Hosta Awards ... A Closer Look
- John Plant
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
The Importance of Hosta Awards and Their Relevance to UK Hosta Enthusiasts
Thought we could use the blog to take a closer look at Hosta Awards.
Awards are a great way of knowing how good a Hosta is. To win any award the criteria associated with that award needs to be met. So, if a Hosta has been awarded any of the several awards, it must have a little more about it than one that hasn’t. This is a great guide to the validity of a variety.
The timing is perfect as there has just been announced a significant change to one of the long-standing Hosta awards.
The AHGA American Hosta Growers Hosta of the Year Now Terminated
This year has seen the cessation of one of the Hosta worlds long standing awards
The AHGA Hosta of the Year program was first introduced back in 1996.
The winners were selected by a vote of AHGA members. Award winners were Hostas that made good garden plants in all regions of the USA and were widely available and in sufficient supply. Each year, As Hosta lovers we were introduced to some wonderful new Hosta Varieties. However very often these were new to the market and somewhat unproven over time.
New Hosta of the Year Award
The American Hosta Society (AHS) felt that the Hosta of the Year should be continued but with new guidelines
The winner of the AHS Hosta of the Year uses the winner of the AHS Benedict Garden Performance Award as the Hosta of the Year for the following year.
If the Benedict Garden Performance Award winner has previously been an AHGA Hosta of the Year selection, a previous recent Benedict Garden Performance Award winner is selected as the next AHS Hosta of the Year.
Which leads nicely on to taking a closer look at the Benedict Garden Performance Award
What is the AHS Benedict Garden Performance Award?
The Benedict Garden Performance Awards, which were established in 2003
by The American Hosta Society (AHS), are designed to recognise Hostas that demonstrate superior garden performance – garden worthy plants that have passed the test of time, that exhibit cultural superiority, and that can be appreciated in the landscape both from a distance and under close observation. These awards are named in honour of the late Dr. Ralph H. (Herb) Benedict, one of the great pioneers of improving the genus Hosta through hybridisation.
The system which is quite robust and but complicated provides for three levels of awards and winners of the awards are determined by the vote of members of the American Hosta Society. The awards are presented annually at the National Convention to the originators of the winning cultivars.
The awards are limited to registered cultivars only. To be considered for a Benedict Garden Performance Award, a cultivar must have been registered for at least three years.
The Ultimate award is The Benedict Garden Performance award that annual winner will be the Hosta Of the year in the following year!
Complicated ? if you want understand all the details here is a link to AHS website https://americanhostasociety.org/events-awards/awards-honors/
One thing is for sure these robust rules will ensure that these award winning Hostas are truly proven and worthwhile recipients.
To align the new system as quickly as possible the AHS have just announced the next two years winning Hostas.
Hosta Of the Year 2026 is Hosta Halycon
Hosta of the Year 2027 is Hosta Clear Fork River Valley
In following week’s blog we will take a closer look at both these wonderful Hostas.
There are two other AHS awards you may see referenced in Hosta publications, but they are in recognition of service to the development of the Hosta genus rather than to the varieties themselves.
These are The Alex J Summers Distinguished Merit Award & The Eunice Fisher Distinguished Hybridiser Merit Award.
As the largest Hosta Society in the world no doubt they are in the best position to manage these awards.
The exact number of Hosta hybridisers in the United States is not precisely tracked, but there are likely hundreds or possibly thousands of people hybridising Hostas, ranging from professional nursery owners to amateur enthusiasts.
The American Hosta Society (AHS) has a very
large membership and provides resources for hybridisers, including an online registry to document new cultivars.
Now something closer to home, the RHS Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit
What is the RHS Award of Garden Merit?
The RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is intended to help gardeners choose plants that are likely to perform, and is only awarded to plants that are:
Excellent for ordinary use in appropriate conditions
Available
Of good constitution
Essentially stable in form and colour
Reasonably resistant to pests and diseases
RHS awards can also be given by Roundtable assessment. An award is given when a forum of horticultural experts meets to debate the characteristics and performance of plants that the RHS is unable to trial in one of the RHS Gardens or another location. To ensure consistent standards are maintained, the AGM is subject to regular review to make sure that every plant still merits its place on the list. Since 2013, reviews have been conducted by each RHS Expert Group on a rolling basis.
There are currently ONLY 93 Hostas that have been awarded the RHS Merit. To see the full list here is a link. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/agm-lists/agm-ornamentals.pdf
Hostas are on pages 57-59
The RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) logo is a registered trademark that is used throughout the horticultural trade, including nurseries, garden centres, online plant and seed suppliers, as well as publications. You will see the logo on our website for those Hostas that carry the this fantastic award.
It's great see these wonderful plants and their breeders being granted these awards. For many hybridisers, it is the culmination of many years of work .... well done.
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John Plant
Rewela Hostas
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