U.S. patent number PP34,224 [Application Number 17/300,987] was granted by the patent office on 2022-05-10 for hosta plant named `love story`.
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 |
PP34,224 |
Hansen |
May 10, 2022 |
Hosta plant named `Love Story`
Abstract
A new and distinct Hosta plant named `Love Story` producing
medium-sized low mounds of basal, broadly lanceolate, leaves with
long narrowly acute apices, cordate bases and slightly wavy
margins. The leaves are variegated having dark green margins and
pale-yellow centers with intermediate color separation between the
margin and center of variably large segments of several shades of
chartreuse. The medium-sized leaves have a matte upper surface and
glaucous underside. The campanulate flowers are pale lavender with
white edges appearing beginning in mid-June. Each flower is
attractively subtended by a floral bract that mimic the leaf
variegation making the scape showy for long periods. `Love Story`
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)
|
Family
ID: |
1000006137615 |
Appl.
No.: |
17/300,987 |
Filed: |
January 10, 2022 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
PLT/353 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A01H
6/12 (20180501) |
Current International
Class: |
A01H
5/02 (20180101); A01H 6/12 (20180101) |
Field of
Search: |
;PLT/353 |
Primary Examiner: Robinson; Keith O.
Claims
It is claimed:
1. A new and distinct Hosta plant named `Love Story` as herein
described and illustrated.
Description
Botanical classification: Hosta hybrid (Tratt.).
Variety denomination: `Love Story`.
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES UNDER 37 CFR 1.77(B)(6)
Hosta `Love Story` 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. No plants of Hosta `Love Story` 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,
Hosta `Love Story` hereinafter also referred to as the new plant or
by the cultivar name, `Love Story`. Hosta `Love Story` was
hybridized by the inventor on Jul. 13, 2015 at a wholesale
perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA. The female parent was the
proprietary unreleased streaked sport of `Niagara Falls` (not
patented) and the male parent was `Viking Ship` (not patented). The
seeds from this cross were planted in late fall of 2015 and a
single seedling selection from this cross eventually produced the
new plant. The new plant was assigned the breeder code 15-24-1 and
passed the initial evaluation in the summer of 2018. `Love Story`
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 `Love Story` 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: `Angel Falls` U.S. Plant Pat. No.
28,785, `American Sweetheart` (not patented), `Sea Thunder` (not
patented), `Lakeside Paisley Print` (not patented), `Cool As a
Cucumber` (not patented), `Lakeside Love Affair` (not patented),
`Half and Half` (not patented), `Miss America` U.S. Plant Pat. No.
32,068, and `Viva Las Vegas` (not patented).
The female parent is larger and more arching in habit and larger in
foliage size, the variegation is thinly spread out in sectors
throughout the leaves rather than with the lighter sector all being
confined to the middle of the leaves, and the scape is more green.
The male parent `Viking Ship` is larger habit with more rounded and
solid bluish-green colored foliage with less sinuate margins, and
the scapes are shorter and bluish-green colored.
The habit of `Angel Falls` is smaller and more arching in habit
with a more greenish-yellow leaf center earlier in the season and
slightly more vein pairs and the flowers are more flared. `American
Sweetheart` has thicker and stiffer foliage and more upright habit,
and the leaves have a wider margin and narrower center with less
intermediate variegated colors between the margin and center. `Sea
Thunder` has smaller habit and smaller foliage with less
intermediate colors between the margin and center, and the flowers
are more pigmented medium lavender. `Lakeside Paisley Print` has a
stiffer and thicker substance foliage with broader margins and
narrower center variegation, the scapes become more lavender
blushed, and the flowers are darker purple. `Cool As a Cucumber`
has a longer more lanceolate and arching foliage. `Lakeside Love
Affair` has foliage that is more broadly ovate with less
intermediate colors between the margin and center variegation.
`Half and Half` has smaller, heavier-substance, smaller and thicker
leaves on a plant with a shorter habit. `Miss America` has stiffer
and thicker foliage with broader margins and narrower variegated
leaf center, and the flowers are larger, open wider and have a
darker lavender center stripe. `Viva Las Vegas` has foliage that is
broader, more cordate and more bullate and less sinuate and the
margin color is more bluish-green.
Other Hosta cultivars may have individual traits similar to `Love
Story` 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, broadly
lanceolate, with long, narrowly, acute apices and cordate bases; 2.
Leaves have a slightly wavy margin and have slightly impressed
adaxial veins; 3. Leaf margins are dark green, the mature center
color is pale yellow with intermediate color separation between the
margin and center of variably large segments of several shades of
chartreuse; 4. Campanulate flowers are pale lavender on upright,
creamy-colored scapes with light blush of lavender beginning in
mid-June; 5. Flowers are densely arranged on scapes with the first
flowers beginning to open well above the foliage; 6. Floral bracts
have a variegation that mimics the foliage subtend each flower; 7.
The habit is a medium-sized low mound.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The photograph of the new plant demonstrates the overall appearance
of the new 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 a five-year-old `Love Story` 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 a leaf.
FIG. 3 shows a close-up of the flower, buds and foliar bracts.
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 `Love
Story`, 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 five-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 a proprietary
sport of `Niagara Falls`; male or pollen parent is `Viking Ship`;
Propagation: Garden division and sterile shoot tip tissue culture;
Time to initiate roots from tissue culture: About three weeks;
Growth rate: Moderately vigorous to slow; Crop time: About four
months to six 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 low
medium-sized mound of outwardly extending petioles and leaves and
arching scapes flowering above foliage; Plant size: Foliage height
to about 35.6 cm above soil line to the top of the leaves, to about
68.5 cm tall to the top of the flowers and to about 78.7 cm wide at
the widest point just above the soil line; Foliage description:
Broadly lanceolate; narrowly acute apex, cordate base; margin
entire, and slightly sinuate; not folded, flat, and not bullate
between the veins, glabrous and smooth both surfaces; adaxial matte
and abaxial lustrous when young becoming slightly glaucous;
flexible; variegated; Leaf blade size: To about 30.5 cm long and
about 19.1 cm wide about one-third way from the base; average about
28.5 cm long and 17.5 cm wide; Leaf blade color: Early season and
expanding adaxial margin nearest RHS 138A, center between RHS 145B
and RHS 146D with intermediate zone comprising colors between RHS
138A and RHS 146D, between RHS 146D and RHS 145D and between RHS
145A and RHS 145B; abaxial season and expanding margin between RHS
146B and RHS 138A, center between RHS 146B and RHS 150D with
intermediate zone comprising colors of nearest RHS 146D, between
RHS N144A and RHS N144D and between RHS 147C and RHS 145C;
mid-season and mature adaxial margin between RHS NN137A and RHS
139A, center between RHS 11C and RHS 11D and RHS N144D with
intermediate zone comprising colors of between RHS N144A and RHS
144A, between RHS 146C and RHS 146B, RHS 146A and RHS 146D; abaxial
mid-season and mature margin between RHS 137A and RHS NN137B,
center nearest RHS 11D with intermediate zone comprising colors of
between RHS 138D and RHS 145D, between RHS N138D and RHS 139D and
RHS 146C; Veins: 11 to 13 pairs with midrib; slightly impressed
adaxial and costate and smooth abaxial; Vein color: Young adaxial
margin region nearest RHS 146D and center nearest RHS 145A, young
abaxial RHS 146C and center nearest RHS 145C; mature adaxial margin
between RHS 146C and RHS 146B and center nearest RHS 156B, mature
abaxial margin nearest RHS 146D and center nearest RHS 150D;
Petiole: Glabrous and matte both adaxial and abaxial; moderately
concavo-convex; stiff; to 30.0 cm long and 18.0 mm wide at base and
about 5.0 mm deep, average about 25.0 cm long and 15.0 mm wide and
4.0 mm deep; Petiole color: Adaxial margin nearest RHS 138A, center
nearest RHS 150D with longitudinal streaks of nearest RHS 144A;
abaxial margin nearest RHS 138A, midrib nearest RHS 4D and region
surrounding midrib nearest RHS 150D; Flower description: Buds one
to two days prior to opening: Clavate with acute apex and narrow
tube and rounded base; about 45.0 mm long and 12.0 mm in diameter
at the widest portion in the bulb, tube to about 18.0 mm long and
to about 3.0 mm diameter at base, gradually tapering from bulb; Bud
color: Nearest RHS 85C with apical 3.0 mm nearest RHS 160C;
Flowers: Perfect; incomplete; campanulate; attitude outwardly to
slightly downwardly; to 59.0 mm long to exserted pistil; corolla to
57.0 mm long and 26.0 mm wide at apex, fused in basal 35.0 mm, free
in the distal 24.0 mm, decreasing in size distally; corolla tube
portion 19.0 mm long and gradually tapering to 3.0 mm diameter at
base; with rounded base; 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-June for about three to three and a half
weeks; with about 38 flowers per scape; mostly secund; Fragrance:
No detectable fragrance; Tepal: Two sets of three; clavate; entire
margins; acute apex; fused in basal 35.0 mm; glabrous adaxial and
abaxial; outer set to about 9.0 mm wide and 57.0 mm long; inner set
to about 9.0 mm wide and 57.0 mm long; Tepal color: Outer set
adaxial nearest RHS 85D in 3.0 mm longitudinal center and nearest
RHS NN155D along edges, abaxial lighter than RHS 85D along center
and nearest RHS NN155D along edge; inner set adaxial nearest RHS
85D in 3.0 mm longitudinal center and nearest RHS NN155D along
edges, abaxial lighter than RHS 85D along center and nearest RHS
NN155D along edge, with a transparent 0.5 mm wide margin; corolla
tube adaxial nearest RHS NN155C, abaxial between RHS NN155D and RHS
85D; Gynoecium: Single; to about 59.0 mm long; superior;
Style.--Cylindrical; glabrous; to about 52.0 mm long and 0.7 mm
diameter; straight with distal 9.0 mm arcuate upwards 90.degree.;
color lighter than RHS 145D proximally and nearest RHS 155C
distally. Stigma.--Puberulent; tri-lobed; about 1.0 mm long and 1.0
mm diameter; color nearest RHS NN155A. Ovary.--Ellipsoidal;
superior; apex rounded; base rounded to truncate; sides slightly
furrowed, about 6.0 mm long and 2.5 mm diameter; color nearest RHS
145A. Androecium: Six; Filaments.--Six; cylindrical; approximately
55.0 mm long and 0.5 mm in diameter; curved or bent upwardly about
90.degree. in the distal 8.0 mm; color in distal one-half nearest
RHS 155D transitioning to nearest RHS 145D in the proximal
one-third. Anthers.--Oblong with rounded ends; basifixed,
longitudinally dehiscent; about 5.0 mm long and 2.0 mm wide when
fully developed; color nearest RHS 199B. Pollen.--Abundant;
spherical; less than 0.1 mm long; color nearest RHS 17A. Peduncle:
Cylindrical; usually one per mature division; about 3 per plant;
glabrous; moderately glaucous; erect; to about 78.7 cm tall, and
about 9.0 mm in diameter at base, average about 68.2 cm tall and
8.0 mm diameter at base; Inflorescence: Flowering portion about
22.0 cm long and 7.0 cm wide; with variegated bracts with medium
green margins and light yellowish-green centers subtending each
flower; Peduncle color: Proximal portion below leaves between RHS
145D and RHS 160D and distal portion between RHS 157C and RHS 158D
with undertone of nearest RHS 138B and variable light blush of
nearest RHS 183D; Pedicel: Cylindrical; glabrous; slightly
lustrous; to about 10.0 mm long and 2.0 mm diameter, decreasing
distally; attitude outwardly to slightly arcuate outwardly; Pedicel
color: Between RHS 148D and RHS 146D with faint blush of nearest
RHS N77B; Floral bracts: Each flower normally subtended by a single
variegated bract; lanceolate; narrowly acute apex and truncate
base; entire margin; glabrous and slightly glaucous abaxial and
adaxial; to about 42.0 mm long 12.0 mm wide, decreasing distally;
variegated margin about 2 to 3 mm wide; Bract color: At flowering
adaxial and abaxial margin between RHS 138A and RHS 137, adaxial
center nearest RHS 158D with undertone of nearest RHS 160C and a
faint blush of nearest RHS N77B, abaxial center nearest RHS 155B
with a faint variable blush of nearest RHS N7B; Fruit: Non-fleshy,
dehiscent, tri-loculicidal capsule; oblong ellipsoidal; rounded
base; acute to apiculate apex; about 24.0 mm long and 5.0 mm in
diameter; color as maturing nearest RHS 146D, when nearly mature
and prior to dehiscence nearest RHS 150D and upon dehiscence
nearest RHS 161C; Seeds: Elliptic; with flattened wing surrounding
embryo positioned toward one end of ellipse; about 8 mm long, 2.5
mm wide and 1.0 mm thick at embryo; typically 10 to 30 per capsule;
color nearest RHS 202A with maturity; 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.
* * * * *