Hallson Gardens

Ask Renaldo about this one - he made a surprise visit to us on Friday and when I showed him the quarantine house we noticed this one I believe I had a couple choice words for it.

This is Guacamole purchased bare root this spring from Van Bloem gardens. The discoloration wasn't even this pronounced 3 days ago, but I know that it is HVX. This one really hurts as Guacamole is such a beautiful and popular plant. In Dr. Lockhart's 3 year study Guacamole took 2 years of repeated inoculation to the virus for half of the 6 samples to test positive, so he called it "slightly susceptible". Still, we can't take any chances and must assume that the entire batch is infected and destroy them all.

So add Guacamole to the growing list of possibly infected plants from Europe.

Uh oh...methinks I best be taking a very close look at my plants this week. I'm not so sure my Guacamole doesn't look like that. Honestly, in some ways I just want to rip out some of my beds and go back to grass!!!

Here is another leaf showing symptoms.

This doesn't mean that all Guacamole out there have it. Also, we haven't sold any of these plants (thankfully)...

Chris, I'm so sorry this keeps hapening to you!

Debbie

Geepers! Chris did you ever write that second section of the articles you started! You have an entire book coming up here just on the research you've done so far! Goodness, your quarantine area is working, but sorry you're actually finding the virus. Dang it!

Awww Chris. This is getting out of hand! I feel so badly for you. Now can you contact your supplier for refunds or are you just out the $$ and all those hosta?

Im glad you are an honest person and share this info with the rest of us. Its really getting scary especially for newbies that are trying to build a collection. I see hostas on websites that Ive ordered from before or even drooled over a couple on the HL auction but I wont buy anymore right now because its just to risky IMO.

How long do you leave hostas in quarantine? I have that one questionable one......that we discussed before. I dont want it to be with the others right now until I know for sure!

Thank Chris and sorry that this keep happening to you.

My intial plan was to keep things quarantined for one season. Now I'm thinking about keeping some longer, however looking at Dr. Lockhart's work published in the Hosta Journal there are some that I could release sooner if they continue to look clean and test negative. Those will include Shade Fanfare, Patriot, Whirlwind and Minuteman. These apparently catch the virus easily and will test positive within a year of infection so we would know it quickly.

Plants like plantaginea, tokudama, and guacamole will take up to 3 years to test positive, so they will stay quarantined longer.

Others like June Fever, Halcyon, Touch of Class, and Grand Marquee fall into the category that should test positive within a year or two, so those might be alright next year if they test negative this summer and next spring.

The ones that really bother me are those that are supposed to be somewhat resistant, like Sagae and family. If these take 3 years or longer to test positive it will be quite a while before we sell them again...

But yes, the quarantine situation is working. So far I've only had to contact those who purchased Gold Standard from us, and that was only 6 plants sold before we caught it!

I'm having a little trouble getting credits from Van Bloem, but Darwin's has been extremely quick about it and they have assured me they are putting all their resources into solving the problem. I'll be ordering from Darwin's again but will be taking Van Bloem off the list for now.

I'm glad you're having some success getting credit -- maybe if more nurserymen were as informed, open and pro-active about this, the suppliers would be forced financially to deal with it.

I feel so bad for you!!Out of curiosity, I've been looking at other suppliers on the internet -- ones I always considered very reputable -- and am seeing lots of plants from the lists still being offered -- including Striptease. Scary.

I said before I have not bought any hosta this year at all and the only place I will is from you Chris. The hosta that I have got from you are doing great and I wish I had more money to buy more from you. (got to get a job) That freebee Frosted Jade is becoming an awesome plant. It hasn't multiplied much but the size is impressive. (didn't help it any that I had to move it once)