Streaked Hostas

What do streaked hostas look like?

Streaked hostas produce irregular patterns of white, yellow, green or blue throughout the leaf in hostas. Each leaf of a streaked hosta is different from other leaves in the clump, and will vary from year to year as well or they can become stable as well. While useful for breeding, the plants are also quite striking in the garden. However, a gardener must check the plant to remove any divisions or leaves that have reverted to a solid color, or the entire plant can revert to a solid color. Many hosta lovers are fascinated with and enjoy the beauty of streaked hostas. Examples of streaked hostas are:

H. Dorothy Benedict

H. Galaxy

H. William Lachman

H. Ice Age Trail

Search the HostaSearch Database for streaked hostas under leaf characteristics.

Instability in streaked hostas

Hostas in general are quite unstable compared to most plants, but streaked hostas are especially unstable. Hosta leaves have two layers of tissue, the layer around the edge and the layer in the center of the leaf. Each layer can be a different color. This difference results in the typical margined or medio variegated hostas. In streaked hostas these two layers are mixed together. When these layers are mixed together the two different tissues try to separate or group together with their own kind to form a more stable margined or medio variegated hosta. If the leaves that are reverting so that they are not streaked are not removed, unstable, streaked hostas will eventually become more stable and become either a solid colored hosta or a margined or centered variegated plant.

In addition to their unique beauty, another benefit of streaked hostas is their genetics. Streaked hostas are the only reliable way to grow variegated seedlings. Occasionally, a variegated seedling will arise from a non-streaked plant, but seed collected from solid colored and marginal or medio variegated hostas normally only result in solid colored seedlings. Seed collected from streaked hostas usually will result in a percentage of streaked seedlings.

Stable streaked hostas

There are a few varieties of hostas that reliably remain streaked with little or no special care. The streaks in these stable streaked hostas are usually more uniform and more evenly distributed across the entire leaf than typical streaked hosta. The coloration is generally more subdued in these plants. What makes these few hostas stable is unknown, but the difference also affects the seedlings from these plants. Stable streaked hostas usually produce a very low percentage of streaked seedlings, if any, and are of little interest to hybridizers who are hybridizing for variegation. These special streaked hostas are much easier to propagate in tissue culture, so are usually available cheaper than most streaked hostas.

The following Hostas are considered stable streaked Hostas:

H. Spilt Milk

H. London Fog

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