Hosta 'Affair to Remember' Variegated Leaf Color and Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for a new Hosta cultivar that combines specific traits such as large, variegated, broadly ovate leaves with dark green margins and light chartreuse to whitish green centers, along with numerous campanulate flowers on upright, creamy-green scapes, and variegated floral bracts, which are not found in existing Hosta cultivars.
Innovation Solution
The development of the Hosta hybrid 'Affair to Remember', which is hybridized using a proprietary female parent and 'Empress Wu' as the male parent, resulting in a unique combination of traits including large, variegated leaves, numerous white flowers on creamy-green scapes, and variegated floral bracts, achieved through asexual propagation and shoot tip tissue culture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If Hosta cultivars with blue-green leaf blades are selected, then the foliage color is improved, but the leaf variegation pattern and margin color are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating distinct color zones within the leaf structure: dark green margins, intermediate chartreuse zones, and light whitish-green centers. This spatial differentiation of color properties within different parts of the leaf blade achieves both attractive foliage color and complex variegation patterns that cannot be obtained through uniform color selection alone.
2Volume of moving object
If Hosta cultivars with larger habit are selected, then the foliage size is improved, but the flowering characteristics and scape height are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by separating the selection criteria for foliage traits and flowering traits into distinct evaluative categories. The cultivar was developed to meet specific thresholds in both segments: foliage area greater than 20 square inches, scape height between 24-36 inches, and minimum flower count of 10 per scape, allowing optimization of both large foliage and attractive flowering characteristics independently.
3Illumination intensity
If Hosta cultivars with variegated leaves are selected, then the aesthetic value is improved, but the plant stability and true-to-type reproduction are challenged
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by conducting extensive preliminary evaluation and selection over multiple growing seasons to establish the stable variegated phenotype before formal cultivar registration. The multi-year testing period allowed verification that the variegation pattern is genetically stable and reproduces true-to-type through both sexual and asexual propagation, ensuring aesthetic value is maintained alongside genetic stability.
Data Source
AI summary
A new and distinct Hosta plant named ‘Affair to Remember’ produces large rounded mounds of large, broadly ovate, variegated leaves with acute apices and cordate bases. The leaves are variegated having dark green margins, the centers progress from a light chartreuse to whitish green, with intermediate color separation between the margin and center of variably large segments of several shades of chartreuse. The large leaves have a slightly lustrous upper surface and glaucous underside. The campanulate flowers are near white appearing beginning in late June and continuing for almost seven weeks. Each flower is attractively subtended by a floral bract that has a dark green margin with a creamy green center and a variable blush of light purple. ‘Affair to Remember’ is useful in the landscape, as a container plant, a specimen, or en masse.