I was at Lowe's yesterday and wandered through the plant section. They had a 'Fire Island' there that was so badly infected, I almost shrieked. LOL I picked it up w/ 2 fingers just as the manager walked up and said, "are you finding everything ok"? I informed him that his hostas were badly infected w/ HVX...explained it...showed him the plants and suggested that he contact his grower for a credit. He literally just stood there and stared at me.
I stared back.
He stared some more. LOL
I said, "I thought you should know and would want to know. To be honest, I won't be buying any hostas from you again because of the condition of these plants. As a manager, I thought you would be interested".
He just looked at me....I said "...or maybe not...".
And then he walked away!!!! Amazing.
Perhaps I should add "where there is HVX, war" to my signature line below! LOL
Andrea
Bad Lowe's!
I shop at two Lowe's her in Central Ohio - both had infected plants earlier this year. Then the Dispatch printed an article about HVX in which Chris was quoted. (there was also a Lowe's manager quoted, claiming tht Lowe's didn't sell virused Hosta anymore !?!) I stopped in yesterday, & while i saw number of heat stressed plants, didn't see any visibly infected plants anymore. But they were still from the large grower in Northern OH that I KNOW has been selling virused plants the last few years. I still wouldn't touch them with a 30" pole!!
Supercat
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Quiet Storm
- Posts: 102
- Joined: May 17, 2006 7:35 am
- Location: Zone 6 -- Eastern Massachusetts
You could also call the Lowe's corporate office. I had a similar experience at a Lowe's in Dedham, MA, where they had a whole display of infected 'Honeybells.' I informed the manager, who told me he would remove them immediately. I remained in the store for another 15 minutes and he never even came over to look at the plants. I even snapped photos of the infected plants and no one said a word. I reported the incident by phone to Lowe's corporate office, and two days later received a phone call from the (very disgruntled) garden center manager at the Dedham, MA store informing me that the diseased hostas had been removed. I didn't notice any obviously diseased hostas the last time I checked, but I won't buy hostas there anymore just the same. I've only purchased one hosta this year, and I got that from a nursery in Carlisle, MA that is very much aware of HVX -- if any plant shows signs of the disease, they destroy the whole batch.