Bridgewood has become my go-to hosta seller. If I'm not picking something up in the neighborhood swap, I go to Bridgewood (which is close enough to my home and zone). I got an email last week that 2015 spring shipping is starting (to points south of me). The 'ugly plant sale' always has something I can't live without. I also like that he deliberately sells 1 eye plants; I use to infill my hosta plots.

Has anyone had experience with Hostas Direct? I'm waiting on an order from them, and after some of the posts I've read, I'll be looking at my shipment with a critical eye. There are 3 features of their website that swayed me to buy their products: 1. Many Hostas are available in 3 different sizes - starter (rooted tissue culture starts), advanced starter (about 2X bigger) and mature division - so you can get a small Hosta for a small price, or a larger Hosta for a reasonable price. 2. They have several cultivars for less than $5, and they are not always the smaller sizes for that price - sometimes you can get a mature division. 3. After placing a $50 order, I got a free Hosta of my choosing (from a list). I chose 'Stained Glass', which is a newer Hosta. They were swift in sending me an order confirmation with an invoice number, which not all online nurseries do. I also like their website. When you are looking through their selections, you can sort by name, price, rating, bestsellers, etc. And you can search by color, 1st letter of the name, sun-resistant, slug-resistant, AHS rating, etc. They give detailed information about each Hosta, listing everything from leaf color to leaf size, number of vein pairs, lineage, plant size, etc. You can do a side-by-side comparison of Hostas. They have a shopping cart and a wish list. My wish list is full of Hostas that I intend to buy next month, in $50 increments. So far, I am really impressed, but like I said, I am still waiting for the plants to arrive. I would appreciate anyone's input on their experience with this company. bejoy2

Thank you, Mark, for sharing DSH's rationale for cutting the leaves. While it still doesn't make much sense to me, at least it is helpful to know there was a plan. That doesn't alleviate my heightened concerns about the possibility of cross-contaminating hostas if the vendor did not sterilize the cutting equipment between each plant. (Ans since I have not seen any strong evidence to indicate that this practice was used, I will choose to err on the side of caution.) Yes, I agree, we should be habitual in our monitoring of all new plants received until they have passed that quarantine period. That period, however, can be as long as 7 years before visual symptoms appear, and I am personally unwilling to wait 7 years with this particular batch given the leaf cutting - which we all know is a primary method of spreading HVX. While searching that "other" hosta forum for information, I saw several recent threads that seemed to indicate that newly contaminated hostas (such as might occur while cutting leaves off a healthy hosta without cleaning HVX sap from an infected plant) would probably have enough HVX during their second year to test positive using the Agdia strips. I don't consider myself hysterical about HVX - merely aware, informed and prepared to act in appropriate situations. I have over 550 hostas, mostly acquired during the past seven years. To date I have tested two hostas which appeared suspect to me, both of which tested negative. And according to discussions on another hosta forum, Agdia strips are widely considered to be 99% effective with extremely low false positive or negative rates. A new piece of disturbing news about HVX: Dr. Lockhart is apparently now recommending that you NEVER plant a new hosta in a spot where a diseased hosta was removed, as his 18-month study showed HVX was still present after the plant's removal. As most of us are aware, the recent thought was you were safe after a year or so. And back in 2004, it was stated you could plant immediately since the virus couldn't possibly sustain itself outside the plant. So we are continuing to learn about this very unfortunate disease. So, for what it's worth to others who are trying to decide what to do with their new purchases, I have decided to do the following. Given how difficult it has been for me to locate Velvet Moon and Paradise Joyce, I will pot them up and enjoy them in my screen porch this season. If they survive over-wintering in my unheated garage this winter, I will wait for them to leaf out next summer and then test them with Agdia strips. If they are positive, out they go, right in the pots they are planted in. If they are negative, current research would say they are "safe", and I will likely plant in locations where they can be removed at some future point with ease should symptoms appear down the road. I will probably do the same with Royal Flush and LS Babyface, although I won't bother to test them if either PJ or VM tests positive - they'll hit the trash immediately. Those plants are fairly available through other reliable vendors, but I'll hold off on chucking them until I have reasonable evidence to do so. Lesson learned for me personally - I am not comfortable purchasing mutilated hostas, even if the vendor believes he has a justifable reason for doing so. But since the plants are here, I will take additional reasonable precautions to protect my existing hosta collection given the significant opportunity for HVX contamination introduced by the leaf cutting.

Leafwatcher, This year I've ordered from NH Hosta, Hallson, Naylor Creek, Land of the Giants, Hosta Patch, Hostas Direct, Mason Hollow, Garden Breeze, Jim's Hostas, Hosta Liners, and Country Boy Hostas. All are online sources. Each have their strengths and some have drawbacks. You can't go wrong with Hallson. Great customer service and good sized plants, probably the best sized plants for those that are not field grown divisions. Naylor Creek has great plants also and a wide variety. They probably have more hard to find cultivars than Hallson. Jim's has an extensive variety of cultivars. Plants are often field grown divisions. My plants from them this year were flaccid upon arrival. They've since recovered and are doing fine. NH Hostas also have good prices and good plants. Their plants are greenhouse grown and usually one eye each. They also sell small "starter" plants which are very small. Hosta Liners sell small plants, but also have 4.5 inch potted "market ready" plants. I had good luck with those this year. Country Boy Hostas is one I would not use again. I ordered three plants from them this year and all were very small and have struggled. Hosta's Direct sell small plants at small prices. They take longer to get established. Hosta Patch had some good plants that have done well. Their super sized plants are more expensive and are multi-eyed and establish well. LOTG had difficulty with the weather this Spring and shipped late. As a result some of the plants from them have not done well, others have established quickly. Their plants are field grown and good sized. Mason Hollow has become one of my favorite sources for Hostas. Great selection, great customer service, good sized plants that are shipped quickly and arrive in good shape. Every plant I ordered from them this year has done well. I ordered three times from them, and will go back for more next year. So it depends on what you want. Smaller prices mean smaller plants that take longer to get established. You can't go wrong with Hallson, Naylor Creek and Mason Hollow, IMO. Steve