Hi Paul That plant is from one I originally bought from an old chap who was selling out due to ill health. It wasn't showing any colour when I first saw it and I didn't know what it was, but he said it was nice when it coloured up and I took his word for it and bought it. Since then it just continued to multiply to the extent that I now have them all through my front garden which at the time of planting was suffering badly from visiting cats damaging anything I planted; not any more, they don't like the prickles! What I like about them is they can take all the sun they can get,(even the Jan 43 degree C. day) without any damage and when they colour up in a large group they are quite eye catching. If I can find a pic of the garden bed I will post it and you will see what I mean. All the best, Nev.

They assured me they would pull & check all fireworks hostas. That's good to hear, BUT, that is only a visual check. You did the right thing however and actually tested. And the fact the tests were negative is very encouraging. The strips from what I understand, test for the presence of the virus. And just because it has not yet manifested itself yet visually, does not mean the plant is not infected. Of course the plant can be infected prior to showing deformity and discoloration, those are visual indications of a fairly strong infestation, in the early stages it will not show anything. Like you, I would like to think they would not consciously give you yet more infected plants, but, as said above, they only did a visual inspection, which in and of itself is no guarantee. IMHO they should have used the same test you ended up using. When it comes to dealing with batches of any given Hosta variety coming from the same TC lab in the same shipment a good many nurseries would prefer to err on the side of caution and consider the entire batch to be suspect and depending on their relationship with the lab and their terms of business would either destroy the whole batch or return the whole batch. Since they have not said one way or the other as to whether or not all these Fireworks are likely to be from the same batch, my suggestion is to keep them in relative isolation for the next couple of years or so just to be on the safe side. As said, it's encouraging the first tests came back negative but as you said yourself, AGDIA does warn about false indications and it would be wise for you to test them again next year. Good luck with them and may they eventually prove to be clean for you. Pieter

Well ..... that worked without a hitch using FF.

Thanks Kathy, between the rocks and the roots of the Canadian Hemlocks it is a tough environment. I hope my improvements do well. I have some other more mature 'wild' hosta and I will plunk them to fill in. I also have 5 Patriots that have been in a poor spot for many years and simply exist. I'll put them in the best sunniest area and they should do well.