Message from Walters Gardens

Post by **Chris_W** » Jun 02, 2005 8:45 am

I wrote to Walters Gardens about the problem with their Gold Standard, told them that they need to understand that the virus takes years to show up and that they simply can't throw out the asymptomatic plants and sell the rest, that they should all be destroyed. I told them, based on the look of the plants, that they appeared to have been purchased from Europe recently. (Note: The roots have smaller eyes in a tight crown and appear to have never been divided, not even at the time of planting or the time of harvest, which is unusual for Walters Gardens stock as they tend to cut and propagate again and again). By recently I meant in recent years, but I also went on to list how the symptoms progress from year to year and the tests that Dr. Lockhart did for us last year on Sum & Substance, proving that even the asymptomatic plants in a batch of plants has the virus, just too low of a concentration to test positive.

Here was today's response:

Dear Chris,
Thank you for graciously accepting our information. However, your conclusion regarding our Gold Standard as recently purchased from Europe is incorrect. They were purchased over 5 years ago in the days that we ignorantly assumed everything from Europe was weed, nematode, and virus free. We bought them in to supplement our stock when demand was high. The plants have been in field production for at least 5 years. The viral infection was not observed until 2 or 3 years ago. As our knowledge has grown regarding virus so has our own obsession to eliminate it as well as other viruses. We have a common friend in Dr. Lockhart. It was about 5 years ago that we developed a relationship with him. One of our staff has spent a week in training with him. He is always practical and helpful. He continues to guide us as our virus indexing program evolves.
Thank you for sharing your experience regarding the progression of symptoms. We are all too keenly aware of the illusiveness of virus detection and like you have learned some lessons the hard way.
USDA and MDA appear to be the agencies that have to come to grips with this situation. They are especially reluctant regarding imports for some reason; although, I have heard that they are cracking down with field inspections in Europe. I will have to see it to believe it. I think it will take a collective effort by PPA and AHS to make an impact with these and other organizations.

Best Regards
Jeff

Post by **Chris_W** » Jun 02, 2005 8:50 am

When I spoke with Dave Walters about this last year he was surprised and didn't know much about it. Now I find out they've had HVX in their fields for 2 to 3 years? And they still sold the plants? About 2 weeks after I spoke with him Golden Tiara dropped off their availability list and hasn't been on there since. Coincidence???

I'll take a picture of the roots and you can tell me if it is a 5+ year old plant or not...

And they are shifting the blame away from themselves to the USDA and growers groups.

I was happy with their response yesterday and mad as hell today. WHY DID I GET THESE PLANTS IF THEY KNEW THEY WERE VIRUSED???

As long as these growers continue to pass the buck and not take responsibility for their actions I will continue to blow the whistle on them.

flowerchild59 · Post by **flowerchild59** » Jun 02, 2005 2:56 pm

Standing ovation Chris

flowerchild59 · Post by **flowerchild59** » Jun 02, 2005 2:56 pm

Kudos to you Chris for you diligence in this problem. I have over 500 named hostas and I don't want to see my collection wiped out by the greed of wholesalers who are unwilling to be responsible.

Ginger · Post by **Ginger** » Jun 02, 2005 3:04 pm

Get um Chris

Ginger

PeggyC · Post by **PeggyC** » Jun 05, 2005 10:32 am

This just gets scarier! The letter does indeed sound like he knew 2 or 3 years ago that they were virused!

Like many people on this forum, I only started collecting 6 years ago so that means I could possibly have infected hostas and not know it. Think I will be checking my beds very closely!

Blackkat · Post by **Blackkat** » Jun 05, 2005 1:53 pm

Grrrr, that sort of greed and injustice make me angry. Chris, you deserve a lot of credit for fighting the HVX problem the way you do.

Buckeye · Post by **Buckeye** » Jun 10, 2005 9:22 pm

Chris, you can add Striptease to the list of infected plants from Walters.

Post by **Chris_W** » Jun 26, 2005 10:39 am

I emailed about the Striptease and did not get a reply back.

Walters did send out a form letter about having the virus in Gold Standard. It sets the bar for customer service follow up, and they did suggest, to be safe, destroy the Gold Standard shipped last fall and this spring and call them for a credit.

The one thing that has me concerned is that in their response and in other correspondence they are putting a big emphasis on having a "virus indexed" hosta line. But as we've learned a negative test does not mean virus free. I really hope they test regularly for a couple years before releasing any more Gold Standard.

Now if we could just get this kind of up front response from other growers we'd be making MUCH better progress in educating nursery owners about this.