The variety of hosts is amazing, and in order not to get lost in their amazing world, you need to have a general idea of what these wonderful plants are, from which you have to make a choice, what to take as the basis of a garden composition. Let’s talk about the color polyphony of these plants and their flowering.
Coloring the host
Breeders have managed to achieve great success in obtaining host varieties of very different colors. There are beauties with monophonic leaves of deep green and blue flowers, many varieties of light tones, as well as variegated, with a border on the leaf plate and even with red petioles.
Green Hosts
Among them are all the nuances of green — light green (‘Maggakesh’, ‘Lemon Lime’), emerald (‘Emerald Necklace’), olive (‘Pistache’), the colors of chartreuse liqueur (‘Inniswood’, ‘Chartreuse Waves’, ‘Color Glory’) or green apple (‘Millennium’, ‘Green Mountain’).
Variety of green nuances host: ‘Paul’s Glory’ (1), ‘Avocado’ (2), ‘Emerald Necklace’ (3), ‘Paradigm Joy’ (4)
There are dark green, almost black (‘Black Hills’, ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Devon Green’).
Blue Hosts
There is a large line of blue hosts. For example, ‘Blue Arrow’, ‘Blue Shadows’, ‘Blue Umbrellas’, ‘Blue Wedgwood’, ‘Bressingham Blue’, ‘Hadspen Blue’, ‘Love Pat’, etc.
Blue hosts: the famous ‘Halcyon’, the progenitor of many varieties (1), ‘Blue Vision’ (2), ‘Bressingham Blue’ (3), ‘Rhythm and Blues’ (4)
Among them there are blue-gray (‘Blue Boy’, ‘Blue Cadet’) and blue-green varieties (‘Blue Angel’).
The ‘Blue Wedgwood’ variety is named after a famous brand of English porcelain.
Yellow Hosts
It should be noted that yellow hosts are exclusively the result of breeding, it is impossible to meet them in nature. In addition, they are capable of either turning green during the season (viridescent — ‘Marrakech’, ‘Amber Tiara’), or from green in spring to yellow in summer (lutescent — ‘Jimmy Crack Corn’, ‘August Moon’, ‘Sum and Substance’, ‘Golden Waffles’, ‘Inniswood’).
Lutescent hosts, constantly changing color, delight with their endless transformations all summer — and the greening ones are yellow for a very short period in spring and turn into ordinary green fairly quickly without any special differences. For example, the Fortune species hosts leaves of an amazing fresh spring salad color in the spring, and then they lose their brightness of color and become ordinary green and rather expressionless.
What else can yellow-leaved varieties boast, besides the ability to change during the summer season? Unlike most shade-loving hosts, many of them are tolerant of the sun, and some simply need it in order to fully manifest their yellow coloring.
- Tolerant to the sun: ‘August Moon’, ‘Gold Drop’, ‘Sum and Substance’, ‘Vanilla Cream’, ‘Sun Power’, ‘Fragrance Bouquet’, ‘Gold Standard’, ‘Fire Island’, ‘Stained Glass’, ‘Royal Standard’. All these varieties can be safely planted in sunny flower beds.
Yellow hosts: lutescent ‘Inniswood’ in spring, by the end of summer — will turn bright yellow (1), ‘Banana Bay’ literally dazzles the eyes with its bright yellow color (2), ‘City Lights’ illuminates the dark corners of the garden (3), ‘Lemon Lime’ – the embodiment of spring freshness (4)
Breeders have managed to achieve a wide variety of yellow tones from pale cream to the colors of faded papyrus or gold leaf, bright canary, lemon or honey. All similar shades are found in this host group.
- The most popular varieties are: ‘Gold Standard’, ‘Golden Tiara’, ‘Flemish Gold’, ‘Sun Power’, ‘Sunshine Glory’, ‘Golden Medallion’, ‘Piedmont Gold’, ‘Fire Island’, ‘Orange Marmalade’.
White and bleaching hosts
There is a group of bleaching varieties — the so-called albescent hosts (‘Kabitan’, ‘Great Expectation’, ‘Morning Light’). ‘Kabitan’ will change its color to creamy yellow by the end of summer. Even a unique pure-white host has been bred, which subsequently gains chlorophyll and turns green, this is ‘White Feather’.
Some varieties of the latest generation have a white leaf lining. Among them, for example, the host ‘Neptune’ with a wavy edge similar to the crests of waves, or ‘Marilyn Monroe’ with a white underside of leaves and festoons along their edge, which reminds of the famous photo of an American actress in a skirt lifted by the wind.
Multicolored hosts
In addition to the monotonously colored or rather familiar ones with a wide or narrow strip along the edge of the leaf (‘Christmas Tree’, ‘First Frost’, ‘El Niño’), there are varieties with fancy coloring:
- with a feathery border (‘Wide Brim’, ‘Francee’, ‘Autumn Frost’, ‘Christmas Candy’),
- with a central stripe (‘Thunderbolt’, ‘Snake Eyes’),
- Tricolor (‘Gypsy Rose’, ‘Striptease’, ‘June’).
And look at these colorful hosts. How good they are!
Multi-colored hosts: ‘Risky Business’ (1), ‘Blue Ivory’ (2), ‘Orion’s Belt’ (3), ‘Brim Cup’ (4)
A separate group is the so—called painted hosts. Their leaves look as if some artist casually walked over them with a brush (‘Lakeside Paisley Print’, ‘Color Festival’). Each sheet has its own unique pattern.
Striped strike hosts are distinguished (‘Rainbow’s End’, ‘Zebra Stripes’).
Varieties with hatching or speckling (‘Revolution’, ‘Allegan Fog’):
Red—stemmed varieties – a new word in breeding
In recent years, breeders have managed to expand the color palette of the host — varieties with the presence of red on the petioles and even leaves have appeared, which gives them an extraordinary charm. The names of such varieties speak for themselves — ‘Cherry Berry’, ‘Cinnamon Sticks’, ‘Valley’s Red Scorpion’. In ‘Fruit Punch’, the tip of each leaf is colored purple and the “legs” are the same color. The valuable variety ‘Purple Heart’ has crimson-red petioles, the red color spreads along the veins from the base of the leaf to its middle.
The spectacular ‘Paradise Island’ is in the spirit of the latest fashion, as is the ‘Fire Island’ variety.
‘Red October’ stands out with dark cherry stalks, and ‘Cranberry Wine’ with a “delicious” name, which translates as “cranberry wine”, is also interesting.
All these options, combined with different leaf textures, give countless varieties.
Flowering host
Hosts differ in the timing of flowering, the height of the peduncles, the color of the flowers and their structure. Only an inattentive gardener may think that all the hosts bloom with the same lilac bells.
There are varieties with snow-white flowers, each of which looks like a small lily. Or (when most of the flowers bloom) — on a miniature gladiolus. The flowers are dark lilac, lilac, blue, purple (‘Purple Sensation’). In some hosts, the peduncles look like small hyacinths, and there are spider-like inflorescences (‘Lakeside Looking Glass’). Fragrant varieties are known (‘Avocado’, ‘Fragrant Bouquet’, ‘Fragrant Blue’, ‘Honeybells’).
Tips for beginners
So you see that the host world is extremely diverse. We have only slightly opened the door to this magical realm. Behind it, you can see countless absolutely amazing varieties. Having fallen in love with this wonderful plant, we inevitably become its fans, which pushes us to collect. It is absolutely impossible to stop, new and new planting units are purchased every season.
But I want to warn inexperienced gardeners: do not try to buy everything in a row, be selective. Not all hosts are masterpieces of breeding. Originators, in pursuit of a quick result, often release low-expressive varieties, like twin brothers similar to each other. The host (as many reputable experts believe) should be so well recognizable that it is not confused with other inhabitants of your garden.
As a result, I want to say that sooner or later you are simply doomed to turn into a real fan of this plant, it is absolutely inevitable! Be prepared for this.