Plant Profile

Hosta 'Dixie Chickadee'

Hosta 'Dixie Chickadee' is quite the most prized and successful tiny hosta we grow. Diminutive hostas are all the rage, and Kathy and Mike Shadrack's newly published The Book of Little Hostas gives you all the information about why, and how to use them. Roger and I have held a National Plant Collection of Miniature hostas for many years, to which we recently added the category of Very Small Hostas, since their cultivation and size are virtually the same.

After a visit to an American Hosta Society's Convention in Dixieland, more specifically Raleigh, North Carolina, we imported some of the newest little varieties, mainly from Tony Avent's Plant Delights Nursery, internationally known by plantspeople for its zany catalogue.

We immediately swooped upon Tony's own 1999 introduction, 'Dixie Chick', as it had two outstanding virtues: glossy, shapely leaves of thick substance which tolerated morning sunshine in our maritime climate and was more than a match for slugs and snails which are often considerably larger than many of these little hostas.

H. 'Dixie Chick', with its 3.1/2 x 1.1/2 in. (9 x 4 cm.) olive-green lanceolate leaves narrowly margined yellow to ivory is the first of a dynasty* of Very Small Hostas, aptly named for an acclaimed American country music band, The Dixie Chicks. It is a cross between 'Masquerade' x 'Invincible' having lustrous, leathery leaves which quickly produce a flattish mound.

In 2007 Tony spotted a sport on a plant of 'Dixie Chick'. Excitingly this turned out to be attractively centrally variegated with flecks of green inherited from the genes of 'Masquerade' and, of course, we had to have it, even though these flecks, informally known as 'grass clippings', are a sign that reversion to all green can occur. It has proved to be just as robust as its parent, which is quite unusual in hostas with this type of variegation. The thick, glossy leaves inherited from its 'Invincible' parent ensure that it is freer from mollusc damage than many other Very Small and Mini hostas. Its original name was 'Chickadee' but Tony changed it on registration since there was already a little-known unregistered hosta named 'Chickadee'.

To complete the present dynasty*, which we are sure will increase with time, is 'Crystal Dixie', aka 'Per', the green-leaved form.

Diana Grenfell

* Hosta dynasties are the concept of Kathy and Mike’s grouping of hosta families, originating in The Book of Little Hostas.

My thanks to Warren Pollock for his helpful reminders