m. Aureomarginata, Twighlight

kiwibird · Post by **kiwibird** » May 09, 2006 4:23 pm

Hi, folks. What a great and informative site!

A few years ago, I fell in love with hostas. I moved into a condo with a small, shaded garden and went nuts. But, I didn't know very much and changed my mind a few times in regards to placement. I had montana aureomarginata that just never thrived. It did this weird thing where it sent up a flower stalk and nothing else the first year. Then the next year it was just weak. It had a leaf that had no margins, just half and half. That was before it got utterly destroyed by slugs. Now, this year, it sent up a few eyes and looked as pictured below (yes, past tense; it's gone now with a nice fern in it's place).

I didn't know about sanitizing tools between hostas. And I have done quite a bit of moving and rearranging in the past few seasons. My nicest, fullest hosta; a ventricosa, had the typical mottling this season. So, out it went. I could kick myself *hard* for being an idiot and possibly contaminating every single one of my hostas during the past few years.

Anyway, here's my latest suspected victim. A twighlight my soon-to-be mother-in-law gave me last year. Unless you can tell me there's some other reason for the deformities seen here!

What it looked like last year:

Post by **Chris_W** » May 09, 2006 6:38 pm

Hi Kiwibird, and welcome to Hallson's!

Obviously you already knew that montana Aureomarginata was infected.

In the second picture of Twilight with your hand on it, it looks like I can see a lighter color running down the veins, radiating out slightly. This looks like HVX.

The puckering itself can often be caused by frost damage or even damage if the dormant eye was stepped on, but that type of damage is usually confined to the tips. You will usually see a cut off point where the end of the leaf has damage and the bottom of the leaf is fine. In this case the puckering runs down the leaves. Again, this makes me suspicious of HVX.

The key to know for sure is to watch the newer leaves as they unfurl. If they start to exhibit the same odd patterns and crinkling then you will know without a doubt that this is not cold damage but is really HVX.

Since Twilight and its related plants in the fortunei group are somewhat resistant to HVX there is a good chance that if this is HVX, then it was infected last year. In Dr. Lockharts tests and from what I've seen this family of plants takes a couple years before showing symptoms. We had Patriot and Minuteman test positive last year and none showed any symptoms. They are gone now so I really can't say if they would have shown this year or not...

Keep an eye on the new growth and post a picture again in a little while if it repeats this pattern on the new leaves.

Talk to you later,

Chris

mooie · Post by **mooie** » May 09, 2006 9:28 pm

Every time I see the light on on this HVX I just sigh....

mooie

Post by **Chris_W** » May 10, 2006 12:20 am

I know what you mean Mooie. The virus has spread way beyond what anyone had expected, and it seems that my worst fears from just a few years back are happening faster than I ever would have imagined

Kiwibird, the more I look at these pictures the more I do think it is HVX. Frost tends to be surface damage but this looks more like it is within the leaves. If it is frost damage there would also be some bubbling of the tissue on the back side of the leaves. Any chance of getting a reverse picture?

Since so many gardeners deadhead or cut plants back in the fall, plus move things around and divide all the time without ever thinking they might be spreading a virus I fear that the situation will simply continue to get worse.

mooie · Post by **mooie** » May 10, 2006 10:22 pm

Had to send some Sum & Substance back with the driver today when he delivered them, they were totally HXV. Called the grower we bought them from and told them what was going on. She was amazed. I told her to call Langeveld cuz it was their tag on the plant and ask for credit. Told her that if the state inspector (or nursery cop as I call them) showed up he would also order them destroyed.

Ok that was a stretch but maybe something will click. My boss calls me the hosta queen and I inspect every hosta that walks thru the door. All of the Gold Standard went the same way. I can't imagine how many this poor nursery sold out in this condition before they got to us. Geez...

mooie

kiwibird · Post by **kiwibird** » May 25, 2006 2:50 pm

Just thought I'd post a new pic as a followup. I'm pretty sure this one doesn't have HVX, even though it looked somewhat suspect a few weeks ago. Looks like some intense drawstringing to me, and boy is it ugly!

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Post by **Chris_W** » May 25, 2006 7:16 pm

Hmm, I've never heard reports of Twilight getting drawstring until this year, and if I hadn't seen the picture from last year I would even question it being Twilight - however last year's picture definitely looks right...

What state are you in? Did this one come up early and have the emerging eyes frozen or frosted?

I still worry about those bumps and light patches that follow the veins looking like HVX. Any chance you can get a clear closeup of a leaf showing the color along the veins, plus a picture of the back of one of the leaves? If it is frost damage then the back of the leaves should have some bubbling between the inner and outer layers of plant tissue. Or there should be some other kind of surface damage to the backs of the leaves.

The next thing would be to look at a leaf through some light. If you can see lighter patches along the veins then you have HVX. If it is just cold damage the leaves should appear almost perfectly uniform across all the dark green parts and uniform along the margins.

I would hate to have you start trimming off leaves thinking it is drawstring or frost damage when it might be virus...

Hopefully we can get a much closer look. If you need to email me larger pictures you can do that too - hallsons@perennialnursery.com

Talk to you later,

Chris

kiwibird · Post by **kiwibird** » May 26, 2006 4:41 pm

The closer look is kind of hard to achieve properly. this pic is kinda blurry, and I swear the light exaggerates the subtle light color along the veins (it really doesn't look like HVX to my completely untrained eye).

Here's front and back:

Someone on another forum mentioned that they really didn't think this looked like drawstringing at all.

This was actually one of my last hostas to emerge. I live in Seattle, and my garden is very small and sheltered. We did have a little cold snap way back, but that was well before any hostas had begun unfurling, and before this one was even showing eyes. No other hosta in my garden is really showing anything similar, save a few crossed veins here and there (does that even mean anything?).

Thanks for taking the time to look and ponder. As I said, my garden is rather small, but I'm sure I'll find some space for another hosta or three sometime in the future. When I do, I'll be sure to come here to order them! I'm simply amazed and awed by your dedication to this issue.

Jennifer

Kas · Post by **Kas** » May 26, 2006 8:50 pm

Hey, Jennifer! There are a bunch of us Seattle area folks on the forum. We live in a great spot to garden. I just wanted to say that my Wide Brim is doing the exact same thing this year as your Twilight. I think it might be a fungus of some sort. Not like we have any of that out here!

I bet it will be fine next year.

Kas