The
“Longiana” Story (Solberg 2009)
Way back in the fall of 1961 Eric
Smith took some pollen from a late, reblooming plant
of H. sieboldiana
and crossed it on to the first flowers of a H.
‘Tardiflora’ scape. He had
to finish ripening the seeds inside in a solution of sugar and water. He was able
to germinate about 30 seeds of which 14 were blue. The result was his famous
group of “Tardianas”, of which ‘Halcyon’ was the
first introduced from this historic cross in 1974. He was never able to set
seed on ‘Tardiflora’ again. (The Hosta
Journal Vol. 13, page 18.)
He was able to cross this first
generation (F1) with itself and produce a second generation (F2) of very blue hostas with variable leaf shapes. ‘Blue Wedgwood’, ‘Blue
Dimples’, ‘Hadspen Blue’ and ‘Blue Moon’ are some of
the most widely grown. Eric Smith was able to achieve his goal of producing
small, heavily substanced, blue hostas
for the very small garden.
As a group of maybe 30 in number or
more, (they have become collector’s items now and many have been named after
the fact), “Tardianas” are all small to medium size
plants with at least some white wax so that they
appear blue in color. They have good substance and a sort of stiffness and
sturdiness to their personality. Their clumps are usually pretty tight with
dense foliage. They are almost the perfect hostas,
(you certainly could argue that ‘Halcyon’ is), although some of the second
generation seedlings are very slow growing, like ‘Blue Moon’.
Being a student of hosta history and a great admirer of the insight of Eric
Smith, when the rare opportunity of a reblooming H. sieboldiana
presented itself to me in 1997, instead of repeating Eric Smith’s cross, I
decided to use ‘One Man’s Treasure’ as the second parent. ‘One Man’s Treasure’
is a seedling of H. longipes
hypoglauca and for all intents and purposes a
form of the species, H. longipes. My new hostas were
to be “Longianas”. I expected them to be blue, larger
and more vigorous than the “Tardianas”, and well
suited to all growing conditions.
I recovered 15 seeds from that cross
and five seedlings made it to maturity. There was not a ‘Halcyon’ in that group, all were mediocre plants brimming with genetic
potential. In 2001, hundreds of second generation seeds were taken from the F1
seedlings and germinated. Several hundred seedlings were then culled, first for
the best blue color, and second for interesting leaf shapes, and soon there
were only 25.
In 2010, 13 years later, I am
introducing four of my second generation “Longiana”
seedlings. They are a very special group of hostas, a
new genetic combination, not of the historic proportions of the “Tardianas” by far, but a new line of breeding for all hosta hybridizers to incorporate into their seedling
programs. All four are vigorous growing medium to large hostas
with good color and distinct leaf shapes. They have good substance but lack the
stiffness of the “Tardianas” and are more interesting
to the eye. While none may ever rival ‘Halcyon’, ‘Summer Squall’ and ‘Sun
Shower’ are great hostas.