In the past, planting Streaked Hostas was a privilege of a small group of experienced gardeners, who knew the secret of its care. However, nowadays, more and more Streaked Hostas are starting to appear in the catalogs of specialized garden shops. This happened even though growing Streaked Hostas is not always easy. Let us point out some problems and difficulties associated with growing these beautiful perennials. If you don’t want to be disappointed, it is good to know some basic demands and requirements of these great plants. This knowledge will allow you to take appropriate care of them and enjoy their beauty for a long time. 

This is an example of a relative regularly striped Hosta (Bohemia Big Bang). There is a good chance that this cultivar will be stable. Photo: V. Mirka.

Streaked Hostas are unstable in color

After buying a Streaked Hosta you will probably get one that has most of the leaves streaked. But very often, not every leave has the same intensity of variegation. Some leaves are less, some are more streaked. However, usually there are no solid-colored leaves in the clump. Your Hosta grows beautifully until autumn, then it loses its leaves after the first frosts. And a surprise will come in the spring. That amazing, wonderful Streaked Hosta from last year, does not have all leaves streaked; some leaves are stodgy solid-colored - green or blue or can be edge or center variegated in spring. In the worst case (it could also happen) not one leaf remains streaked and all clump is undesirably colored (solid-colored or edge or center variegated).

What has happened? Why does this Hosta, you bought for 30 to 40 or even more than 100 euros, not grow as you expected? Why it suddenly looks different? This is, because Streaked Hostas are unstable in color. Most Streaked Hostas show some degree of instability. All other Hostas are quite stable, but not streaked ones. While in case of non-Streaked Hostas, each new leaf has the same characteristics as other leaves, in Streaked Hosta this is not the case. New leaves in originally Streaked Hosta can often appears as solid-colored or can be edge or center variegated.

This picture of variegated Hosta shows, how irregularly colored its individual leaves can be (Bohemia Three in One). Process of stabilization is in progress and this Hosta will probably continue to grow as a more stable plant with edge or center variegated leaves. Photo: V. Mirka

This Hosta (Buffalo Bill) has relatively regular streaked leaves, but from time to time undesirably colored leaves should be removed to maintain its streaks. Photo: D. Zúbriková

High price

This special behavior (instability) is also transferred to the price of Streaked Hostas. Professional Hosta producers have the same problems as their customers when growing Streaked Hostas. The color instability of these cultivars means, that finally not all plants that the vendor prepares for sale, can be sold. The reason is, that due to their instability, some of the new leaves are undesirably colored and do not meet the standards. Reliable Hosta vendor ship Streaked Hostas late in the spring (he waits until Hostas open the leaves), to be sure their leaves will be the same as last year. Hosta shops usually “release” Streaked Hosta for sale at the earliest in May. If you buy a Streaked Hosta in our e-shop, please take into account that your order will be processed only after the Streaked Hostas will open the leaves, so shipment of your order could be slightly delayed in same cases.

Nowadays, there are several innovative and very effective plant production technologies, that make it possible to produce plants in large quantities at relatively low (affordable) prices. Unfortunately, this is not the case of Streaked Hostas. If they are propagated via high-tech tissue culture methods, most of the new plants are solid-colored resp. edge or center variegated. Only a very small part of the new plants is streaked. Therefore, even this method of production does not reduce their price.

High production losses due to their instability and high proportion of handwork in their production causes, that the price of most Streaked Hosta cultivars is still very high. For example, the price of the rare, Streaked Collector Hosta Super Ego, streaked sport of Empress Wu, a fabulous, very rare and fertile Hosta, is still about $ 1,000 per plant (2021).

 Hosta Kaleidochrome is a very stable streaked Hosta. Photo: V. Chaborek.

Hybridizing Streaked Hostas is the only reliable way to get variegated seedlings

But let’s not talk only about the problems with growing variegated Hostas. Let us look at these wonderful plants from another point of view. Many people now are trying to grow variegated seedlings. More experienced gardeners know, that it is not easy at all. Only occasionally a variegated seedling can arise from a non-streaked plant and seeds collected from solid-colored and edge or center variegated cultivars normally only results in solid-colored seedlings.

However, if you already own a Streaked Hosta cultivar, your chance to get variegated seedlings is much higher. If you want to get variegated seedlings, it is essential to collect seeds from streaked “female” plant. Pollen will not transmit variegation to offspring as significantly, if any! If you use Streaked Hosta cultivar as a “female” plant, and collect seeds from it, the probability that many seedlings will have streaked leaves is very high. It does not matter whether the “male” plant (the cultivar that provided the pollen) was streaked or solid-colored.

How to get marginal or mediovariegated Hosta?

Seed collected from solid-colored and edge or center variegated cultivars normally only results in solid-colored seedlings.  So how to get edge or center variegated Hosta cultivars? That is an important question and not many Hosta gardeners know this secret. In the past, only the most experienced breeders knew how to do it. They knew that if they will grow an unstable Streaked Hosta plant in the garden, one day, due to its instability, it could happen that a new bud will have more stable two-colored leaves. We say that the Streaked Hosta stabilizes into a more stable form. Then all you have to do is to cut off the new bud, plant it alone in a flowerpot or flowerbed and you can have a new Hosta cultivar. Such edge or center variegated bud is usually fairly stable. 

A new bud (in the front part of the picture) of this Streaked Hosta (Bohemia Wild Waterfall) stabilized into a nice two-colored form - green center, cream edge form. Photo: V. Mirka

 After separating the two-colored bud from the picture above, you have a new Hosta with overhanging leaf, wavy and wide cream edges. And from Bohemia Wild Waterfall (Neat Splash x Jade Cascade) you get Bohemia Romantic Waterfall. Upon registration, it will then be stated that this is the sport of Bohemia Wild Waterfall. Note and photo: V. Mirka

 Also, here you can see progress of stabilization of a Streaked Hosta (Bohemia Budgie). A green form with a wide creamy white edge arises. This Hosta has green, streaked, white bordered and white centered leaves. Note and photo: V. Mirka.

Iconic Streaked Hostas

Some Streaked Hosta cultivars have been grown for many years and allowed many new cultivars to emerge. They have become true icons between Hosta cultivars. Such Hostas are: Hosta Breeder’s Love, Christmas Tree Gala, Brave Attempt, Lakeside Mom, Well Shaked, Justice, Dorothy Benedict, Galaxy, Sally and Bob and others.

 Hosta Galaxy

Hosta Paradise Lighting

How to maintain Streaked Hostas to be continuously streaked?

If an unwanted color appears on the leaves of a Streaked Hosta, it can have a negative effect on its further development. This is because solid-colored leaves usually are much more vigorous compare to streaked ones. These vigorous leaves develop relatively fast to solid-colored leaves and as a result, your Streaked Hosta can become completely green or blue after a few seasons. To prevent this, you must pay extra attention to the Streaked Hostas in the flower bed. If you leave a Streaked Hosta untouched for 2 – 3 years, it could happen, that the streaked leaves will completely disappear, and you will have a stable, only solid-colored plant. To prevent this, it is essential to remove every unwanted leaf.

If you grow the Streaked Hosta cultivar in a pot, standard procedure is to pick up the plant from the pot and divide out the non-streaked divisions. This is the most reliable method of removing stable divisions and keeping the unstable, streaked part.

If you are growing Streaked Hosta in a flower bed, it is not necessary to dig out the plant completely. Just take a knife with a longer blade and cut the unwanted tissue with leaves out of the clump, sometimes it is enough simply to break off unwanted leaves. You can remove the unwanted leaves and plant tissue at any time during the season. Such a “healed” bunch without unwanted stable part, has a good chance to maintain its original color in the next season. Apart from this “maintenance cut”, the Streaked Hosta does not need any other special care, comparing to non-Streaked Hosta cultivars.

Hosta Sweet and Sour is very nice, but a relatively unstable cultivar, therefore it needs your attention. If you remove unwanted leaves and tissue, it will keep its beauty for years. Photo: D. Zúbriková

Stable streaked Hostas

Now you already know, that Streaked Hostas need to be divided to maintain their streaks. How frequently you need to do this, depends on the variety. There are Streaked Hostas, that tend to stabilize very quickly and you will need to divide them every year. We speak about very unstable Streaked Hostas. However, there are also cultivars, that are slower to stabilize and may not require any maintenance for several years. To our experiences, stability is usually higher in those Streaked Hostas with dense and very regular variegation. Stability is lower in Hostas with large differences between the patterns on the individual leaves and these plants have a strong tendency to stabilize.

Highly stable Streaked Hostas include Hosta Kaleidochrome, Hyuga Urajiro, Kiyosumi Seiryu, Geisha, London Fog, Stargate, Korean Snow or Hosta Spilt Milk. If you divide such a Hosta, probably all new plants will also be streaked and looking exactly as the parent. Solid-colored, marginal or medio variegated leaves rarely appear in the clump and these cultivars may not require almost any maintenance for many years…

This is another example of Hosta (Bohemia Fresh Color) with relatively regular striped leaves. There is a good chance, that this Hosta will be relatively stable. Photo: V. Mirka.

Streaked Hostas in our offer

We currently have several Streaked Hosta in a very limited supply. If you order them, please accept that your order may be delivered with a very slight delay in spring, we must wait until your Hosta grows true to the type before we send it to you.

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