Hosta 'Stitch In Time'
 

Rob Mortko of Made in the Shades Gardens in Kansas registered this tissue culture sport of H. 'Summer Breeze' in 2004. It was granted a U.S. patent in 2007. This cultivar is a small size (7 inches high by 18 inches wide) hosta with gold colored foliage that has a thin green medial (center) variegation. The leaves are ovate, unruly and curved. Pale lavender flowers bloom in July but this plant does not bear many flowers.

According to The Hostapedia by Mark Zilis (2009), "...has a unique appearance...This look, combined with its very thick substance, indicated a change in ploidy level..."

From the Field Guide to Hostas by Mark Zilis (2014), "This is an odd plant, not one for widespread landscape usage, but one to feature in that special bed alongside 'Embroidery', 'Whee', and 'Praying Hands'...As the plant matures the wrinkling becomes more intense."

The New Encyclopedia of Hostas by Diana Grenfell (2009) states in its Hosta Hybrids for Connoisseurs chapter: "The new leaves emerge solid green, the center gradually turning yellow. This hosta will always be a talking pint so should be placed where its interesting leaf can be seen close up...The green leaf center appears to be "stitched" onto the yellow margin, the irregular vein pattern causing distortion and puckering this area of the leaf."

This cultivar won the 2011 Kevin Vaughn Award at the First Look hosta competition as the best sport as chosen by the AHS Judges.

An article on "Look Alikes" in The Hosta Journal (2007 Vol. 38 No.1) listed H. 'Woop Woop', H. 'Stitch in Time' and H. 'Mango Tango' as cultivars that are difficult to distinguish from each other.

An article by Dr. Ben J.M. ZonneveldWarren I. Pollock, Rob Mortko and Steve Chamberlain in The Hostta Journal (2009 Vol. 40 No. 1) states that, "Every few years, a totally new kind of hosta cultivar appears. Hosta 'Stitch in Time'...is such a cultivar...Why 'Stitch in Time' has this unusual leaf structure is a mystery. Also a mystery is why, in propagation...by tissue culture, the percent of true-to-type plants is abnormally low; there is an uncustomary large number of solid green and solid yellow culls."




United States Patent: PP18061   (2007)

Abstract: A new and distinct cultivar of Hosta named ‘Stitch in Time’, characterized by its wide yellow colored leaf margins and its unique gathering and stitching where the yellow leaf margin tissue meets the dark green center tissue.



 

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