Joyless trip to the local nursery - Question

[Blackkat]

Chris, I was wondering. Would you happen to know how much the growers in the EU are trying to curb the HVX problem? Or are they happily churning out sick hostas as long as people here are willing to buy them? Has there been any progress to stem the spread of HVX here in the US?

I know these are fundamental questions that have probably been answered in some way through various threads in these forums, but I've been away for a while and haven't been able to keep up with all the posts until now.

It used to be where I could go to the local nurseries and have fun deciding what hostas would look good with the rest of my small collection. Fast forward to recent years and times have certainly changed because of HVX.

One place I shop at not only sells mislabeled hostas on a regular basis, but renames old varieties to make them sound new again. The worst of it is HVX. I don't even have to go to the box stores (which I don't bother to do anymore) to see the rampant ravages. The places that are supposed to sell decent quality plants now sell hostas that are very obviously diseased. For two years, I've tried to make the owners or managers aware of the problem, but my words seem to fall on deaf or hostile ears.

It is heartening, to say the least, that Chris cares so much about the issue and that he and Brian go to a lot of trouble to send customers healthy plants.

[Chris_W]

Hi Shelly,

From a nursery perspective, it is very difficult to NOT get plants sent to you with HVX. Growers in Holland are still churning them out, but now the problem has spread to the US so that many wholesale growers in the US are now churning them out too. The attitude from Holland this year is that as long as they can sweep the problem under the rug they will continue to sell the virused plants. This was well hidden from me last year, so it appeared to be improving. One salesman actually told me that I wasn't supposed to get any HVX infected plants, since none of those plants were supposed to go to this part of the country

Brian and I do work very hard to keep HVX out of our hostas, yet we have still seen some plants get by us, and still worry about the possibility that we could have spread it back before we knew about HVX. But I just can't imagine how terrible the problem could be for a nursery that denies that the virus exhists, let alone is all over their nursery...

It is sad that those who knew about the virus or could do something to educate people have been very slow to respond. Growers groups and associations have been reluctant to say anything for fear that people would stop buying hostas, but that strategy backfired miserably, and now I believe some hosta nurseries will be forced out of business because of this, and there will definitely be people who will stop hosta gardening as a long term result. In fact, we took such a big hit in 2004 and 2005, when we were forced to destroy nearly two thousand infected plants (imported and domestic ), that we nearly went bankrupt.

Right now the best thing to do, especially if nursery owners don't listen, is to contact your Agriculture Department. It is absolutely imperative that these nurseries get reported or this will just continue to escalate.

Then continue to watch plants in your garden and continue to practice perfect sanitation when digging, cutting, trimming, weeding, or handling any hostas, regardless of the variety. HVX is getting so deep into the supply and into gardens now that I don't think we have seen the worst yet

[thy]

If the hostas are not from Maco Fransen or Jan van den Top, the answer to our question is.. NO.. they still sell them and they know they do

They may cull some more in the spring- the hostas looked better this spring than in the last years... but if you look at them now...

Wish all hostas would show sympthomes in the first year

Pia

[Blackkat]

I was afraid the answer would be no. I've held off buying or trading hostas for a year and a half (with a couple of exceptions) just to take stock of what I have and observe how healthy my hostas are. So far so good, but as Chris says, it is wise to still be vigilant and careful about cross-contamination.

It isn't easy, it seems, to sell hostas these days when you care about what you sell. All the more reason, then, for me to support Hallson's when I start buying hostas again.

[planwerk]

If the hostas are not from Marco Fransen or Jan van den Top, the answer to our question is.. NO.. they still sell them and they know they do
Pia

Right! All other sources aren't safe.

[sugar]

I guess the safest thing is to check the Royal Standard plants in your nursery.
They are very easily infected and show HVX signals very fast.