Hosta Hadspen Blue medium

Frosty blue foliage that is slightly cupped. It is one of our favorite Tardianas, with excellent substance and texture. Grows 14" tall and 24" wide. Lavender flowers in mid summer on 18" scapes.

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.)

The term “Hadspen” appears in the name of several hosta cultivars. These cultivars are associated with Hadspen House in Castle Carey, Somerset, England, where famed hybridizer Eric Smith worked as a gardener for a time. The house was owned by well-known garden writer and noted plant person, Penelope Hobhouse. (This information provided by The Hosta Helper at plantsgalore.com.)