OMG! That is a badly diseased plant! It is riddled with Hosta Virus X.

I find it unappealing and would cautiously dig it up and dispose of it. If you do, be sure to disinfect any tools that you use and do not plant anything in that spot in the near future.

Alexa

I don't think this is HVX. The OP says that the baby was separated from the mother 4-5 years ago, and the mother doesn't have HVX.

I agree with Alexa - heavily infected with HVX. Do a web search on "Hosta Virus X" or "Hosta HVX" for information and photos.

even better ... use the search in garden web ...

pay special attention on cleaning the shovel after digging it out .... as you dont want to spread it around the yard ...

ken

Not HVX... look in the Hosta Library for h. Cynthia... same mottling patterns, perfectly healthy. I know a woman who has grown Cynthia for umpteen years with no "spread" of disease. Enjoy your novelty.

Clearly there is still a lot of education needed about Hosta Virus X.

Hosta Cynthia is one of the few plants that is genetically mottled. This is rare.

The mottling you are seeing on your plant is definitely from Hosta Virus X. It is possible that you have isolated a virus infected eye from the rest of the plant, but there is absolutely no doubt that we are looking at a virus infected plant and not a sport.

I wouldn't take the chance. I would remove it.
Pam

There is a huge difference between h. Cynthia and the plant pictured above. The biggest one is that h. Cynthia is a sport of Montana, not Gold Standard. This plant looks virused with HVX to me.

It's Classic HVX...forget Cynthia not even close.
ChrisC you need to chime in.

Not all of a plant has to show signs of HVX...example. It can take years for it to show it's icky self.

My large 7 year old Striptease didn't show signs of HVX till it was that old...only one part showed signs after the 8th year and ninth year. It RIP.

It's a classic case of a sick plant.

By the way, many, many people have seen these before, and yes, often times they think they have a "one of a kind" plant. But there have been hundreds of thousands of virus infected Gold Standards floating around like this one, most hopefully have been destroyed, but often the people who see them will think it is a new plant. But this is a virus - millions of plants have been infected with it - don't chance spreading it and destroy that beast. Then keep a very close eye on the mother plant. It can take years for infected plants to show symptoms.

Sorry for the bad news

Chris

Ptilda,
I saw about 50 0f your rare sport at Menard's the other day labeled 'Gold Standard'. Burn that puppy now!!! I have both Filagree and Cynthiia and they are a totally different situation.

Denny

So, the hosta has been removed, along with about 12-inches out from the base, worth of surrounding dirt, and about 18-inches into the ground. The wheelbarrow & shovel were bleached afterward, and the hole is currently empty. What is the best thing to do with the hole? Is there anything that I can put into the hole to kill any remaining spores, that would not contaminate the ground or harm my other plants? Should I leave the hole open for a while to ensure that any remaining roots (my guess is that there are none) are killed? How long should I wait before I plant something else in that location?

Thanks for all of the responses.

check out the link

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

bleaching the shovel is NOT good enough ...

ken

Thanks, Ken, but that really neither helps me, nor answers my question. What I'm looking for is information on the SAFEST, most efficient way to ensure the virus is not spread to my other plants.

Hi,

Don't worry about the soil itself. The virus will be in the roots, and once the roots start to die the virus will die with it. Some have suggested if you have a hole, line it with newspaper and then fill with fresh soil before replanting. Dr. Lockhart at the University of Minnesota says to wait at least a few weeks before replanting in the same spot, though most people like myself would either plant a different type of plant or wait until next spring.

Hope that helps.

Chris

I popped a coral bells in the place where my virused striptease was. Just played it safe and figured at a future date I could take the coral bell out and put a hosta in it's place.

Chris,
Is it a 'given' that the mother plant will have HVX too and just not showing symptoms yet? Or is it possible for the mother plant to be clean?
Pam

Chris,
Here are a few more questions.
What is the best way to make sure that HVX is not on garden tools if you use them to remove a Hosta infected with HVX?
What can be done to ensure that other plants in a collection do not have or get HVX once one is discovered?
Daniel in Ohio

Well folks, NOT ALL Gold Standard that are mottled are HVX diseased. Get to know the difference, as Ken and others have explained.

And some one should explain the background history that the Dutch plant growers years ago found they had HVX infected soil but continued to send all their field grown Gold Standard around the world, due to the tremendous demand for it. Those diseased plants continue to find their way into our nurseries - it hurts to see them in nurseries everywhere I go, and more cultivars now than just Gold Standard.

Early Gold Standard clumps in my mother's garden showed color changes which we concluded were just "unstable" Gold Standard: at an Indianapolis AHS Natinal Convention back in the 1980's there were probably 20-30 gorgeous Gold Standard clumps of all different colored and mottled leaves.

Some of those plants probably came from Marge Soules, who would have received them from Mom. She and Marge discusssed the possibilities they wree diseased, but in fact the weaker ones always died out from poor genetics: HXV is plainly different.

Note the recent American Hosta Journal article on the genetic mutations from Gold Standard (Moonlight, Richland Gold, Someting Different, Brenda's Beauty, Striptease, etc).

Hope that helps. I agree with and recommend you throw away any Hosta with HVX - sterilize the soil area, not grow hosta in its spot for a couple of years.

Coral Bells, Forget-me-nots, corydalis, European ginger etc. should grow well.

Bruce Banyai

bump - still wondering if there was an HVX offspring, is the mother plant infected and not showing signs yet.
Pam

bump