by Carol Brashear
previously printed in the Tri-State Hosta Society newsletter (of NY, NJ & CT)
March 7, 1999
Although scheduling circumstances previously forced a postponement, waiting for Charlie Seaver’s slide presentation was worth the wait. As Charlie was introduced, the lights were dimmed and those in attendance were taken on a picture perfect journey of Charlie’s topic: “Breeding From and Breeding To”.
Charlie Seaver gave a brief personal history of growing up in CT in a house with such beautiful flowering bushes, that the street in front of the house was the scene of many a traffic jam each spring. When circumstances forced a move to Mass. the Seavers moved from a sunny city lot with one tree, to a city lot with almost no sun and many trees. Mother Mildred was introduced to Leola Fraim, who was growing a shade-loving plant, called a hosta. Mildred’s financial circumstances would not allow her to buy such a plant, so her newfound friend, Leola Fraim, shared some seeds. What followed is hosta history and the background for the second-generation hosta hybridizer, Charlie Seaver, proprietor of Sea Made Hostas of Wilmington, Delaware.
Over 100 magnificent slides of individual hosta varieties helped break down the concept of how Mildred Seaver is a ‘breeder from’ and Charlie is a ‘breeder to’. The seedlings that came up in Mildred's new shady garden were the basis of many of the hostas now on the market and known under the ‘SEA’ names. Hostas such as H.’Sea Lotus Leaf’, H. ‘Sea Prize’ and basically anything with SEA in the name. Mildred nurtured her seedlings and soon bees and insects were pollinating the flowers of the hosta plants. Then those seeds dropped and new ‘varieties’ of hostas came up. Those plants were different than the original plant from which Leola Fraim gathered the seed that she gave to Mildred. Now, after many years of nature taking its course in Mildred’s garden, Mildred makes crosses from those original plants and their offspring. Mildred is a ‘breeder from’ and hybridizers who ‘let the bees do it’ are ‘breeders from’.
Charlie grew up taking only a mild interest in his mother’s hobby. Then in 1989 Charlie began his own hybridizing. Charlie became the kind of hybridizer that he calls a ‘breeder to’. His mother basically continued what the bees had been doing, and took pollen FROM mother plants and scattered it around to other flowers, not really knowing what would result. Charlie began to take pollen from hostas with specific characteristics and pollinated hosta plants with specific characteristics and had a certain result in mind. Charlie calls this ‘breeding to’.
Slide after slide showed how to look for certain quality characteristics in hosta varieties and by combining the great characteristics of a pollen parent and the great characteristics of a pod parent, a ‘breeder to’ can eventually produce a hosta variety with great characteristics that are unique. He explained that ‘breeders to’ are looking for specific characteristics, like the leaf shape of one variety and the leaf color variegation of another. Combinations can produce the thick leaf substance of one variety and the show stopping flower display of another variety. The combinations are endless!
So whether someone is a ‘breeder from’ like Mildred Seaver, or a ‘breeder to’ like Charlie Seaver, the genus hosta affords the shade gardening hobbyist a virtually endless source of combinations that might result in the next unique, show stopping hosta variety. Charlie Seaver encouraged everyone to give it a try. Who knows…with encouragement like that you could have results that put you on the cover of The Hosta Journal!
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