Hosta kikutii
'Kifukurin'

An article by W. George Schmid in The Hosta Journal  (1996 Vol. 27 No. 2) states that This is a duplicate, incorrect or outdated name for Hosta kikutii 'Kifukurin Hyuga'.

Mikiko Lockwood in an article on The Hosta Library titled, A Little About Japanese Hosta Terms defines the term shirofukurin or shiro fukurin as white-edge(d) or white-margin(ed).

There are at least 4 plants with this name but each one comes from a different species including H. kikutii 'Kifukurin', H. longissima 'Kifukurin', H. pulchella 'Kifukurin' and H. venusta 'Kifukurin'.

 

This non-registered cultivar is a sport of H. kikutii from Japan. It is a medium size hosta with medium green colored leaves that have a narrow chartreuse to yellow marginal variegation. Pale lavender flowers bloom from late August into September.

We went back and checked the original article and the name was printed as H. 'Kifurkurin'. Looking at The Genus Hosta by Schmid (1991), we found that this plant is actually H. 'Kifukurin'.

An article by Dr Ralph (Herb) Benedict in The Hosta Journal (1992 Vol. 23 No. 1) discusses three forms of H. kikutii brought from Japan in the Minnesota garden of Hideko Gowen.

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H. kikutii 'Kifurkurin'

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H. kikutii polyneuron 'Shirofukurin Shikoku'

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H. kikutii polyneuron 'Shirofukurin Wakayama'

Herb wrote that " ...in 1982 she obtained the yellow edged one, H. kikutii 'Kifurkurin' - it was labeled H. kikutii 'Variegata'. 'Variegata' is an invalid name from Mr Negishi. The plant has leaves eight inches long by four inches wide. The leaf petiole is one and on-half to two times as long as the leaf blade. It has a chartreuse margin about one-fourth of an inch wide and a center which is a medium green. The bloom stalk is short and erect with a typical bird-head shaped bud. It blooms  in late August in Michigan with pale-lavender, wide-flared blooms....All three of these plants have wavy leaves and variegated edges - they are jewels in any hosta lover's garden!"




   

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