Hosta 'American Gothic'
 

The plant pictured above is of the non-registered cultivar from Dr. Doug Beilstein.

This is one of those cases where there are two hostas with the same name. One is registered and, therefore, the "official" version of H. 'American Gothic' while the other is a non-registered plant and normally would need to be renamed to avoid further confusion.

However, in an article of The Online Hosta Journal (Vol 41 2010), Mark Zilis states that the registered plant was "...lost and no longer exists. I'll be submitting an amended registration."

Note: A check of the registration website in January, 2019 indicates that no such change has been made to the original registration.

 

Greg Johnson of Iowa registered this cultivar in 2008. It is a sport of H. 'Blue Arrow' that grows into a medium size hosta about 16 inches tall with a spread of 30 inches. Its foliage is blue-green with a medium green medial (cetner) variegation. The leaves are broadly ovate with a flat base. The tubular flowers bloom from mid-July into August.

Hosta Helper will call this plant 'American Gothic' (Johnson)

 

According to Mark Zilis, then owner of Q&Z Nursery in Illinois, in The Online Hosta Journal (Vol 41 2010), "The plant that the Midwest Regional Hosta Society bought from us and distributed as 'American Gothic' at the Midwest Convention this past summer is a stabilized sport of a Dr. Doug Beilstein hybrid of 'Color Fantasy' × 'Sea Drift'."

Hosta Helper will call this plant 'American Gothic' (Beilstein)
 

Wow. So the "official", registered plant does not exist anymore and there is a different plant being sold under the same name. That non-registered plant is a sport of an unnamed hosta which was a seedling from a cross by Dr. Doug Beilstein. And they say there is sometimes confusion in the world of hosta names...


 

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