FAQ - List of infected or possibly infected plants

Discuss Hosta Virus X and share pictures and information on this ever increasing threat to hosta growing.

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Chris_W
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FAQ - List of infected or possibly infected plants

Post by Chris_W »

Here is a listing of plants that are in the trade that we know are infected, have shown signs of the virus, or have tested positive for the virus. This does not mean that every plant listed has the virus but care should be taken with any of these. This pertains to plants sold today and in recent years. (Information from personal sightings, nursery sightings, Agriculture Department reports, Bill Meyer's
spring 2005 update list at the Hosta Library, and other reported sightings and purchases from forum and internet friends).

Group 1: High rate of infection in the trade - be cautious when purchasing these plants or avoid them altogether.

Birchwood Parky's Gold
Blue Cadet (some also infected with Tobacco Rattle Virus)
Corona (As a sport of Sum & Substance from Europe there is a possibility that this plant was virused from the start, so these should be considered suspect)
Gold Standard (some batches are also infected with Arabis Mosaic Virus)
Golden Tiara
Goldrush (no HVX free plants known in commerce)
Halcyon (moved to the high rate of infection list in late 2005. Although clean plants are out there, Halcyon is testing positive at a high rate and takes years to show symptoms, if they show it at all. We do not recommend purchasing this variety any longer.)
So Sweet (this has been moved to the high rate of infection list. There are many, many So Sweet on the market with HVX so we do not recommend buying this one)
Stiletto (all imports from Holland appear to be highly infected)
Striptease (it is in field grown stock and possibly in TC stock - beware of these and any future sports)
Sum & Substance (plants are taking up to 7 years to show symptoms - be very cautious when dividing and I would avoid purchasing this one or any future sports)
Sweet Susan (plants from Holland in 2004 were infected)
Venucosa (a new one to the trade but plants from Holland were highly infected)

Group 2 - some infected plants on the market, but there are also some clean batches. Excercise caution and examine closely when purchasing and growing or avoid if you do not know the source of the plants:

Abby
Alex Summers
Antioch
August Moon
Baby Bunting
Beauty Substance
Captain Kirk
Diamond Tiara
El Nino
Fan Dance
Fortunei Aureomarginata (also sold incorrectly as Carnival)
Gold Edger
Ground Master
Guacamole
Honeybells
Janet
June
Katherine Lewis
Krossa Regal
Minuteman
Montana Aureomarginata
Niagara Falls
Night Before Christmas (infected with an unknown virus)
Pacific Blue Edger
Paradise Joyce
Patriot
Regal Splendor
Revolution
Royal Standard
Sagae
Sugar & Cream
Sun Power
Tardiva
Tattoo
Undulata Albomarginata
Veronica Lake
Wolverine (mislabeled, unknown plants sold as Wolverine from Holland)
Yellow Splash Rim
Zounds

One final note of caution: Because of the long latency period before showing symptoms in some cultivars it could also be possible to get a sport from a virused plant onto the market even before the mother plant showed symptoms. So be cautious of new sports from plants with a high rate of infection on the market (especially Group 1 plants).
Last edited by Chris_W on Aug 08, 2006 9:01 am, edited 16 times in total.
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wishiwere
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Post by wishiwere »

Man, makes you want to NOT buy anything any more. So sad that this has happened. Hopefully there's a way out of it one day soon.
Jane (from the middle of the Mitten state)
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Post by newtohosta-no more »

It is sad to see all those names on the list. Also makes you kinda sick to think that you have to keep an eye on those plants already in your garden for possible signs of infection. :(
Thanks for posting the list , Chris.
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Virus

Post by Liselotte »

This is very scary indeed! Some of the plants mentioned I have had for 15 years (Sum and Substance, Birchwood Parky's Gold and a few more, some mentioned I have grown for 5 - 10 years.
Until 2003 all my Hostas came from the US and I believed only the Dutch imports were a problem.
Sum of All is not growing well (lost some), while Domaine de Courson and Lady Isobel Barnet look very healthy....
More sleepless nights :bd:
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Post by Chris_W »

Not all of these have had the virus for years. Many are more recent infections, so if you've had these for a long time and they still don't show symptoms I wouldn't worry. The biggest one I am worried about is Sum & Substance. That one seems to take a very long time to show symptoms.
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Post by LucyGoose »

Man Chris.....Real Scary for sure....You know how I went hog wild there last year, and I DID buy S & S locally about 2 (or 3 years) ago.....It's sickening for a newbie....

Thanks so much for thais list...I will be printing it out to pass along!!
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Post by Chris_W »

I've added 2 more this morning.

1) Katherine Lewis, in our quarantine house. We received very nice, large, multi-eyed plants from Holland this spring. This morning I just noticed the virus in one plant from this batch. It is the typical dark color bleed along the veins.

2) Corona. Received a report from Bill Meyer that this plant was found in a tour nursery during convention week. It is a recent sport out of Sum & Substance discovered in Europe. Because of the nature of the virus and long incubation period in the Sum & Substance family there is a possibility that this plant was found as a sport in a virused S & S to begin with, so there could be a chance that no clean plants exist of Corona. Anyone with this plant should treat it as potentially virused and watch it very closely.
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Post by Richiegirl »

Chris, how long does it take for S & S to show the virus? You mentioned the long incubation for this one, but how long is "long?" I bought mine maybe 7-8 years ago. Is it still possible to show infection? So far it looks perfect, as do the divisions I've taken from it.

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Virus

Post by Liselotte »

Checking my records i found that Birchwood Parky's Gold, Golden Tiara and Sum and Substance came from Shady Oaks as TCs in spring of 89. These plants look very healthy still and I am certain they are clean. Striptease from 2003 and 2004 still looking good (in isolation in pots) although leaves were sent to Dr. Lockhart and tested negative, I will wait and see. As a matter of fact, I will withhold all Dutch Hostas just in case. Domain de Courson is another sport of Sum and Substance and I wonder if I should just burn them. Keeping them for 7 years or more, does not make sense since testing is not available in Switzerland.
Spilt Milk (2003) is looking good, but how do we know, the pattern is really a form of the Virus?
i have decided not to let any new Hostas in my garden and wonder just if it is worth growing seedlings. It may turn out that the virus can be transmitted to the seeds :bd:
Katherine Lewis received this spring are still looking good and I planted them out only last week. Just wish I had left them in pots.
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Post by Chris_W »

The oldest plant of Sum & Substance I could confirm carried the virus for 5 years before showing symptoms. I've heard random reports of 6 and possibly 7 year old plants too. However, I believe that the early signs, such as very subtle darkening along the veins probably may have been seen prior to that on very close inspection. Dr. Lockhart did confirm in his tests that 3 years after infection Sum & Substance did not show any symptoms.

I'm going to start a lot more of the older stock from TC and skip a lot of the field grown wholesalers. Growing from TC is absolutely no guarantee but then at least I'll have a reason to sit on it and watch it for 2 or 3 more years while they grow up.

In Birchwood Parky's Gold and the Tiaras the symptoms seem to show up a lot quicker so I would be confident about any of these that are older plants. Reminds me that I have some large clumps of Golden Tiara at the old place still that should probably be brought here to propagate...
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Post by wingnut »

I was at a Nursery yesterday and seen S&S with darker green tiny spots on the base of the leaf.....I jumped away from it but really wanted to buy and S&S for my brother but now :eek: I looked for someone to tell but seen no one around. Maybe Ill call them today. I did buy 3 other hostas there.

However my other concern is I bought Kathryn Lewis from a grocery store a month or two ago. What am I looking for in virus form.?

The S&S is scary mine are only 3 yrs old!!!
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Post by Chris_W »

I'll try to get a picture of the virused Kathryn Lewis tomorrow. It is dark green spotting along the veins in the light center. I check the quarantine house every day to see if there is anything new and just found that one this week.

There is one other plant that was supposed to be bright yellow with a dark green edge that has started to turn dark green in the center. It is just one plant out of 25 but it is enough to make me worry. From a distance it looks like the veins are getting darker too, but it is hard to see anything definite up close. It would be one to send out for testing. I don't want to say the variety until I know for sure.
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Post by wishiwere »

It's getting scarier by the day with new ones your finding. I just started 2-3 years ago to really get a large variety for me, and hate to see the list growing, b/c many are the ones I have :(
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Post by Chris_W »

And the list grows...

I forgot to add Sweet Susan and Venucosa as we found those earlier. But now we can add June, Tardiva and Yellow Splash Rim as reported by Bill Meyer while visiting a nursery in Ohio. I suspect that Yellow Splash Rim was from Holland because it is distributed by Darwin Plants, and the same nursery had infected Sweet Susan which was sold by Darwin's this year (we also had a batch of infected Sweet Susan in our quarantine house that came from Darwin's). I'm not sure who is wholesaling Tardiva, though. And I knew that June could catch the virus but it wasn't until Bill reported seeing infected June's actually being sold at a nursery could I add it to the list.

All of these additional plants seem to show symptoms fairly quickly, within a couple seasons, so if you've had these varieites for several years I would not worry.
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Post by wishiwere »

Oh man! :eek: I just got a yellow splash rim this year! Dang it! Have to watch that one now too :( I need a separate area to quarantine these buggers!
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Post by Chris_W »

Hi Jane,

Was YSR one that you bought this year or did you get it in a trade? This one has been around long enough that there should be a lot of healthy plants of it still.

I wish the list would stop growing too :sad:
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Post by wishiwere »

I just got it this year :( Should've known better. It was a spur of the moment, run through while looking for insecticides a nursery here in Mt. P! Dang.......Hmmm....It's not close to others, so I'll watch it, it's looking good thus far sitting next to the 'shed' he showed you pics of yesterday :). Shoot, shoot, shoot!
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Post by Chris_W »

Guacamole purchased from Van Bloem Gardens has been added to the list :(
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Post by mamaw2 »

Man with all these additions to the list and the fact that I only began buying hostas in 2003-I could be looking at most of my plants being wiped out. I haven't found a nursery in my immediate area where I haven't seen an infected plant and I've purchased from these places several times over the last couple years. At this point every hosta in my garden is suspected of having it at least for the next few years. This really s***s!!! But thanks Chris for the updates-it is very much appreciated-even if it is a bit discouraging. I'll just keep enjoying the hostas I have for as long as I can.
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Aristocrat

Post by Liselotte »

We had several late frosts and then some hail recently, leaving Hostas look less than pretty. Aristocrat did not grow and look smaller than last year (received from Holland 04).
Yesterday I dug all ten plants and planted them in a pot. The leaves looked so terrible, that I cut them down to 2 inches. Only then, I spotted one leave with the typical virus look. Well, the plants looked so wonderful last year, I hate to part with them, but for the time being they will stay in isolation. If one plant is infected, most likely the other plants will be too.
Has anyone seen or heard of ARISTOCRAT being infected?

Gardening is no fun anymore! along with my tools I always carry a container with a piece of terry cloth soaked with chlorine bleach solution, another container is at my dividing table. This way my tools and hands can be cleaned whenever I work with Hostas. I should invest in chlorine bleach and paper towels!
At least with the terry cloth, there is less chance of spilling the bleach solution. The towels will disintergrate after a few days!
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