According to an article by Harald Berger on The Gesellschaft der Staudenfreunde (GdS) website, German hostaphiles, Heinz Klose and Dr Ullrich Fischer visited Eric Smith who was working at Hadspen House in England in the 1970s. Smith had made his now famous cross of H. 'Elegans' x H. 'Tardiflora' from which the Tardiana Group of hostas was created.

Klose purchased seeds from Smith and raised them at his nursery in Kassel-Lohfelden, Germany. Certain seedlings where selected from this planting and these were given mostly German names. Some of them were named for bird species and German rivers. These plants became known as the "German Tardianas".

He also purchased hosta seedlings from from Reginald Kaye who ran a nursery in Lancashire, England about this time. The best of these plants was named H. 'Reginald Kaye' and it was registered by American, Peter Ruh, in 2003. The Klose collection included hostas he brought back from a trip to Japan as well as plants he hybridized.

For the next twenty years, little was heard of the German Tardianas. A Hosta List developed by Dr. Fischer in 1993 did not mention any of the Klose cultivars.

Peter Ruh and "three Canadian collectors" ordered hostas from Klose in 1992. In the Midwest Regional Hosta Society Newsletter of March, 2004, Ruh says, "I ordered mostly their named Tardiana and some others that looked interesting. I picked well. Some I ordered were labeled incorrectly, in particular, one of a Hirao type and another the name of which I changed to one more proper".

Although Klose did not register any of the plants himself, Peter Ruh and his wife, Jean, completed the process for him after Heinz's death.

For a list of the German Tardiana hostas, Click Here.

So, who is the "originator" of the German Tardianas? Technically, Eric Smith as the hybridizer would be considered the originator since he made the cross which created the seeds. However, Heinz Klose grew the seedlings and selected the plants to be named and introduced. This type of situation happens often where a hybridizer gives or sells seeds to someone who grows them on and introduces one or more of them into the nursery trade.

Whenever we encounter this situation and know the name of both parties, we try to include both names as the originator. The Hosta Registrar may take a different approach in the official registration process. Heinz Klose is named as originator on some or all of the registration forms completed on his behalf by Peter Ruh. However, one of the goals of The Hosta Helper is to provide accurate historical information on hosta species and cultivars to the best of our ability. So, we include everyone.