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| Hosta plantaginea & Rosa 'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain' 8 August 2019 |
The August
Lily is not a lily. Hosta plantaginea (a species hosta) is closely related to
the family of the asparagus. It is called the August Lily as unlike other
hostas it blooms in August and not in June or in September like Hosta
tardiflora.
Hosta
plantaginea has three features that separates it from most other hostas. Its
white flowers are very fragrant. It thrives in full sun (if properly watered)
and best of all in a large garden (not ours) those white flowers are almost
fluorescent in early evening light.
Our one
Hosta plantaginea is in our laneway garden right under Rosa ‘Souvenir du
Docteur Jamain’. This rose is a 19th century hybrid perpetual (false
advertising) that blooms once but the sporadically in late summer. The blooms
are beautiful and the old-rose scent is strong.
But this rose has a nasty habit
of getting that ugly rose disease called black spot. Since strong fungicides
(black spot is a fungus) are banned in BC there is little one can do to reduce
black spot. Nobody from any important garden society is going to come at this
late summer time to opine on our garden so I ignore the black spot. I know well
that I have had this rose for 12 years and it has always bloomed.
Today I
decided to scan both the rose and the hosta flower. I went further and scanned
a rose leaf. I was pleasantly surprised that the black spot is sort of
interesting. And best of all it is evident that my Epson Perfection V700 Photo
is much more powerful than the school microscopes of my youth.
