Hosta 'Crystal Moon'
 

A sport of H. 'August Moon', this medium size (18 inches high by 30 inches wide) cultivar was registered by Dr. Alan Tower of Washington in 2002. The broadly ovate foliage is slightly rippled, convex and heart shaped. It bears fragrant, pure white flowers in August. Seed viability was unknown at the time of registration.

The registration materials state: "...3 inch diameter, fragrant flowers."

According to The Hostapedia by Mark Zilis (2009), "Unfortunately, I cannot distinguish it from 'Fragrant Bouquet', which it matches in both foliage and flowering characteristics."

The New Encyclopedia of Hostas by Diana Grenfell (2009) states in its Hosta Hybrids for Connoisseurs chapter: "Vigorous, a moderate to rapid increaser. A superb recent introduction, still rare but deserves a higher profile...The flower, which has also mutated, is white and deliciously fragrant..."

In an article in The Hosta Journal (2016 Vol. 47 No 2), the author described this plant's flowers as having a "Strong" fragrance compared to other hostas.

In recent years, there was some slight controversy concerning the parentage of this plant. It appeared unlikely that a fragrant flowered plant would come from H. 'August Moon'. An article by Dr Bob Olson in The Hosta Journal (2018 Vol. 49 No. 2) helped to put this discussion to rest. Bob wrote, "...Jim Wilkins (the Registrar of hostas at the time) was visiting Alan in Spokane..they came across a specimen of 'August Moon' with a sported division. Jim Wilkins himself used a knife to separate it from the mother clump. This was not a seedling found near or next to the 'August Moon' clump. Both of them recognized it as different and worthy of registration--at the time they did not know about its fragrance."

 

An article by Warren I. Pollack in The Hosta Journal  (2020 Vol. 51 No. 1) titled Doppelgänger Hostas: Fancy Name for Look-alike Hostas, included a long list of hostas which various hostaphiles, published articles or other sources have indicated "look" the same. Some of these are, in fact, the same plant with two or more different names. Others are hostas that vary in some minor trait which is not immediately discernable to the casual observer such as seasonal color variations, bloom traits, ploidy, etc. So, as Warren mentions, hostaphiles may differ as to the plants listed but then, their opinions are based on visual observations and interpretations.

 
H. 'Crystal Moon', H. '' and H. 'Fragrant Bouquet'.



   

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