U.S. patent number PP34,341 [Application Number 17/300,985] was granted by the patent office on 2022-06-14 for hosta plant named `above the clouds`.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Walters Gardens, Inc.. The grantee listed for this patent is Hans A Hansen. Invention is credited to Hans A Hansen.
United States Patent |
PP34,341 |
Hansen |
June 14, 2022 |
Hosta plant named `Above the Clouds`
Abstract
A new and distinct Hosta plant named `Above the Clouds`
producing medium mounds of highly-glaucous, bluish, nearly-rounded
to broadly ovate leaves of strongly glaucous bluish color. The
flowers are white with light lavender centers and pale lavender
backs. Flowers are subtended by floral bracts of a closely matching
color making the whole scape more effective. `Above the Clouds` is
useful in the landscape, as a container plant, a specimen or en
masse.
Inventors: |
Hansen; Hans A (Zeeland,
MI) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Hansen; Hans A |
Zeeland |
MI |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Walters Gardens, Inc. (Zeeland,
MI)
|
Appl.
No.: |
17/300,985 |
Filed: |
January 10, 2022 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
PLT/353 |
Current International
Class: |
A01H
5/02 (20180101); A01H 6/12 (20180101) |
Field of
Search: |
;PLT/263.1,353 |
Primary Examiner: Redden; Karen M
Claims
It is claimed:
1. A new and distinct Hosta plant named `Above the Clouds` as
herein described and illustrated.
Description
Botanical classification: Hosta hybrid (Tratt.).
Variety denomination: `Above the Clouds`.
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES UNDER 37 CFR 1.77(B)(6)
Hosta `Above the Clouds` was first introduced by the inventor as a
non-enabling description in registration of the name in early 2021
with the International Cultivar Registration Authority for the
genus Hosta. Other non-enabling disclosure include the website
introduction by Walters Gardens, Inc. on Dec. 1, 2021. No plants of
Hosta `Above the Clouds` have been sold in this country or anywhere
in the world, nor has any enabling disclosure of the new plant been
made.
BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN OF THE PLANT
The present invention relates to a new and distinct Hosta plant,
`Above the Clouds` hereinafter also referred to as the new plant or
by the cultivar name, `Above the Clouds`. Hosta `Above the Clouds`
was hybridized by the inventor on Jul. 6, 2011 at a wholesale
perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA. The female parent was
`Silver Moon` (not patented) and the male parent was a proprietary
unnamed sport of `Liberty` (not patented). `Liberty` itself is U.S.
Plant Pat. No. 12,531. The seeds from this cross were collected on
Oct. 13, 2011 and a single seedling from this cross eventually
produced the new plant. The new plant was assigned the breeder code
11-48-1 and passed the initial evaluation in the summer of 2013.
`Above the Clouds` has been asexually propagated by division at the
same nursery since 2018 and also by careful shoot tip plant tissue
culture with the resultant asexually propagated plants having
retained all the same traits as the original plant. Hosta `Above
the Clouds` has been stable and reproduced true to type plants in
successive generations of asexual reproduction.
There are nearly 7,000 registered and established Hosta cultivars
with The American Hosta Society, which is the International
Cultivar Registration Authority for the genus Hosta. Several of
these have blue-green leaf blades. The most similar Hosta cultivars
known to the applicant are: `Blue Angel` (not patented), `Blueberry
Muffin` (not patented), `Diamond Lake` U.S. Plant Pat. No. 30,769,
`Hadspen Blue` (not patented), `Humpback Whale` (not patented),
`Deep Blue Sea` (not patented) and `Prairie Sky` U.S. Plant Pat.
No. 17,309.
`Silver Moon` is smaller in habit and in foliage size, the flowers
have a darker purple stripe in the center of the tepals, and leaves
are not as glaucous. The proprietary unnamed sport of `Liberty` is
larger, more upright and has variegated foliage and the leaf color
is not as bluish.
`Blue Angel` has a larger habit with taller flower scapes and
larger foliage that is more cordate and less rounded and also less
glaucous. `Blueberry Muffin` is more compact and shorter in habit,
has a longer, more pointed and more cordate leaf blade and the
petiole has more dense reddish stippling. `Diamond Lake` has larger
foliage with more sinuate margins. `Hadspen Blue` has a smaller
habit with smaller leaves that are less bullate to nearly flat and
the leaf shape is more ovate. `Humpback Whale` has a larger habit
and larger leaves that are less glaucous. `Deep Blue Sea` has
foliage that is more bullate and the leaf is more concaved.
`Prairie Sky` has leaves that are smaller and more
bluish-colored.
Other Hosta cultivars may have individual traits similar to `Above
the Clouds` but the new plant differs from the above listed
cultivars and all other Hostas known to the applicant, by the
combination of the following traits. 1. Leaves are medium-sized,
nearly round to broadly ovate, with broadly acute apices and
cordate base; 2. Arching leaves and petioles produce a tight,
medium-sized, mounded habit; 3. Leaves are very glaucous and
produce a strongly bluish foliage effect that persists until late
in the season; 4. Flowers are white, with light lavender central
lines and pale lavender backs; 5. Flowers are densely arranged on
scapes with the first flowers beginning to open above the foliage;
6. Floral bracts subtend each flower color with a closely matched
color making the whole scape more effective; 7. Useful in the
garden as edging or front border, in containers, as a specimen or
en masse.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The photograph of the new plant demonstrates the overall appearance
of the plant, including the unique traits. The colors are as
accurate as reasonably possible with color reproductions. Ambient
light spectrum, temperature, source and direction may cause the
appearance of minor variation in color.
The drawings show an eight-year-old `Above the Clouds` plant in a
trial garden at a nursery in Zeeland, Mich. with supplement
fertilizer and water as needed.
FIG. 1 shows the landscape foliage habit of a new plant prior to
flowering.
FIG. 2 shows a close-up of the flowers, buds and foliar bracts.
FIG. 3 shows a close-up of a leaf.
DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
The following descriptions and color references are based on the
2015 edition of The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart except
where common dictionary terms are used. The new plant, Hosta `Above
the Clouds`, has not been observed under all possible environments.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that certain
characteristics will vary with plants that are more mature or
plants that are less mature. The phenotype may vary slightly with
different environmental conditions, such as temperature, light,
fertility, moisture and maturity levels, but without any change in
the genotype. The following observations and size descriptions are
of a eight-year-old plant in a shaded trial garden in Zeeland,
Mich. with supplemental water and fertilizer. Botanical
classification: Hosta x hybrid; Parentage: Female or seed parent is
`Silver Moon`; male or pollen parent is a proprietary unnamed sport
of `Liberty`; Propagation: Garden division and sterile shoot tip
plant tissue culture; Time to initiate roots from tissue culture:
About two to three weeks; Growth rate: Moderately vigorous; Crop
time: About three months to four months to finish during the spring
in a one-liter container from rooted tissue culture plantlet during
the warm portion of the growing season; Rooting habit: Fleshy,
lightly branching; Root color: Nearest RHS NN155C when actively
growing; Plant shape and habit: Hardy herbaceous perennial with
basal rosette of leaves emerging from rhizomes producing a
medium-sized mound of arching petioles and leaves and erect scapes
flowering above foliage; Plant size: Foliage height to about 63.5
cm above soil line to the top of the leaves, to about 96.5 cm tall
to the top of the flowers and to about 149.9 cm wide at the widest
point just above the soil line; Foliage description: Nearly rounded
to broadly ovate; broadly acute apex, cordate base; margin entire,
slightly cupped to flat; glabrous both surfaces, lightly bullate,
and adaxial matte and abaxial highly glaucous until late in the
growing season; flexible but stiff; leaf blade profile tends to be
slightly cupped only on inner shoot leaves early in the season, and
all leaves tend to become flat later in season; Leaf blade size: To
about 27.9 cm long and about 22.9 cm wide about mid-way from the
base; average about 24.5 cm long and 21.0 cm wide; not variegated;
Leaf blade color: Early season and expanding adaxial nearest RHS
N138A, abaxial nearest RHS 191B; mid-season and mature adaxial
between RHS 122A and RHS N138A, abaxial nearest RHS 189B; Veins: 11
to 12 pairs plus midrib; slightly impressed adaxial and costate and
smooth abaxial; Vein color: Young adaxial nearest RHS N144A,
abaxial nearest RHS 147C; mature adaxial nearest RHS 194C and
abaxial nearest RHS 191C; Petiole: Glabrous and moderately glaucous
both adaxial and abaxial; deeply concavo-convex proximally and more
shallowly concavo-convex distally; stiff; to 36.5 cm long and 22.0
mm wide at base and about 10.0 mm deep near base, average about
33.5 cm long and 20.0 mm wide and 7.0 mm deep at base; Petiole
color: Adaxial between RHS N138D and RHS 189B, abaxial between RHS
N138D and RHS 189B with abaxial midrib nearest RHS 145C; Flower
description: Buds one to two days prior to opening: Clavate with
acute apex and narrow tube proximally with base sunken back toward
apex at pedicel to produce cordate to auriculate appearance; about
34.0 mm long and 12.0 mm in diameter at the widest portion in the
bulb with tube narrowing in basal 6.0 mm to about 5.0 mm diameter;
Bud color: Lighter than RHS 84D distally and tube proximally
nearest RHS 84D; Flowers: Perfect; incomplete; flared campanulate;
attitude outwardly; to 39.0 mm long to exserted anthers; corolla
fused in basal 13.0 mm, free in the distal 22.0 mm, about 28.0 mm
long and 35.0 mm wide at tepal apices, decreasing distally; corolla
tube portion 6.0 mm long and 6.0 mm diameter with basal portion
indented toward apex up to 9 mm; flowers tightly arranged on scape;
Flowering lasting: Persists for a normal period, usually about one
day on plant; Flowering period: Scapes remain effective with
flowers beginning mid-July for about three and a half weeks; with
about 46 flowers per scape; mostly secund; Fragrance: No detectable
fragrance; Tepal: Two nearly identical sets of three identical in
size and color, glabrous; entire margins; about 35.0 mm long and
12.0 mm wide slightly above fusion point; fused in basal 13.0 mm;
clavate with broadly acute apex; Tepal color: Adaxial longitudinal
center 3.0 mm wide nearest RHS N82D, margin nearest RHS NN155D;
abaxial lighter than RHS 84D with indented basal portion nearest
RHS 84D; each tepal with a transparent 0.5 mm wide outer margin;
Gynoecium: Variable; irregular length; superior;
Style.--Cylindrical; irregularly split either all the way to base,
or just near stigma into six or eight stems; about 26.0 mm long,
variable diameter from 0.5 mm to 2.0 mm diameter; bent or kinked in
irregular fashion; color between RHS 145D and nearest RHS 150D.
Stigma.--Puberulent; tri-lobed; variably-sized from 0.7 mm to 2.0
mm across; color between RHS 145D and nearest RHS 150D.
Ovary.--Variable; globose to ellipsoidal; superior; apex rounded;
base rounded to truncate; size variable, about 5.0 mm long and 5.0
mm diameter in central portion of flower and ovaries around the
peripheral portion of the flower about 5.0 mm long and 1.0 mm
diameter; color nearest RHS 145A. Androecium: Variable from flower
to flower; Filaments.--Typically one to three partially to fully
developed with five to seven vestigial; cylindrical, approximately
33.0 mm long and 1.5 mm in diameter as fully developed and 12.0 mm
long and 1.0 mm diameter when vestigial; curved or bent; color
distally nearest RHS 158D. Anthers.--Irregular; one to three per
flower on average; ellipsoidal with rounded ends; basifixed,
longitudinally dehiscent; about 3.5 mm long and 1.5 mm wide when
fully developed, others less than 0.5 mm long and 0.5 mm wide;
color variable depending on development, nearest RHS 199A to RHS
193B. Pollen.--Rare; spherical; less than 0.1 mm long; color
nearest RHS 9B when present. Peduncle: Cylindrical; usually one per
mature division; about 19 per plant; glabrous; highly glaucous;
erect; to about 96.5 cm tall, and about 10.0 mm in diameter at
base, average about 86.0 cm tall and 8.5 mm diameter at base;
Inflorescence: Flowering portion about 28.0 cm long and 8.0 cm
wide; with large lavender blushed floral bracts subtending each
flower; Peduncle color: Proximal portion below leaves nearest RHS
138C and distal portion nearest RHS 138A; Pedicel: Cylindrical;
glabrous; slightly lustrous; to about 18.0 mm long and 2.0 mm
diameter, decreasing distally; attitude mostly outwardly; Pedicel
color: Distally nearest RHS 84D, proximally nearest RHS 146D;
Floral bracts: Each flower normally subtended by a single bract;
lanceolate; narrowly acute apex and truncate base; entire margin;
glabrous and slightly glaucous abaxial and adaxial; to about 42.0
mm long 10.0 mm wide, decreasing distally; Bract color: At
flowering adaxial and abaxial lighter than RHS 84D near
longitudinal center with undertone nearest RHS 137C, older bracts
after flower drop adaxial and abaxial nearest RHS 161C; Fruit: No
fruit yet observed, but sterility of fecundity unknown; Seed: Not
observed; Disease resistance: The thick glaucous leaves provide
some resistance to slug feeding. Other resistance to pests
(including: Odocoileus virginianus and Oryctotagus cuniculus) and
diseases common to Hostas is equal that typical of other cultivars.
Growth: The plant grows best and shows best coloration with plenty
of moisture, adequate drainage and light shade, but is able to
tolerate some drought when mature. Hardiness at least from USDA
zone 3 through 8, and other disease resistance is typical of that
of other Hostas.
* * * * *