From Hybridiser Hans Hansen
From the young age of three or four years old, Hans Hansen can remember planting onions in his family's garden. He would ask family members for plants as birthday or Christmas gifts. Not your average kid! He must have known early on what he would do with his life given these early signs. As a teenager, Hans hybridized Asiatic lilies, working to develop doubles, pollen-free varieties, and those with dark patterned throats. As his hybridising interests expanded, he began working with hostas extensively and it is that work for which he is best known in the plant community today. In 1997, he introduced his first two Hostas: Pandora's Box and Fire & Ice. And in the 2005 the wonderful Hosta Rainbow's End
Hans has introduced about 20 hostas through Shady Oaks Nursery in his home state of Minnesota. Below the registration details from the Hosta Treasury Link
Hosta Rainbow's End is winner of the American Hosta Growers Association, Hosta of The Year 2021. A very deserving winner indeed.
The AHGA’s Hosta of the Year award is an annual award issued from an auguste program that rewards Hostas of great value for the home garden and landscape.
The Association doesn’t award this prize lightly. It can only go to a plant currently on the market that has been thoroughly vetted and has proven itself worthy. The winner is never a new cultivar that might be hiding a few flaws, not apparent at first. The plant must perform superbly in many areas and must also exhibit exemplary garden presence and performance, have a long season of appeal in the landscape, have leaves of good substance and demonstrate a greater than average resistance to common garden pests.
This is a fabulous little Hosta that will always be a part of my collection. It has more than earned its place, just by the way it looks. This is a very special Hosta, bearing glossy, ovate, dark green streaking, light green, and pale yellow, variegated leaves. The centre of the leaves brighten to creamy-white in summer. The leaf variegation is so irregular that no two leaves are the same. The leaf stems are a dark green. The whole plant seems to shimmer in the light, from Spring to Autumn. A truly stunning Hosta.
Hosta Rainbow's End will form a small to medium mound of about 10"-12" in height, with a spread of up to 22", at maturity.
Tall, upright reddish scapes of about 18", bear racemes of funnel-shaped, pale purple flowers around mid-July and into August.
Slow to medium growing. Takes its time in the early years but it is well worth the wait. This is a very showy and unique Hosta with extreme variegation and shiny leaves.
The great news is that it is slug resistant, but not great in the sun.
Propagation of Hosta Rainbow’s End is by division of the crown. This can usually be done every 4 years or so, preferably in the Spring, or possibly late summer.
It is a sport of Hosta Obsession, but with brighter yellow centres and darker green margins than its parent.
Hosta Rainbow’s End was discovered as a mutation from another well-known Hosta, Obsession, a rather small Hosta, mostly green with only subtle variegation.
H. Rainbow’s End is larger than its parent and there is certainly nothing subtle about its variegation! It is instead brilliantly variegated, and not just in centre of the leaf, like so many other Hostas, but bright streaks of yellow (the gold at the end of the rainbow) race through the otherwise dark green leaf from stem to tip, only the margin remains assuredly deep green! Stunning in early spring, the flames pale to superbly contrasting creamy white as the summer goes on. The shiny texture of the foliage is remarkable: it almost seems to be made of plastic.
For the best colour from this beauty is in dappled shade. Somewhere that it will get just a few hours of preferably early morning and afternoon sun.
This one will stand out in any garden. Thank you to Hans Hansen for giving us this wonderful variety.
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