Way back in 1992, Reinier van Elderen was tending to his crop of Hosta siebolidiana 'Elegans', when he noticed something strange - one of the plants was producing multicoloured leaves on one side.  

A young 'Golden Meadows' proudly displays its colours.

He isolated the variegated leaves by splitting the plant, and continued to grow the parts separately.  

The variegated plant grew well, and at the end of the season he was able to devide it again.  

After a couple of years and with a small number of sucessful, stable divisions, Reinier took some of these plants to the tissue culture laboratory for mass propagation. But all the plants produced by that process reverted to the original 'Elegans' colouring.  

Not deterred from persevering with his impressive find, Reinier continued propagation by more traditional means - root division.  

A late crop of 'Golden Meadows' shines in front of multicoloured Begonias at Reinier's nursery.

It therefore took 13 years to build up enough stock for commercial introduction. You can see now why tissue culture is the preferred method!  

The upside to this long process is that Reinier has had 13 years to observe the variety and be satisfied with its stability and health.  

So what are his comments about 'Golden Meadows' as it makes it way out into the world?  

He was initially - and still is - impressed with its golden leaf centres and the way it has light green streaks running into them in addition to the darker edges that give this variety three colours. The image of many of these plants growing together at his nursery reminded him of surrounding fields and inspired the name, 'Golden Meadows'. 

In this Hosta filled plant world, a variety has to offer something more, and Reinier is delighted to report that 'Golden Meadows' shows exceptional sun tolerance for those of similar colouring. He mostly likens it to 'Great Expectations' for appearance, but with a much improved sun tolerance and less tendency to burn.  

'Golden Meadows' is impressive as a specimen plant

Sun has an important role to play in the appearance of  'Golden Meadows'. It actually needs to be grown in sun to bring out the golden colouring - if grown in shade the leaves will be all green. Increased light exposure will lighten the leaf centres further to a creamy white, as with may Hostas, so it's a case of experimenting in the garden to bring this variety on to your personal taste.  

'Golden Meadows' has a bit of a lively texture, with some leaf puckering and a twisting habit on the outer leaves. The trained eye may interpret this as indicative of the presence of virus, but the plants have been tested and are infact virus-free.

Being a mutant of H. sieboldiana 'Elegans', 'Golden Meadows' also carries many similar properties, such as a vigourous habit and thick leaf substance. Unfortunately the slugs and snails still can't resist it as a tasty snack!