Hosta Doppelgangers...Am I Seeing Double?

If you've ever walked around a nursery bench or browsed a hosta catalogue and thought, "Haven't I seen that one before?" - you're not imagining things. The world of hostas is full of lookalikes, near matches and sometimes outright duplicates.

From different names for the same plant to varieties that are so similar even seasoned collectors struggle to tell them apart, the hosta world has its fair share of doppelgangers. So why does it happen, and which varieties are guilty of looking just a little too alike?

Let's take a closer look.

Why So Many Lookalikes?

There are over 6,000 registered hosta cultivars (and plenty more unregistered ones), so it's no surprise that similarities crop up. But there are a few key reasons why duplicates and near-duplicates exist:

Sporting Around - Hostas are famous for producing sports, natural mutations that arise on an existing plant. This can lead to beautiful and unique new varieties, but sometimes the differences are tiny; a slightly wider margin, a bit more gold in the centre, or a variation that disappears after a few years. It's not uncommon for two different nurseries to find (and name) almost identical sports from the same parent variety.
Renaming for Marketing - Occasionally, plants have been reintroduced under new names to appeal to different markets. Particularly before plant patents and stricter registration systems were common. A hosta might be sold under one name in the US and another in Europe, even though it's genetically the same.
Tissue Culture Confusion - With the rise of mass propagation through tissue culture, small variations can occur during the process, and sometimes these are named as new cultivars. In other cases, tissue cultured plants get mixed up, and two names end up attached to the same genetic clone.
Parallel Breeding - Two breeders might cross the same parent plants and get offspring that look virtually identical. Both are technically distinct seedlings, but the results are often indistinguishable in the garden.

Classic Cases of Hosta Deja Vu

Here are some of the best known examples where even specialists sometimes do a double take:

Dinner Jacket and Touch of Class

Big Daddy and Love Pat

Wide Brim and Mama Mia

Patriot and Minuteman

When is a Duplicate Not a Problem?

The truth is, while duplicates can be frustrating for collectors, they rarely cause trouble in the garden. Two near identical varieties will still perform beautifully and reliably, the simply add to the diversity and charm of the hosta world.

In fact, these similarities can even be a blessing: some duplicates are hardier, hold their colour better or have thicker leaves thanks to subtle genetic differences.

The Bottom Line

Hostas are living works of art, shaped by nature, nurture and the occasional happy accident. With thousands of cultivars in existence, it's inevitable that a few will look like mirror images of each other.

Whether it's the product of a sport, a naming mix-up, or simply a case of parallel breeding, these doppelgangers remind us that even in a world as diverse as hostas, perfection sometimes repeats itself.

So next time you think you're seeing double in your shade border - don't adjust your glasses. It's just another quirk of the endlessly fascinating hosta family.