Hosta 'Forbidden Fruit' &  Hydrangea macrophylla 'Ayesha' - 12 August 2025

 

Traditionally Adam and Eve were given the task of naming the plants and animals in Paradise. I am sure that they did not name the apple that they should have not eaten.

Since then, we humans have the obligation and or pleasure of naming.

Because my middle name was Alejandro, Rosemary said we had to name our first daughter Alexandra. While in Mexico City her friends, and everybody else, shortened her name to Ale (pronounced Ah-leh). The name persisted to this day.

In the case of our second daughter, my Rosemary told me she wanted to find an epicene name and called her Hilary. By epicene, my proto-feminist wife told me that it would be up to our daughter to impose gender on her name.

Since Rosemary gently pushed me into gardening in 1986 she insisted I learn all the correct botanical names for our garden plants. When plants are hybridized or on their own grow differently, those people involved give the plants a cultivar name. Thus an oak leafed hydrangea is a Hydrangea quercifolia. Both have to be put into italics. So it is Hydrangea quercifolia. The one in my garden is a cultivar called Snowflake. The then correct name is Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake’ The cultivar name is always between single quotes and not italicized.

With that all out of the way I will now write about today’s scan of two plants. One is Hosta ‘Forbidden Fruit’ and the other is Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Ayesha’.

When we had our Kerrisdale garden we had 37 different varieties of hydrangea cultivars and species and 500 hostas. When we moved to Kitsilano something “had to give”. We brought three hydrangeas and 50 hostas.

This hydrangea is not a normal, everyday mop head. Each floret looks like a teacup. And as it ages during the season (now), it changes into an assortment of different colours. I chose the blue one.

The hosta  unlike some of my other hostas right now is pristine and lovely.

My only addition to my blog here is that the chap who named it must have been thinking of Adam and Eve and apples.

Hosta 'Forbidden Fruit' was hybridized by Marco Fransen. He discovered it as a tetraploid sport of 'Orange Marmalade' through induced mutation using colchicine at a research facility in Ter Aar, Netherlands. The discovery was made in October 2008.

As for Ayesha:

In English literature, "Ayesha" is most prominently known as the name of the powerful and immortal queen featured in H. Rider Haggard's novels, She and Ayesha: The Return of She. She is also referred to as "She-who-must-be-obeyed". The name itself is of Arabic origin and is associated with Muhammad's wife, Aisha. In Haggard's works, Ayesha is depicted as a sorceress who has achieved immortality through the Pillar of Fire.