Alex Waterhouse-Hayward: Hosta 'Tardiflora' - An Obsession Almost Satisfied

Hosta 'Tardiflora' Version 01 17 October 2021

On June 8 I will be flying to Minneapolis to give a presentation The Beauty of Hosta Flowers & their Companions to the American Hosta Society’s National Convention.

That has generated in me in the last few days an obsession.

I was to take my old computer with Windows 7 to Bensen at Powersonic Computers in Richmond so that he could migrate its contents into the new computer with Windows 10 and extra RAM that he is assembling for me. But I had to postpone the transfer (today perhaps?) as I have been waiting for my Hosta ‘Tardiflora’ to bloom. In past years this hosta which is the last to bloom in the season did so around October 7. Not so this year and I have been waiting. Why?

To me it was symmetrically important that in my presentation in June I would have the last hosta flower of the season of the previous year. I have written at length how the flower buds on the scape (hosta nomenclature for the flower stalk) are very beautiful. But if I were to project a scan in Minneapolis I would think that at least one flower open would be correct. I place the pot inside lights and I was correct in this as yesterday 17 October there was one flower.

Version 02 17 October 2021

My obsession pushed me to not only scan the scape and flower once but seven more times. Today 18 October, 2021 the scape in the vase had a second flower! And so I scanned that too.

Will I take my computer to Bensen today? Perhaps. Or should I wait?