I said that the state inspectors in many cases don't seem to be aware of the problem yet. He said - 'so I just have to grin & bear the loss?' I told him to get ahold of his supplier & make them aware that they had received virused hostas. He said he'd have the dept. manager do that today. No plants were removed last nite, but at least he is aware that there is a problem now. One small step, but that's how everything starts as the Chinese proverb says. I was there about 2 weeks ago - the shipment looked like it had just come in. I could easily tell that the Gold Standards were virused. None but the clueless in the area that nite so I didn't attempt to talk to anyone. I thought the Lady Guineveres looked kinda funky, but couldn't tell for sure yet. But last nite almost every plant of LG had at least several leaves clearly showing HVX. I wasn't surprised that they were infected, but I was surprised that in just 2 weeks they would have 'manifested' to such a classic HVX look.
I haven't bought any hostas from a W-M since 2002. [And luckily the main reason is that they didn't have any hostas that I didn't already have. Cuz I sure wasn't very aware of HVX even by the next year. I have one hosta purchased at a W-M in eastern Iowa by a friend in 2003. I've been keeping my eye on it, but fortunately the only thing it's had is some frost damage.] I'm still not sure I'm safe with the ones I got back in my 1st year of collecting, but I've never seen any signs of HVX yet so I'm hoping I'm good.
Hosta collectors & retailers 'get it' once they're aware of HVX & understand the seriousness of the problem - in most cases. The casual gardeners of the world may never even be aware of HVX in hostas. Somebody needs to be doing their best to make sure that they don't buy infected plants to begin with, because casual gardeners are oftentimes the ones who pass on hostas to their family & friends and I'm sure many virused hostas are entering new gardens frequently in that way... The only way to prevent this happening is to prevent HVX-infected hostas from getting into the marketplace & then into unsuspecting hands. Even hosta club members with limited or no internet access have very little knowledge of HVX, and we have to educate them as well.
I think that in addition to continuing to inform retailers & wholesalers as we've been doing for several years, that we need to be concentrating more effort on educating the state ag depts. about HVX. As with many government agencies, getting through to them may be one of the most difficult hurdles we face.
These hostas at W-M may stay out for sale no matter what I say just because they have already gotten a clean bill of health from the state inspector. Obviously the inspector isn't inspecting too carefully if he/she is aware of HVX, but they may have no idea it even exists. In any case, the state ag inspection depts need to be 1st educated to the existence of HVX & then pressure needs to be kept on them NOT to give OK's to retailers & wholesalers who are selling the plants. That's the only way the epidemic has even a chance of being slowed. As widespread as HVX has become in just the last 2-3 years, I doubt we'll ever be rid of it. And I think in addition to us as individuals, that our hosta clubs on every level - local, regional, & national need to be at the forefront in a concerted effort before irreparable harm is done to the industry.
[Now if I could just turn the passion I have for hostas & eradicating HVX into a paying job, I'd be good.]
The only good thing that I could see about the situation at this W-M was that after 2 weeks, I couldn't tell that there had been more than just a few hostas here & there sold. [The price is cheap enough - just under $6.] So they may end up taking a loss on them anyway.
I was genuinely surprised to see that they actually had named varieties this year. For the last several years they seemed to only carry Fortunei & Undulata types that were labelled 'Hosta'. 
