• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Janesville man creates new varieties of plant

Photo Gallery

Hostas

Jeff Moore's east side yard is a testament to his passion for hostas. The yard contains hundreds, if not thousands, of the popular plants in all sizes, shapes, and colors, both in the ground and in pots.

View Gallery

JANESVILLE — A sea of hostas shimmers across Jeff Moore’s backyard.

Waves of green and blue leaves flecked with sparks of yellow and white flow around trees and burble along the fence line.

Ruffles, stripes and corrugation mark leaves in sizes that range from mouse-ear tiny to dinner-platter big. Green, blue and even red stems support leaves shaped like hearts, curled spikes, or toy china cups.

Then there are the plant names: Pondering Parsippany, Dancing Lizard, Purple Haze, Dorothy Benedict, Atom Smasher and Midnight Oil. Many are original hybrids Moore created himself, and a select few have won prestigious national prizes.

For visitors, especially visitors who love gardening, it’s a lot to take in. But Moore wants everybody to do what he does: hybridize their own plants.

“It’s so easy,” Moore said. “Why buy an expensive plant when you can make your own?”

But it’s about more than money: Moore wants everybody to have has much fun as he’s having.

“I was a biology major in college, and I went to work at GM,” Moore said. “I didn’t use my major, but I could identify every plant along the railroad tracks at General Motors.”

Now, he’s having a good time with biology.

Moore’s hosta sea and hybridizing hobby began about 10 years ago with a dozen or so plants he bought locally.

“Honestly, I thought I had them all,” Moore said. “I went up to the hosta society booth at the garden expo. The guy there said, ‘How many do you have?’ And I kinda of puffed out my chest and said, ‘14 or 15,’ and he said, ‘Oh, so you’re getting started.’”

In 2010, Moore went to the American Hosta Society national convention with a truckload of plants he had hybridized himself.

“I would have been happy to come home with a yellow, third-place ribbon,” Moore said.

Instead, he came home with a collection of best-of-class, best-of-section and first-, second- and third-place ribbons.

He also came home with the William and Eleanor Lachman Award for the best seedling in the competition.

Two of Moore’s plants, Dancing Lizard and a yet unnamed specimen, were considered for the prize.

The Lachman Award winner was the last hosta he put into his car when he left for New Jersey.

“A guy I know who had seen a photo of it said I should take it,” Moore said. “I wasn’t that thrilled with it.”

He hadn’t even named the plant yet.

In the end, he called it “Pondering Parsippany.”

“Parsippany” after the city in New Jersey where the contest took place.

“Pondering” because of his uncertainty about taking the plant in the first place.

Hybridizers aren’t required to reveal the crosses that created their winners, but he doesn’t mind sharing, even though winning plants sometimes are sold to breeders.

“For me, it’s a fun hobby,” Moore said. “I think if I got real serious about selling them and stuff, I don’t think I’d have as much fun.”

Moore encourages everyone to try their hand at hybridizing.

To get started, amateurs need breeder plants—plants that form seedpods. Some plants are sterile.

Pollen is transferred from one flower to another. If the cross takes, the second plant will form seeds of a potential new cross.

And yes, you can grow hostas from seeds. No special skills are needed, Moore insists.