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Eureka!! I got some people interested!!

Posted: Jun 03, 2005 5:31 pm
by Bluecanoe
I printed out the info on the Hosta Library link, DH who is a member of the media here, took it to Stuart Robinson who works with him, Stuart also writes the Gardening feature for the Montreal Gazette. He had not heard of Virus X, not only that, his friend at MacDonald Argicultural College hadn't either. Both claim that it seems no one in Canada is writing about it, or alerting anyone.

I got a call from Stuart this afternoon wanting more information, however I was out at the time, he's calling me back tomorrow. DH informed him that I've spotted Virus X at a nursery, Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire. His contact at MacDonald college is really worked up about this as well and has agreed to do random testing. Stuart is planning a big article on it for the Montreal Gazette.

I had no idea that this has gone unoticed up here in this country, we import plants from Holland and the U.S. all the time. I should have gotten a hint when the nursery owner I gave the info to, had never heard of it after attending all those meetings and conventions she goes to.

I think this may be a big step. Once word gets out it might get carried by other newspapers with gardening columns, and I'm sure MacDonald College (attached to McGill University) will be able to help greatly as well.

Thank you Chris for this forum! And frankly if I hadn't been a member here and following the alerts posted I might have some very infected plants in my garden right now.

Posted: Jun 03, 2005 5:59 pm
by thy
Good job :D

Posted: Jun 03, 2005 6:48 pm
by barbara
Good for you Lynda, and great help from Frank. I've tried getting the message across, but...well...lets just say the people I have spoken to think they are not affected and its not an issue for them. They think its a problem only other countries, the big guys have. Close minded !

Posted: Jun 03, 2005 11:09 pm
by Bluecanoe
Barb, yes, fortunately I am married to a newsman, helps a lot sometimes. Their ears perk up immediately if they sense a story. It also helps that Stuart works for the CBC and Frank sees him everyday. I just got the stuff together in time too, today was Frank's last day as his vacation starts tomorrow. Stuart was a little upset because he felt it was important enough to go to press right now, but he's already summitted this week's and next weeks columns, so he can't put it out there for another two weeks.

I checked Canadian Tire this afternoon for the first time this year and guess what? YUP! A whole shipment of diseased hostas being sold under the "Miracle Grow" label yes, same people who make the fertalizer. Every single Striptease was badly infected with Virus-X, about 20 plants. S&S, and believe it or not a whole shelf of June, most of the June's didn't look like they had anything wrong with them, but I saw 2 that did, if they were shipped with those diseased Striptease what are their chances? I called for the manager, he finally showed up and treated me like a crack pot because he claimed he'd never heard of such a disease in plants, expecially not a 'Virus'. But I didn't back down, I kept showing him diseased leaf after diseased leaf. However, I used my best diplomacy and assured him that it wasn't his fault, or Canadian Tire's fault, it was the grower and their distributer's fault, but ultimately it will be Canadian Tire's cross to bare if their customer's hosta gardens have to be trashed. I had already handed out the articles I had with me, but he said if I came back and showed them the articles their stock will be pulled and the whole shipment will be either destroyed or sent back to the distributor for a refund. So I'm printing out more tonight and am on more missions tomorrow. The nursery I first alerted had great success with the info I got to her yesterday, she talked to her supplier today who she confronted and he told her to destroy all the plants and he is going to credit her with her full payment. She offered to send one back to prove it, he said "Don't bother, just burn it" Now he's upset because he doesn't even have 1 plant left, he'd shipped everyone out.

Seriously Barb, if you've been trying to get the message across, there must be tons of people up here trying to get the message across as well. What the heck does it take for people to start taking this seriously? I saw diseased plants last year, so YES, it's a problem here, probably has been since it cropped up in the U.S.

Posted: Jun 04, 2005 3:21 am
by Tundra_Queen
YEAHHHHHHH LYNDA!! You go girl!

Lynda, can u pm me the stuff that u printed out to give to Frank please? I'd like to print some up myself and perhaps send it to our little paper. I don't think they will do anything as they don't have a gardening section but it couldn't hurt.
Thanks
Debbie :-)

Posted: Jun 05, 2005 10:38 am
by hummingbird
Way to go Lynda and Frank :beer: , this should certainly raise some eye brows and hopefully red flag alot of nurseries and potential buyers. Our Home Depot in town here have some HVX Gold Standards too :evil:

Posted: Jun 05, 2005 1:17 pm
by caliloo
Excellent!

Thanks, Lynda for being proactive about this and give your DH a thank you hug from me too....

This is awesome news!

Alexa

Posted: Jun 23, 2005 5:17 pm
by hummingbird
Lynda, anymore news on getting that article published?