 Registered by
Dr. Ralph (Herb) Benedict of Michigan in 1987, this
self-pollinated seedling of H.
'Dorset Blue' has deep blue foliage and typical
Tardiana-type characteristics. It forms a medium size (16 inches high)
mound of nearly heart shaped leaves that have thick substance. The flowers are a
very pale
lavender and appear in August.
The Hosta Handbook by Mark Zilis (2000), says that this plant falls into a category of
"cultivars that exhibit many
Tardiana traits but are
not a part of
Eric Smith's original group."
The New Encyclopedia of Hostas by
Diana
Grenfell (2009) states: "In essence a derivative of the Tardiana Group."
 The
Hosta Journal (1993 Vol. 24 No. 2) contained an article
by
Dr Bob Olson regarding a visit he and others made to the garden
of
Dr Ralph (Herb) Benedict. "We spent the afternoon looking at the
end result of his marvelous hybridization scheme. Dr. Benedict would
recite the perfect logic by which such crosses were conceived and
executed. Tardianas to the F-6
generation were created by crossing the most fertile of one hundred
'Dorset Blue's with their
most fertile offspring. He ended up creating more new Tardianas than
Eric Smith had done. (Smith was thwarted at the F-3 generation
when he ran into relatively sterile plants.) The blues Dr. Benedict
chose to name are all rather small and very blue indeed. In order of
decreasing size: 'Blue Jay', 'Blue
Ice', 'Blue Chip', and the
smallest of the lot 'Blue Urchin'...Somehow
in his crosses he came up with a pure Tardiana hybrid which is
streaked and splashed - and give variegated seedlings (often fifty
percent or more)...he produced a 'Dorothy
Benedict'-like-Tardiana, 'Dorset
Clown'. The possibilities of this plant ignited our
imaginations: can you envision a whole series of variegated Tardiana
offspring?"
An article about favorite blue hostas in
The
Hosta Journal (2006 Vol. 37 No. 2) reported the
responses of the following hosta hybridizers:
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