Mary,

I have only had one suspicious plant, a Sun Power. It looked wierd last year (was new last year) and when it developed the wide dark green veins and ugly warts this spring, it was promptly bagged and disposed of. Even if it wasn't HVX, it was sure sick & ugly.

I have 2 more, nicer Sun Powers so no big loss.

Char

I purchased a Summer Music in 2006 from Gerten's in Inver Grove Heights. It tested positive this summer and was disposed of. I had a Niagara Falls this summer which looked suspicious, but it tested negative. I'm going to test it again this fall. Different seller though.

Below is a photo of a Paul's Glory I purchased at Lowes last year and when it came up in the spring of this year, the discoloration was obvious HVX. One of the reasons I have given the home centers in my area such a hard time this year is that I purchased most all of my hosta from Lowes and Home Depot last year. Lowes has a $2.97 size that helped me add many interesting hosta at a low price and their store in Trussville, AL had several desirable hosta like Paul's Glory, Krossa Regal, Fire and Ice, August Moon, Antioch, American Halo among others. The year before, I purchased from Home Depot a Halcyon, Francis Williams and Gold Standard.

This year I saw a lot of suspect hosta at both Lowes and Home Depot - many with the tell tale symptom of inkbleed. After seeing this, I have switch sources to two online nurseries one of which is very proactive about HVX.

So, I have had one Paul's Glory with HVX and many hostas from the same nurseries that produced so many sick hosta this year - a lot of hostas in my beds for me to worry about.

{{gwi:365797}}

Char and Lois--OK only one apiece so far. Lois, how wise you are to stay with that suspicious plant and re-test it. Keep us posted. Jbranch~I don't think many of us would want to be in your shoes right now having to worry about so many new plants. It's too bad the testing kit is too expensive to be testing plants before they have obvious symptoms. I gave a lecture to my Garden Club today about HVX (now that I'm the only member with first hand experience and information), and they were shocked when I told them not to buy H from Big Box stores. I'm also the only one with Japanese Beetles--how do I get so lucky!) Mary

Mary, I have had several bare root Hosta varieties that I purchased at Costco that showed evidence of HVX when they started to put up leaves and unfurl. They were all returned for a refund, which was given. I see plenty of evidence of HVX in box stores, having seen it at bot HD and Walmart, matter of fact I saw Golden Tiaras @ W that were so badly infected you'd be hard pressed to recognize them. Pity the poor souls that bought those...

Pieter

I have talked about this before,and people on this forum are apalled. I have several HVX hostas growing in my garden,and have been there for years before I even knew there was such a thing. I stay away from obviously HVX infected plants now. The vast majority of my hostas are OK. To date,no HVX plant has ever infected any other plant in my garden,and probably never will,because I don't transplant them every year,like some people seem to do. I think I keep them because they are different-looking,and they don't seem to bother anyone,except maybe ya'll! Other than that,I don't worry about them. Phil

By my count I have 15 hosta purchased from the home centers, and I would think that even if some of them have HVX, most of them will be OK. I hate to admit that I purchased so many from the big box stores, but it was not until this year that I noticed so many hosta showing symptoms of HVX. I have contemplated purchasing the test kit and may still do it before they go dormant this season. Right now, with all the bad news on TV about the economy, I have decided to stop buying anything related to my yard - which only means I will test them next year. Only problem is I need to move some of them due to crowding.

I just purchased an HVX test kit from www.agdia.com. Super nice people. I think my Fireworks and Gold Standard are infected. Just bought them this year and did not divide them, so everything else should be ok. Will keep you informed of outcome.

Now if someone could find a way to get rid of nematodes and slugs, we would be in hosta heaven!

Jo~

My very first new purchase was HVX infested, identified here on the forum. So far, no signs on anything else I acquired. I do plan on buying a kit in the spring and testing my newer purchases. No more gambling here, either!
Thanks to the forum, and Hallson's, I was able to learn from all the great info given.
Anyone overly concerned about buying newer TC intros? Do they usually all come from the same places?

smorz,
I buy all my hosta TC from Q & Z, and only buy mail order from the recommendations from this forum.Q & Z test all of their hosta, so i believe you can feel safe buying from some one who orders from them, most nurserys will tell you who their ordering sourse is,just ask.

A few years ago, i did buy some hosta from big box stores,before i knew any better,i am watching them now.
Carol

I have seen hosta with HVX at the box stores. I would not buy a hosta from any of them whether it showed symptoms or not. We buy Tc's from QandZ and ShadyOaks too. I'm patient, I can wait for them to grow.
Pam

Phil~I know you don't worry about HVX, but I garden with H on "wheels" which makes me a tad paranoid. Pieter~it sounds like you caught your problem H early. Mine had to have been growing all summer--ouch. msjo~ how did your testing come out? smorze~glad you didn't give up on H after your very first one went bad. Carol~who is Q and Z and are their plants really good sized? jbranch~do you remember which thread you wrote your lengthly HVX post on? I went to file it today and can't find it anywhere. Thanks. Mary

Mary,
Q&Z,Is a whole saler,you will need a tax number to order from them.Shady Oaks sells retail, and from my understanding,is a good sourse to order from.They also sell wholesale.
There is a very nice selection of quality mail order sources mentioned on this forum,you will not have a problem finding good hosta.
There is also a thred telling all about the Hosta Finder,it is a referance book with all hosta and where you can buy them.Most listed in the book are reliable,when you get ready to order, just ask here and some one will hwlp you.
Carol

I posted a message a few weeks ago about my H. Squash casserole, questioning if those that have SC noticed changes in it's appearance as it matured as mine was changing radically .
I finally contacted the mail order retail nursery that sent me the Hosta in 2006. (not a box store) I felt that they should know that I suspected the cultivar to be diseased. They answered quite surprised because they had not experienced any complaints of HVX and asked me to send pictures. After sending the pics, they confirmed it as HVX and told me to destroy the plant. They graciously offered to send a refund for the plant. I plan on continuing to purchase plants from them because I believe they are being honest. However, it is obvious that HVX can also rear its ugly head from well known mail order retail nurseries also.

Mary - Q&Z is Mark Zilis' Nursery in Illinois. He only sells wholesale. I do know that Dennis at the link below buys from him. Dennis is very nice, informative and reasonable. I have bought several plants from him when he has been at the Dubuque Market in IA. I would have to say he is the one that got me hooked.

greenthumb - I haven't received the kit yet, Hopefully this week yet. Will test and post asap!

Ms Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: Rainbow's End Plants

Ooops on the link address......it's very early and I'm not quite awake!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rainbow's End Plants

I bought a Sun Power from a local nursery early this year before I knew much about anything Hosta. I chose it because I liked the bit of green along the veins (what did I know). Eventually I learned more from this forum, and the plant got more and more green. I was pretty sure it was affected by HVX when I got rid of it. Luckily, I didn't buy any other hostas from that nursery, don't think I mixed it's juices with any other hostas, and planted it away from any other hostas.

I then noticed some changes in a few of my other plants and posted them here. So I wouldn't worry, I bought the test kits. They all tested negative. What a relief.

Does Q&Z really test all it's plants?

Q&Z, Shady Oaks, and Walter's Gardens are the 3 major hosta wholesale growers in the US. Before any of them begin TCing a plant, they screen it for virus. That prevents them from propagating a virus infected plant. This is pretty standard procedure for reputable TC labs anymore. No nursery tests every individual plant they grow. That is much too expensive. By making sure they start with a clean stock plant, with proper technique they can keep all plants they propagate from the original clean.

Once the wholesale grower ships the plants to the retail nursery, it is up to the retail nursery to keep the plants disease free.

On a side note, Shady Oaks is strictly wholesale. They use to have a retail division, but they closed it several years ago. Maybe Carol was thinking of White Oak Nursery, which does sell retail?

jspece
No, i did not know Shady Oaks is strickly wholsale now,I did think they sold retail,
See how great this forum is,i gave out the wrong information,and jspece saved you from having to try to find them, lol.Thanks jspece. :0)
Oh man, i gotta do the dishes.
Carol

Oh,I'll tell you al later what i bought today.

No problem, Carol! The Shady Oaks website is fun to browse, even if you don't buy from them. It should be updated in the next couple months with their 2009 offerings. It will give you an idea of what you will find at the retailers in another year or so (if, of course, the retailer grows the liners on for a season before they sell them...some don't).

I've run across a number of hostas in retail nurseries that were pretty surely infected with HVX and have pointed these out to owners (in one case where I knew who the owners were) or employees. For the most part they seemed glad to receive my information and sounded like they'd remove infected plants right away, but who knows. And then of course there are all those potentially infected plants from the same batches that didn't get removed (or I very much doubt they did anyway). So far, I've been lucky enough not to have had any of my own hostas show any symptoms.

Hey there-
I thought I would chime in my 2 cents- I recently found HostaDirect - and am so pleased to read that all the little TC babies I bought from them this year are from tested virus free plants!
They have quite an astounding selection- and I have been very pleased with how quickly my purchased hosta grown-
I have added a link to their Hosta Disease page- It has some good information and images too-
I do worry a bit about HVX spreading- as I tend to crowd the beds full of stuff- I did have to murder a Striptease that was HUGE and beautiful and in a prime location next to the house earlier this year. I have suspected HVX for about 3 years now- and I finally made the move to remove it this year as one of it's large neighbors which touched leaves, showed signs of HVX this year too. The unknown (and similarly murdered) neighbor hosta was older and until this year was healthy with no signs of HVX. This showed me it will spread all by itself. I have not done much to these beds except remove branches as they may fall from the oak.
I will not plant hosta there till spring- and then it will be a piece of an ancient Golden Tiara (a neighbor calls GT hosta "weeds"...) that I know to be disease free- and watch it for a few years- I guess I just do not know enough about this disease to feel comfortable enough to possibly sacrifice another beauty by some bit of HVX still lurking in the soil...
I can not seem to find what I had read earlier this year about HVX research going on at the U of M- but it did sound very much like they were making great strides in understanding it- which is the first step in any "cure"....
Julie

Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta diseases page from HostaDirect-

Julie - I have purchased (mail order) from Hostas Direct twice this year. I am very happy with the TC's, all are doing excellent.

I received my HVX test kits.....started a new thread.

HVX Test 1/1

All suggestions or thoughts are most appreciated!

Thanks!
Ms Jo

Thanks all for the info on the wholesale places--now I won't bother them, but it will be fun to look up their selections.
Julie~ I'm sorry you lost 2 huge Hosta--my MA was touching my June, so I will be keeping close contact with that one. Thanks for the disease link.
Ms Jo~ I got 3 tc plants from the Hosta Direct green house this spring, and 2 of them have grown very well--Dawn's Early Light is proving to be very slow. Am going to look up Rainbow's End right now. :O) Mary

Thank you Julie for the disease link. I have learned a lot since I join GW a month ago.

So far so good as I have had no major diseases in any of my hostas. I don't do mail order (yet!) and when I do buy I usually hand pick my plants. How I can be so fortunate is beyond me.

I've only traded with just one person and nothing yet from her's and hopefully she hasn't noticed anything from mine either.

I read all your posts,feel your pain, then check my hostas and breath a sigh of relief.

Connie