Schmid (1991) made a major effort to bring better organization to the members of the genus, Hosta. He made changes to some basic concepts such as changing plants that were historically thought to be species into cultivar status. Schmid also created groupings of hostas that were traditionally treated as separate cultivars but, in his opinion, were so similar that they may actually be the same plant with different names. Finally, he also expounded on the creation and lineage of the Tardiana group of blue-green hostas created by Eric Smith of England.
 

The key reason for changing status was that there was no evidence that these plants ever existed as natural, "wild" populations. In fact, it appears that most of them were actually plants developed in nurseries by selection or through seedling propagation of crosses of unknown plants. This happened back in previous centuries in either their native Asian lands or after they had been brought to Europe and no records were kept on the plant's true history. 
 

Schmid (1991) found that certain hostas that have the same parentage or lineage are identical or nearly identical to each other. These plants may have been originated in several different places and were each given a different name even though their physical traits may be the same. Schmid divided hostas known at the time his book was published that would fall into the following various categories.:
 

	H. 'Fortunei Albomarginata' Group
	H. 'Fortunei' Variegated Group
	H. 'Sieboldiana' Aureomarginata Group
	H. 'Sieboldiana' Mediovariegata Group
	H. 'Sieboldiana' Yellow Group
	H. 'Tokudama Aureonebulosa' Group
	H. 'Tokudama Aureonebulosa' Yellow Group
	H. 'Tokudama Flavocircinalis' Group
	H. 'Tokudama Flavocircinalsi' Yellow Group

The so-called Tardiana hostas were created by Eric Smith of England in the 1960's. Read more under the About the Tardianas link below.
 

	About the Tardianas
	Tardianas by Generation
	Tardiana German Group
	Tardiana Yellow Group
	Plants Related to Tardianas