What Kind of Hosta Has Leaves With Yellow Markings That Change to White Margins?
- Plants use sunlight in a process called photosynthesis to process sunlight to help make food. Cells called chloroplasts give leaves their distinctive green color. Generally speaking, the fewer chloroplasts needed to manufacture food, the lighter the color of the leaf. For hostas, which are shade-tolerant plants, this means that cultivars in bright sunlight may have light green leaves, but the same cultivar in shade will produce more chloroplasts, making leaves a darker green. Blue hosta leaves develop a waxy covering that melts in sunlight or heat, leaving their foliage the underlying green. As the sun rises higher in the sky, many hostas slow their growth and actually lighten their colors to protect themselves from burning.
- Old-fashioned hostas like Hosta plantaginea (August lily) and H. sieboldiana (Siebold's hosta) are large-leaved plants that follow these rules. The August lily grows in part sun to part shade and grows lighter with more sun. Seybold's, a blue hosta, sheds its blue color in the sun. Hybridizers took these and other species hostas from their native Japan and China and worked with generations of plants to create new cultivars with more than one color on leaves. The next step was to capitalize on the hosta's ability to change color as the summer wore on to create two-colored, or variegated, hostas that could change color. Marginally variegated leaves with yellow margins are called aureomaginata and white-margined leaves are albomarginata.
- Most plants, including hostas, begin with leaves that are light "spring" green and darken as summer wears on. Some hosta cultivars have more character, making more dramatic changes, dependent on how much sun they receive. Viridiscent plants leaf out in colors ranging from gold to chartreuse, some with variegation, and become all green. Lutescent leaves change backwards, opening green and turning lighter green to yellow. Albescent leaves change from yellow to white. Medially variegated albescent hostas -- hostas whose centers change from yellow to white -- include cultivars such as Fantasy Island, Paul's Glory and Orange Marmelade.
- As of June 2001, many hostas with margins that mature from yellow to white are available. Some, such as Wide Brim, introduced in 1979, have been on the market for years and others made more recent debuts. Some medium growers such as Great Arrival and Mama Mia prefer shade, but Fragrant Bouquet, also a medium-sized plant, is an albescent that is sun-tolerant. There are even giant members of the class: Leading Lady grows nearly 6 feet across. Some, such as First Frost, the American Hosta Growers' 2010 Hosta of the Year winner, are registered with the American Hosta Society, guaranteeing uniformity in the cultivar.