Hosta 'Shirofukurin Wakayama'
 

This non-registered cultivar is a sport of H. kikutii polyneuron from Japan. It is a small size hosta with ovate leaves about 4 inches long that are wavy at the edges. The green foliage has a very narrow, irregular white marginal variegation. Lavender flowers bloom from August into September.

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) and the term yama as mountain.

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.

Herb wrote that " ...two H. kikutii plants, each with white (cream in the spring) margins, were obtained from Watanabe Nursery...in 1988. Both plants were labeled H. kikutii polyneuron 'Albomarginata'. 'Albomarginata' is an invalid name. Furthermore, the two plants differ in many ways and came from two different areas of Japan. I would suggest renaming these plants 'Shirofukurin' (meaning white-edged) and the area where the plants were found (Shikoku or Wakayama)...H. kikutii polyneuron 'Shirofukurin Wakayama' has leaves that are four inches long and two and one-half inches wide, with only five pairs of veins and with a very narrow and irregular white margin. The petiole is equal in length to the leaf blade. This is the smallest of the three plants....All three of these plants have wavy leaves and variegated edges - they are jewels in any hosta lover's garden!"

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'.

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





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