As reports start to come in, it looks like a bad year ahead

[Chris_W]

Browsing the net this morning and I see reports starting to come in from down south on a lot of plants showing up at the box stores with HVX. Based on what I saw last year when we tested that showed HVX in Halcyon, Minuteman, and Patriot but without showing symptoms, I bet we see batches of all 3 of those varieties showing some kind of symptoms this year with the virus. If we don't see it this year we'll see them next.

It is very sad that suppliers continue to ship obviously infected plants out to places like Lowe's, Home Depot, and Wal Mart. Then there are still gardeners who don't know about the virus who think they look neat.

Keep spreading the word about this, and don't be afraid to speak up when you see it at nurseries. We are going to see it I'm afraid.

Thanks for helping in the crusade!

Chris

[Kas]

Chris, just today I saw a whole bunch of Wal-Mart hostas that were just crawling with HVX ( how I think of it). I took one to the nearest garden lady and as luck would have it, she was the one in charge. I told here what I knew about transmission and how it might not even show up right away even though the plant was already infected. She was upset that her supplier would send sick plants and even asked, "I wonder what the Dept of Agriculture would think about this?" I told her to ask her supplier the same thing. The label said they were "grown by" Smith Gardens in Bellingham, WA, but my guess is they are just distributed by them. They were labeled wrong as well as being sick.

Kas

[Hosta Lady of Anoka]

Hi Chris,
Dr. Lockhart lists several hosta as "immune". During his visit to my personal garden he stated that he chopped up HVX hosta and spread them over certain hosta and they NEVER got the HVX!!!

His list is ...
Immune

Bressingham Blue
Frosted Jade
Love Pat
Great Expectation
Sagae
H. sieboldiana 'Elegans'

Do you have any to add? or have you found HVX is some of the above varieties. (I also saw more varieties listed on several State Web sites, but not sure if I want to believe, yet????

Look forward to your reply,
Hosta Lady of Anoka (karla)

[Chris_W]

Hi Karla,

That's what I read in his reports from his 3 year study, that after repeated attempts to innoculate these hostas they never caught it, so appeared to be immune.

The only problem was that later someone did find HVX in some Sagae, and Dr. Lockhart even did the tests to confirm it. Because of that I would be careful about stating categorically that all of these plants are immune, but so far we haven't seen it in sieboldianas. Who knows, we might some day, but I would guess that overall the chances of these catching HVX is much lower than others that catch it really easily (like the tiaras or the fragrant hostas).

Some people believed that because this list of plants is closely related to the tokudamas that the tokudamas also wouldn't get HVX, but I've seen pictures of Bright Lights with HVX, so the tokudamas do appear to catch it.]

Hope that helps a little.

Chris

[Bill Meyer]

Hi Everyone,

I think we need to be very careful about the word "immune". In common use it basically means "cannot be infected". In plant science use, it refers to a plant's immune reaction (RNA silencing for those who like to look things up) and really means something more like "fighting off infection" after a virus has entered the plant.

Dr. Lockhart did not write the Journal article, so he may have chosen the wording a little differently. It does seem to state that those plants are "immune" to HVX. After repeated attempts to infect them, they still tested negative. Unfortunately, this does not prove that they cannot fail to fight off HVX. On the surface, it does seem to prove it, but with one of those cultivars later showing symptoms, there is no reason to think the others are "immune". Without further testing, we should assume there is no such thing as an HVX-immune hosta. The test results for the other "immunes" should not be considered proof in light of one of the six tested not being "immune" after all.

The "immune" list is strictly sieboldiana and montana in species background. Other montanas have been tested positive, leaving the sieboldianas as the possibly "immune" species. Tokudamas are not considered a separate species from sieboldiana, so the infected 'Bright Lights' rules out the sieboldiana species being immune as well.

Maybe as Chris suggests they are more resistant to infection. Maybe they do get infected easily but the virus has a difficult time replicating. Maybe it takes even longer for the virus to reach high enough numbers to show symptoms. Maybe there is more than one strain of HVX and they really are immune to one of them.

There are lots of maybe's and not enough solid answers at this time. Hopefully in the next few years we will gain a better understanding of HVX. In the meantime, we should consider all hostas to be able to catch HVX and if infected to pass it to any other hosta. Don't get caught up in thinking that some of them are immune and therefore safe to handle with less caution. If handling plants from sources that are known to be selling infected plants, don't treat the "resistant" and "immune" ones with less care than the "susceptible" ones. Doing so may lead to serious regrets later if they turn out to be just as bad but only taking still longer to show symptoms.

In my opinion the worst feature of HVX is that it can take so long to show symptoms after a plant is infected. Apparently it can be a few weeks to several years before we can see a plant is infected. This is a main cause of the epidemic reaching the level that it has. People in the nursery industry struggled with the idea that plants that don't show symptoms for a year or two are still infected and can pass it to other plants. I don't really think they were ignoring the virus and didn't care about infection. I think they were just assuming clean-looking plants were not infected.

If I am right about those nursery people, then you can see the danger in assuming some hostas can't or didn't catch HVX. They made a costly mistake in thinking that - do you want to make the same one?

...............Bill Meyer

[Liselotte]

2 years ago I tried to warn people here in Switzerland. At 'Plant Protection' I had to explain what a Hosta is, the person never heard of it. At the Swiss Research Station and Horticultural College I talked to several people claiming to know about Hostas, but they never heard of HVX and seemed to shrug it off. I gave up and warn Hosta people I know. Only one person told me, he had a Birchwood Parky's
Gold thast looked exactly like the pictures in the Hosta Library. He said, he would destroyed it.
This months, finally a German garden magazine warned about the virus and supposedly, ith has been found in Germany and Holland. but the author claims is is a serious US problem. Now, didn't the epidemic start with the cheap Dutch imports???

[caliloo]

I just got back from my local Lowe's and they had a huge display of So Sweet, all obviously infected. There were also several Gold Tiaras that showed signs. I pointed them out to the manager on duty, and he said he would contact the supplier. Hopefully, they will be as diligent as last year. They were very good about not selling the infected plants and returning them to the distributors.

On the upside, they had some beautiful Queen Josephines that were very healthy and lush (and a bargain!).

Alexa

[Jim Soper]

I’ve seen HVX at Lowe’s here in the Kansas City area and also at one of the larger nurseries. Sad, because I know this nursery has been told, and I’m pretty sure they had virus plants found by the department of agriculture last season, and then they have Gold Standard with ink bleed stripes on them. It also looked like this nursery also had recent Dutch imports of varieties know to have had problems in the last couple of years – Sum and Substance, Striptease, etc.
I’ve had a report from a customer that the other “big nice nursery” in the county had lots of infected plants.

[valereee]

I just found five infected Stilettos at the nursery where I purchased my infected Stiletto last year. I took the one with the most affected leaves up to the front and had the clerks call the manager, which they thought was very funny until he showed up, took a look at the plant, agreed immediately it was HVX, and thanked me PROFUSELY for pointing it out to him.

The bigger issue, of course, is that they probably started out with twenty of these plants two or three weeks ago.

Val

[weed30]

I found infected Gold Standards at a local nursery - they were from Monrovia. I notified the nursery and sent Monrovia an email. I'll be curious to see if they respond.

There were also several dozen virused (and mislabeled) hosta that were on sale at this nursery. I am not sure if they were from Monrovia or not - tags did not indicate. Anyway, the nursery pulled all of those after they looked up HVX on the internet. I am amazed and scared about so many nurseries that are completely unaware of HVX.

[caliloo]

I had to get a few things at Lowe's today and the hosta display was crawling with infected plants. Unfortunately, the manager who was there last year has "moved on" and the current staff basically told me to MYOB. Actually, all the plants were pretty pathetic looking. Lots of dead stuff left on displays, nothing hd been watered in days, etc.

Lowe's corporate offices will be getting an email from me later today.

Alexa

[thy]

HVX all over the cheap places here

Hope that means the US stores are starting to say they do not want infected plant

You can alleays hope..can't you

[planwerk]

This months, finally a German garden magazine warned about the virus and supposedly, ith has been found in Germany and Holland. but the author claims is is a serious US problem. Now, didn't the epidemic start with the cheap Dutch imports???

That's exactly the point, Liselotte!

I saw Golden Tiara, Blue Cadet with HVX at a gardenshow in Neuburg (Germany) last Weekend, all wholesale-stuff with dutch background.

Just talked to a nursery-owner in Hamburg who purchased S&S from a dutch company last year. All 1000 infected. He again ordered S&S from the same source this year because the owner told him to have them tested. Result???
Yes, all 1000 plants infected.

And finally i had a single HVX-Striptese at my nursery from a famous nursery in Austria, who works nice and clean (a 100% nursery-man). He purchased them from another guy who purchased them in the netherlands...

Not to forget I saw HVX-Gold Standard at a (in Germany/Europe) famous nursery near Memmingen in the display area. I told the owner about the plants (he did not look very frightened...) , don't know what happened and where the plants originated, but guess what i think...?.

So we have to watch the market (what I do because Hostas are the base of our nursery) and tell other people about the problem.

Keep the eyes opened...

planwerk

PS: Liselotte, do you by any chance visit the Tölzer Rosentage (Pfingsten) this year? If so we should talk to each other. Or perhaps Lindau?
www.rosentage.de
www.gartentage-lindau.de

[thy]

Planwerk

Go talk to Marco Fransen and Jan van den Top, they are doing a serious Dutch hosta wholesale and test their plants. Here in EU they are the ones I am bying from and more or less only from them

Do not think of bying from the Danish compagny Olsen and Olsen, they have HVX visible in way to many hostas and an their hostas are way to small, but that's an other story

Yes Liselotte, people starts to listen

All of this is due to Chris, telling us about his meeting with HVX as a nursery man, - all the costs and disapointments. Every time I tell the story to someone I get the same responce... If it was here, he would never had opened his mouth...Thanks once again Chris for letting us know
Pia

[Ed_B]

I was on the daylily aution site the other day, they also auction other plants including Hosta. I saw a Striptease with the virus, I contacted the seller. She had never heard of the virus, so I sent her the link from the Hosta Library.
She E-mailed me back, thanked me profusly, and pulled the plant.
Bottom line is the virus is everywhere, and not enough people are aware or mabe even concerned enough to prevent it from spreading.
The fact that some box store managers, do not want to hear about it is scary indeed.
I am keeping a very close eye on my plants, as I did have a Striptease that I destroyed last year. The sad part is I wondered about the funny look at the ends of this plant for three years before I ever even heard of the virus. It came back every year with vigor and was increasing in size. I just didn't know.
have a pic will include
Ed

[planwerk]

Planwerk
Go talk to Marco Fransen and Jan van den Top, they are doing a serious Dutch hosta wholesale and test their plants. Here in EU they are the ones I am bying from and more or less only from them

Thats where i buy all my hostas (that I don't have already in my nursery) from. And I'm not gonna buy from other sources in Europe, unless i have a close look in the nursery...
Thanks anyway for the Olson and Olson-Tip.

planwerk

[Liselotte]

Thanks everyone for the info!
I have to admit, that these days I am very busy diging plants and when I do have time, just check out Chris's virus site.
planwerk, this is the first I actually hear about the virus in Germany and I am shocked that only now some info is coming in. Here in Switzerland, no discussions! I think in the trade, it seems their 'lips are sealed' for fear of loosing business. of course I am an outsider here, just considered a weird hobby gardener....
planwerk, no I won't be able to go to any Rosen events in Germany because there is just no time.....But thanks for asking.
Being hopelessly addicted, I did order more Hostas from Marco and Joyce Fransen. The only supplier in Holland I trust these days! ( I imagine Jan van der Top is o.k. too.
True Hosta lovers would never knowingly sell an infected plant!
My new plants will stay in pots in isolation, until I am certain they are clean (at least for 2 years). For now all are lookin' good! touch wood!