One of the things I like best about hostas is how easy it is to grow more hostas from seed. For the past several years I have been collecting seed each fall and growing seedlings under lights through the winter. By spring I have good-sized hostas that are as beautiful as any hostas I could buy, and each has amazingly different characteristics. It is commonly said that the only hostas you get from seed are the “plain green” variety, but this is just not true. No two seedlings will look exactly alike… a hosta seedling will not be a copy of the parent hosta… and seeds from the same hosta can produce very different looking plants. Often seedlings will show characteristics that seem to come out of nowhere, like twisted tips and scalloped edges on seedlings when I have no adult hostas with either. Many of my seedlings have developed into hostas that closely resemble many of the “named” varieties.
Here are some of my seedlings grown from seeds collected from my own hostas… as you can see, they have some very different looks.
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Mrs. M.
How fun to see what the seed turns into!
Martin W.
Your hostas are very striking. I didn’t realize it was possible to grow such a wide variety of hostas from seed. Do you have pictures of some of your other hosta seedlings that you could share with us? Great blog, BTW. –Martin
Andrew
Great hostas — great photos too. Congrats!
beckie
would you share how you do this?? i have 4 hosta’s and i would like to try growing some seeds. yours are so pretty. thanx
Hadias
I would also be interested in a how-to on growing hostas from seed. My hosta’s are begining to flower now.
Sheryl
Very cool – I just assumed they’d come out pretty weird looking, knowing that they probably wouldn’t come true from seed. Now you should start hybridizing….
sandy
great article. thank you. I too am a hostaholic. a new one I might add. I am seeding with the paper towel method. fumbling in the dark, but I am learning.