Alongside the day-to-day business of reproducing plants to order, Gert van Eijk-Bos makes time to indulge his plant breeding hobby.

A small section of the Vitro Westland greenhouses are set aside for his projects, which include working with varieties such as Verbascum ‘Jackie in Pink’.

But it’s in Hostas that Gert’s real interest lies. His fascination for the species has resulted in a number of appropriately named descendant lines, some members of which you just might recognize:

Hosta x fortunei gave us the mutation H. ‘Francee’, from which H. ‘Patriot’ came as a further mutation. H. ‘Patriot’ was produced in large quantities at Vitro Westland, and a number of interesting mutations occurred. One of these was H. ‘Loyalist’, and from this came H. ‘Revolution’, a very distinctive variety for its flecked leaf centres.  H. ‘Revolution’ has since produced a reversed mutation called H. ‘Independence’, which although has proved to unstable to introduce, has itself produced several more interesting mutations that are now being tested for growth and stability.

The celebrated Hosta ‘Fire & Ice’ was discovered in the USA and is very similar in appearance to Gert's variety H. 'Loyalist'. This is because both H. 'Fire and Ice' and H. 'Loyalist' are mutations from H. ‘Patriot’. The main noticable difference between these two mutations is that H. 'Fire and Ice' is smaller than H. ‘Loyalist’.

Hosta x fortunei 'Aureomarginata'

Hosta 'Twilight'  and  Hosta 'Morning Light'

Hosta x fortunei ‘Aureomarginata’ gave us the broader edged mutation H. ‘Twilight’, and from this came a reversed form, H. ‘Morning Light’.

The Darwin PlantSpotters variety Hosta ‘Christmas Candy’ also has a celebrated pedigree. H. fortunei ‘White Christmas’ produced the mutant H. ‘Night Before Christmas’ which in turn gave us H. ‘Christmas Candy’.