first of the pods starts to show signs of popping open. When that is depends on the variety, just keep an eye on them.

    Sowing and growing can be done indoors under lights over the winter -which is what most hybridizers do- so you have decent sized seedlings to put outside in the spring. I haven't the room to do that myself, so I do mine outdoors in the spring and as said above, I start culling them at the 4-5 leaf stage, at which point I can get a fair idea of the potential for growing on. Further culling happens when they start to leaf out the next spring.

    The bulk of what you'll get will be fairly plain-jane all-green seedlings, you'll need to grow a lot of seedlings and be prepared to cull 98% of them in your search for something unique.

    Good luck!
     

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