Hosta 'Frances Williams'

Hosta 'Frances Williams' was one of the first variegated Hosta cultivars and its growing popularity did much to rejuvenate interest in Hostas in the 1960's. It was first spotted by the famous Hosta breeder, Frances Williams, in 1936, during a visit to Bristol Nursery in Connecticut, as a sport of Hosta sieboldiana. Obtaining an offset she named it 'Yellow Edge' and a later nurseryman changed that to 'Aureus Marginata' which then became 'Aureo-marginata'. In the early 1960's Frances Williams sent a rooted crown to George Robinson, Superindendent at The University of Oxford Botanic Gardens as 'FRW383'. During a lecture to the RHS, he displayed it as Hosta 'Frances Williams' and after publishing his lecture in 1963 the name stuck. After Frances Williams' death in 1969, the cultivar was finally registered by Frances Williams' daughter, Constance Williams, in 1986.

With its bright bold variegation on large puckered leaves, Hosta seiboldiana 'Frances Williams' has remained a popular cultivar to this day and deservedly so, its colouration brightening up any shady corner. It prefers a moist, fertile, humus-rich soil and care should be taken with its position as it is somewhat prone to sun scorching along the margins particularly in the springtime and like all Hostas it should be grown in at least partial shade, ideally under a leafy canopy.