Hosta 'Halcyon'

Hosta 'Halcyon' is an historic hybrid Hosta with stiff blue-green foliage. It is one of the most famous of all the Hosta hybrids and is without doubt the best medium-sized blue Hosta ever developed. The leaves are strong and thick with prominent venation and the chalky blue colour - stunning on its own - is complemented beautifully by the lavender flowers.

In the autumn of 1961, plantsman Eric Smith (1917-1986) noticed an unusually late-blooming Hosta 'Elegans' - a cultivar that generally flowers early in the season - and taking pollen from this reblooming plant crossed it with the autumn-flowering Hosta 'Tardiflora'. Amongst the resulting seeds that germinated about half had blue foliage and these were to form the first generation of "Tardiana" hybrids from which Hosta 'Halcyon' was the first to be introduced.

It has been celebrated ever since. Perhaps the many paeans to its virtues are best summed up by Peter Cross, writing on the Halcyon Group in the Hosta Journal (2004 Vol. 35 No.2): "Though 'Halcyon' is not the bluest hosta now available, no blue hosta has yet to match the balance of color, size, habit and growth rate that has made 'Halcyon' the classic medium-sized blue hosta... One simply doesn't have a hosta collection until it contains at least one clump of 'Halcyon' ".