Hosta Halcyon medium

Pointed, ribbed, blue leaves with excellent substance. This is one of the most popular Tardianas, for good reason. Grows 18" tall and 36" wide. Puts on a good show of lavender flowers on 28" scapes in mid summer.

'Halcyon' is one of our "go to" hostas, along with 'First Frost' and 'June'. These three "sister" hostas go great together because they have the same look as far as leaf shape and clump size go, and they share that outstanding powder blue color. Plus they hold up well all season.

What’s a Tardiana?

Eric Smith (1917-1986) was a plantsman and hosta hybridizer from Dorset, England. In the summer of 1961, he took advantage of a fluke occurrence when a plant of Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’ flowered unusually late in the season so he could use its pollen to fertilize the flowers of an H. ‘Tardiflora’ plant. He developed the original cross into a whole series of smaller, very colorful, blue-green plants called the “Tardiana” group.

Smith did not register any of the 34 Tardiana hostas, but Paul Aden, Alex Summers, Peter Ruh, and the British Hosta and Hemerocallis Society did so starting in the 1970s. In addition to the word “Blue”, many of the cultivars start with the words, “Dorset” or “Hadspen”. In 1982, Eric Smith was awarded an Honorary Lifetime Membership in The American Hosta Society. (This information provided by The Hosta Helper at plantsgalore.com.)