Tiger Stripes Solomon's Seal. When I first saw this selection in Japan, it was at a small specialty nursery whose owner was vice-president of the Japanese Variegated Plant Preservation Society. WOW, what a name! The whole nursery was no more than 30' wide and about 60' long, but it was protected by an 8' chain-link fence topped with razor wire. It more resembled a prison than a nursery. But when we saw the plants within and their prices, it was made clear why they were so well protected. He offered us an 8" pot of this selection for $10,000.00! Yes, that's the right number of zeroes. But he explained how good of a price that was since it had two stems in the pot. Well, a year or so later Dr. Masato Yokoi took us to this small nursery in Gozenyama, about 2 hours out of Kawaguchi where the female owner had several pots of this same cultivar for ONLY $250.00 each. But of course they only had one stem per pot. Now they are multiplying quite well for us. This species is native to most of the major islands of Japan and can reach as high as 5' in the wild. Since it is native as far north as Hokkaido, it is probably infinitely cold hardy, probably at least to zone 5, if not colder. And it is performing well in our zone 8 heat. My guess was that the species was P. macranthum and this was verified when Barry Yinger told me that the name she had written for me, "Ooamadokoro," actually meant "Polygonatum macranthum." So I suppose that I could give it a cultivar name of my choosing. Many times when we purchase a new cultivar in Japan they tell us, "No name." Then they tell us to name it and tell them what we will call it. Zones 5-8
