This sport of the
species starts with a gold
center in the spring turning to all green by late season
(viridescent). Grown
in the
Netherlands since 1956, this plant was
registered by
The American Hosta Society as
H. ventricosa 'Aureo-maculata'
in 1986. Schmid (1991) changed the name to the current spelling.
It is a large size
plant about 22 inches high by 47 inches wide. The gold centered foliage in
the spring sometimes with streaking too. Leaves have a
heart-shaped base and are long and twisted at the tip. Medium
purple, bell-shaped flowers are borne on tall (43 inches) scapes
in July.
According to
The Hostapedia by Mark Zilis (2009), this cultivar "...makes one of the splashiest mounds
of host foliage for a few weeks in the spring. By the middle of
June in northern Illinois, the leaves have turned green and are
virtually indistinguishable from
H. ventricosa
itself."
This cultivar has been awarded
the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in the
UK.
Nomenclature changes recommended in the
1991 book The
Genus Hosta by
W. George Schmid and accepted by The American Hosta Society would update names as follows: H. ventricosa 'Aureomaculata'
and H. ventricosa 'Aureomarginata'. It may have been sold
at one time as Mackwoods No. 29.
An article about H. ventricosa 'Aureo-maculata' and 'Aureo-marginata' by W. George Schmid in
The
Hosta Journal (1985 Vol. 16) states that, "H. ventricosa is one of the oldest hostas in cultivation...The variegated form of
H.
ventricosa that is now identified with the cultivar name of 'Aureo-marculata'
can be traced back to P.F. von Siebold's time. In 1876, E. Regel published a
paper on hostas in Germany and in it referred to a "Funkia ovata forma
aureovariegata."...as a possible synonym for 'Aureo-maculata' form."
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