Fragrant Hostas

Margaret Roach interviewed me for an article in the New York Times. It’s online, first, and might make it into a Real Estate Section of the Sunday print edition in the future. Among the things we talked about, were hostas. I cover them in the new book, The Scentual Garden, and included a list of some of the fragrant descendants of the heirloom species, the “plantain lily.”

There are nearly as many Hosta varieties as there are daylilies, but you can practically count the ones with fragrant flowers on your fingers and toes. They all have something in common: Hosta plantaginea “blood” in their parentage—this is the main species with floral/sweet fragrant flowers, similar in scent to Japanese honeysuckle. Hosta flowers usually open in the morning, but H. plantaginea opens late in the afternoon, preparing to attract night pollinators with long proboscises. Unlike nearly all hostas that only produce a flush of new growth in the spring, this one continues to make new leaves through the season. The species name comes from “plantain” (one old common name for the hosta was plantain lily, perhaps because the green seed-bearing fruits are long and thin and banana-like). While most hosta hail from Japan and Korea, H. plantaginea comes from warm Southern China and is an old favorite in Southern gardens due to its heat tolerance. Northeasterners may take hosta like this old one for granted, but Coastal California gardeners, plagued by European snails, ache for them.

We’re lucky now that there are scented varieties with plantaginea parentage. The first one was ‘Honey Bells’ with purple flowers—it is a cross between plantaginea and the famous H. sieboldii, which has bluish leaves and purple flowers. Early variegated fragrant hostas were ‘Iron Gate Glamour’ and ‘Iron Gate Delight’. H. ‘Fragrant Bouquet’ combines variegation (chartreuse with a wide cream-colored margin) and broad leaves.

‘Stained Glass’ (left) is the first fragrant hosta to bloom in my garden. It has striking green leaves with a wide yellow center and white flowers that have a slight hint of violet on the buds. A sport of that one is appropriately named ‘Cathedral Windows’. One of the most popular ones is H. ‘Guacamole’, with light green leaves and a darker green margin. H. ‘Ambrosia’ is a sport with blue-green leaves that appear to have milky wax dripped on them.

Here’s a list of Fragrant Hostas

‘Aphrodite’

‘Austin’

‘Bennie McRae’

‘Buckwheat Honey’

‘Diana Remembered’

‘Emily Dickinson’

‘Fragrant Blue’

‘Fried Bananas’

‘Fried Green Tomatoes’

‘Hosier Harmony’

‘Invincible’

‘Ming Treasure’

‘Mistress Mabel’

‘Night Life’

‘Old Faithful’

‘7th Heaven Streaked’

‘Heaven Streaked’

‘Royal Standard’

‘So Sweet’

‘Sombrero’

‘Sugar and Cream’

‘Sugar Babe’

‘Summer Fragrance’

‘Sweet Sunshine’

‘Sweetie’

‘Warwick Essence’