Walters Gardens,
Inc. of Michigan and
Clarence (C.H.) Falstad, III of Michigan registered this cultivar in 1993 which is noted for
its extra double flowers. It is a sport of H. plantaginea
'Aphrodite' which
accounts for the fragrance of the blooms which appear in August.
An article about H. 'Yu Lei' by Warren I. Pollock in
The
Hosta Journal (1998 Vol. 29 No. 1) states that "This is
a British introduction from Notcutts Nurseries...It was brought to the U.K. from
China...The name means "White Fairy."...has a multiplicity of flowers with
different number of flower petals (tepals) ranging from double flowered to
double-double flowered (24 petals). The latter already has a name, H. 'Venus'."
An article about favorite flowering hostas by
C.H. Falstad in
The
Hosta Journal (2006 Vol. 37 No. 2) says, "Picking one
hosta flower is like settling for one flavor of Ice
Cream the rest of your
life...H. 'Venus' - how can you beat a huge, pure white, deliciously fragrant
flower...'Austin Dickinson': Wow! Large, fragrant, with dark purple stripe son
white background in the inside and purple and white perpendicular bands on the
outside, upright scapes with flowers held out at 90 degrees...'Hirao Majesty',
solid medium purple with deep purple anthers...Large flowers with pointed petals
(tepals)...Many people call 'Hirao Majesty' the bird-of-paradise of hostas, and
the unopened scape and bracts resemble that plant quite well."
W. George Schmid
continued in the same piece, "The best
flowers are on H. plantaginea and its multi-petalous cousins, 'Venus'
and
'Aphrodite'...H. capitata in bud is fine, but its offspring, 'Nakaimo' has
flowers that begin with the shine of precious porcelain and stay closed in bud
longer...H. kikutii forms all have fine and late flowers, but the best are on
H. kikutii var. densa (H. densa). They are white and form a tight bunch at the top
of the scape. H. laevigata has large, spidery flowers in abundance; its cousin
H. yingeri has smaller ones with the same spidery character and dark color.
These spidery flowers are carried all around the stem unlike other hosta flowers
that, "lean to one side...Finally, mature clumps of 'Blue Angel' and 'Elegans'
have a beautiful flower display when many flowers on different scapes open in
unison..."
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