Virus in Zounds?

[guardbear]

Hello Again

I'm come to the conclusion my Zounds is HVX infected. What do you think? Two years ago I thought it was sunburn -- shouldn't be in such a light hosta, but I moved it to a dappled shade spot, and this is the second year it's not done well. Just thought I'd confirm before I send it to hosta heaven.

I had to destroy a great August Moon last year that had been growing for 4 years and was a large plant when I got it. But I watched it for two years, and also concluded it was infected. Both of these plants came from local plant stores in 2005 to 2006 -- haven't purchased any since 2007 when I began to suspect the August Moon, and also read all you folks great HVX info about that time.

So, is this classic HVX on Zounds or what?

Best to all
Linda

[Chris_W]

You know what? I'm not sure that is Zounds, but the damage you are seeing is drying from drought/cold or frost. When a leaf turns brown like that it isn't HVX.

Now the second picture does look a bit odd, but combined with the cold damage I still don't really think that is HVX.

Hope that helps!

Chris

Oh, and if it continue to do this, it might be worth sending it to hosta heaven anyway...

[guardbear]

Thank you Chris for taking a look. Conditions have been neither dry or cold this spring here -- in fact, it was a great spring all in all. No other plants have signs of dry or cold damage and in my small yard things are pretty close together. I guess a large part of what makes me think it is a sickly plant -- maybe not HVX however -- is that this is the fourth year the plant has looked like this, even planted in two different locations because I thought at first it was too much sun drying it out. In this shadier location, it is more green than gold, but it was labeled as Zounds when purchased. As far as environmental conditions doing this, I suppose the plant could be super sensitive and any little variation affects it. I've had plants that simply suffer from "failure to thrive" as I refer to it and never get beyond a few leaves year after year. A couple of fellow hosta lovers at work say this has happened to them as well, but I've not run into any posts or information on why certain plants just struggle along and don't thrive so to speak - even with special attention and location changes.

Thanks much again. I'll watch my off-spec Zounds and see if it adds leaves or shows any signs of improvement as the season moves on.

Linda

[Chris_W]

It might be Golden Sunburst - the solid yellow form of Frances Williams. It can get spring dessication burn when conditions are cold and some believe it is more predominant when it is also wet. It doesn't have to frost, just get below 40 degrees and this can happen. Golden Sunburst will do this almost every year, no matter where it is planted....

[Mary Ann]

Funny thing, Chris. My two Zounds are doing the same thing, and Dr. Dave took one look at them last summer and said they were probably Golden Sunburst. Many of my hostas already have sun-burnt spots

[planwerk]

It might be Golden Sunburst - the solid yellow form of Frances Williams. It can get spring dessication burn when conditions are cold and some believe it is more predominant when it is also wet. It doesn't have to frost, just get below 40 degrees and this can happen. Golden Sunburst will do this almost every year, no matter where it is planted....

That's exactly what i thought.