Hosta Blue Angel: description and characteristics of the variety, planting and care, reviews with photos

The lush Blue Angel hostas are valued for their decorative coloration and leaf shape. Florists include culture in original bouquets, use plants in landscape design, bringing an island of tropical flora to gardens and home gardens.

Description and features

Under favorable conditions, the giant hosta variety Blue Angel or Blue Angel grows up to 80-100 cm with a bush width of 1.2 m. Peduncles with white funnel-shaped flowers rise above heart-shaped leaves 40 cm long and 30 cm wide. In spring, the color of corrugated sheet plates with pronounced venation is bluish-blue.In autumn, the color of the leaves transforms into a deep green.

Perennial herbaceous plant Blue angel after flowering forms boxes with 3 mm seeds. The culture has been blooming for the last two summer months.

History of selection

The blue hybrid Blue Angel was obtained by a Dutch breeder in 1986. To obtain a new variety, Paul Aden pollinated Aden varieties numbered 361 and 365.

Features of agricultural technology in the open field

Before planting hostas Blue Angel in the open ground are determined with a place, a choice of suitable conditions. For the normal development and reproduction of the hosts, compliance with the planting technology, the rules for the implementation of agrotechnical measures is required.

Choosing a landing site

Suitable host soil - slightly acidic, nutritious, drained. An important condition is the permeability and aeration of the earth. Sandy and loamy soils are not suitable.

Hostas do not grow in pots at home, as the plant needs a dormant period in low outdoor temperatures to develop, bloom and reproduce.

Light Requirements

Hosta Blue Angel belongs to shade-loving varieties. When exposed to direct sunlight, the leaf plates lose their distinctive color and merge with neighboring greenery, so an open sunny area is not suitable for the variety. The ideal place is partial shade under the crowns of trees.

Reproduction

There are 3 known methods of reproduction of the Blue Angel - seeds, cuttings, dividing the bush. The last option is the most effective and does not take much time.

Seed germination is average, but there is no guarantee of maintaining varietal characteristics.

Seating algorithm:

• before sowing, planting material is kept in a growth stimulator;
• the earth is calcined or disinfected with a solution of manganese;
• a layer of drainage is laid out at the bottom of the container;
• nutrient substrate moisturize;
• scatter seeds superficially, sprinkled with a thin layer of earth.

The process of growing from seeds to the full bloom of the bush takes 4 years.

Cuttings are carried out during the summer period. A young shoot is separated with a leaf, which is cut to 1/3. Further, the stalk is planted in partial shade, moisturizing regularly. To create a greenhouse effect and quick rooting, a plastic bottle with a cut-out bottom is placed on top.

The bush is divided at the end of August after bud formation or in early spring. Cut the rhizome with a shovel so that 2 rosettes are preserved in each division. The cut points are treated with crushed activated carbon or wood ash, immediately planted in a permanent place.

How to plant

Blu angel hosta bushes grow up to 1.2 m wide. Based on this, the distance between plantings is maintained at least 1.5-2 m. When planting plants in the fall, it is taken into account that the culture takes root for 2 weeks in warm weather.

Before the event, the soil is dug up on a spade bayonet, complex fertilizers are applied. Provide for the width of the planting hole twice the volume of the roots, lay the drainage.

When planting, the roots are straightened, covered with earth so that the root collar is at the same level with the soil surface. The earth is lightly tamped, watered and mulched with sawdust, bark.

Rules of care

Caring for a Blue Angel host is not burdensome, but requires the following recommendations:

• to fertilize the plants annually mulch the soil around the crop with compost;
• feeding is done twice a season - in the spring, the host needs nitrogen (solution of mullein, chicken manure), in the fall, potassium and phosphorus are added under the bushes;
• weeds are weeded at the beginning of the growing season;
• irrigate the host as needed, excluding water droplets on the leaf blades.

The Blue Angel bush looks neater and more compact when flower stalks are removed.

By the onset of frost, the ground part of the plant is cut off, the culture does not need warming measures.

Diseases and pests

Common Blue Angel hosta diseases:

Virus X (HVX)

The appearance of strokes, spots, small inclusions on the host should alert the gardener. Such patterns do not correspond to varietal characteristics, but refer to signs of damage to the Hosta Virus X (HVX) crop.

The disease leads to interveinal chlorosis, dwarfing of the bushes, and later to the death of the plant. The virus is not treatable, so infected bushes are removed from the garden and taken out of the garden.

Hosta Virus X (HVX) enters host tissues through wounds and leaf cuts when pruning and dividing bushes through contact with non-disinfected garden tools.

Root collar rot

The disease is diagnosed by yellowing and discoloration of leaf blades. The advanced stage of the disease leads to the death of the culture.

Noticing the yellow leaves, the plant is dug up. The root is washed and inspected, areas of dust and rot are cut out, the sections are disinfected with fungicides. The host is being moved to a new location.

Phyllosticosis

Gradually merging brown spots with black patches are the first symptoms of phyllosticosis. Later, an ashy coating of spores of the fungus forms on the leaves, the leaf dries out and dies.

Phyllosticta fungus chooses weakened, poorly overwintered plants. Treatment includes moderate irrigation, removal of damaged parts of the crop and application of fungicides - Abiga Peak, Strobi, blue vitriol

Grey Rot

Spores of the fungus Botrytis infect leaves, starting from the edges to the center of the leaf plate. The affected areas are covered with a gray coating, rot, dry out.

At the initial stage of the disease, the Blue Angel host is treated with Topaz, Fundazol, Skor, spraying the bushes three times in 10-14 days. In the advanced stage, gray rot is not treated.

Of the pests, slugs do the most damage to the host. Clams begin to gnaw holes in the plant as soon as the first spring shoots appear.

Sawdust, tobacco, lime are brought under the bushes, traps are set. If folk recipes are powerless, use granular preparations Slug-eater, Thunderstorm.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

Pros of Blue Angel Hosta:

• unpretentiousness to the composition of the air - the plant feels good in the city;
• decorative bushes;
• high built-in immunity, resistance to fungal diseases;
• frost resistance;
• temporary drought tolerance;
• unattractive to insect pests.

No obvious flaws were noticed behind the Blue Angel host.

Culture is used to decorate artificial reservoirs, planted along the curbs, next to the entrance to the gazebo. Plants are diluted with plantings of primroses, phloxes.

If you plant the Blue Angel variety next to crocuses, daffodils, then at the end of the flowering of primroses, the hosta bushes will fill the empty spaces in the flower bed.

Analogues

Analogues hosta Blue angel:

• Fond Hope blue-grey with slight ripples on the leaf plates;
• Blue Mammoth (Blue Mammoth) is distinguished by flowering white large flowers;
• More Elegant - hosta with blue bubble leaves;
• Prince of Wales (Prince of Wales) is distinguished by very large green-blue leaf plates;
• Headliner grows into a medium sized shrub with purple flowers;
• Snowden - a giant variety with blue-green leaves reaches a height of 1.2 m.

Group plantings of different varieties of blue hosta look beautiful in landscape design.

Reviews

Hosts will learn about the real advantages and disadvantages from the reviews of flower growers.

Alena, 36, Moscow:

I became interested in growing herbaceous plants 3 years ago. Planted 4 varieties of hostas. Among them, the Blue Angel variety stands out with large bluish leaves and abundant long flowering. No wonder the culture is called a miracle host.

Tamara Ivanovna, 46 years old, Kyiv:

Had the imprudence to plant Blue Angel in the sun. At the initial stage, the host pleases with blue, you can’t take your eyes off. But by July the leaves are turning green, the magic of culture is gone.

Tatiana, 33 years old, Zaporozhye:

Decorated the shores of the pond, dug by her husband in the country, with the Blue Angel hosta. I can not get enough of this elegant unpretentious plant. This year, I plan to plant a blue hosta at the entrance to the greenhouse and in a flower bed with primroses.

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