Glad you brought up the HVX concerns, Jon. A heads up to everyone. Ahh, Bkay, but where do they all get their tc's from? Just because you cannot see HVX doesn't mean that it isn't there and will show up in a year or two. Didn't you have some direct experience with that. Ouch. Sometimes I can get a nursery manager to remove obviously infected plants, but they leave the others there, and if they all came from the same place, you betcha that some of those innocent looking plants are infected too. A store manager might be convinced to toss the ones that are unsightly, but I doubt he will dump a plant that looks perfectly fine to him. Just be cautious when buying from a source that cannot confirm that they do everything possible to prevent HVX contamination. Then keep that plant separate from your others. Once your soil is contaminated you are SOL. There are test strips available. See the link at the Hosta Library. -Babka

And then there are those that know about HVX, get told (by me) that some of their plants are infected, then get offensive (toward me) and say they know about the plants, but there is no way of knowing it has the virus unless it's tested, and yet continue to leave it on the shelf to be sold. My mother told me had I not been there to point out that the hosta was diseased, she wouldn't have known any different, thought it was pretty (with the mottling of the leaves) and might have bought the plant. She was glad to have me with her. She knew nothing about HVX. But the woman at the nursery did, knew the problem plants, and refused to do anything about it (except get offensive with me with other customers around after I had been trying to keep quiet about it with her to not alert the other customers). Karen

I've had it in 08 with Halcyon and 09 with Wolverine, both of which came from two different local places. Nothing since. I also cast a nervous eye around in the Spring at every bump and ripple and had a lot of unusual puckering this year as well from the cold, but everything looks healthy now. That said, I'm really not that freaked out or scared by HVX anymore. I'll even go as far to say that if I have an infected one, I will not declare that garden space forever off limits to another hosta. I will just clear out the infected hosta and as much soil as possible and replace with fresh soil and a hosta in a buried container or spinout bag. I do take heart that it's spread much less easily than nematodes. It just sucks that it can lay dormant for so long without visible signs. The ones I lost were both entering their third years, so it wasn't like they were mature specimens. It would certainly break my heart to lose one of those to it.

Thanks everyone for taking an interest. I'm really eager to see whether the seedlings in pots survive the winter because I didn't have the time or energy last fall to put the hosta seedlings back in the ground. The pot on the window sill is still there, the pot hasn't cracked and the little trees still seem to be alive. Hostatakeover, I don't know much about mulch but I think I've read here on the forum that mulch uses nitrogen which might be needed for your seeds to germinate??? Maybe you'll get some seedlings as it breaks down. I have a few seedlings growing in a light mulch produced by the squirrels eating the little spruce cones. I'm still trying to figure out why I have so many seedlings germinating... may be the daily watering from the sprinkler system. Paula, I believe moccasin is putting her seeds in her pots. Have you tried that? I would just try to scratch them lightly into the soil. Just guessing. You do such a great job starting with tiny hostas that the seeds should sprout for you. Ken, my goal at the moment is to add at least one fertile streaker to each one of my hosta beds with the hope that nature will provide me with a few variegated seedlings. So far I've added Ice Age Trail and Dorset Clown. I don't know if Allegan Fog counts. I'm looking for small to medium sized ones and not Dorothy Benedict. Jo, by the middle of August my hosta beds look a mess. I've been leaving the scapes and foliage over the winter...the scapes so I know where the pips will be in the spring...the foliage as extra protection in case of an early thaw. Don't know if you have Frosted Dimples and Salute. I think I likely got some blue seedlings from that cross, thanks to the bees. BTW, I love your mini hosta pots. I'm learning from you.