Hallson Gardens

I just wanted to run some photos by the group for a general impression. I had posted some shots of this plant on the regular forum where I called them "dirty" leaves but I separated the sport today and was wondering if this coloration may be virus related. The leaves look healthy - no cell collapse. The puckering looks normal for an August Moon.

This thing was becoming the dominant part of the plant.

I hope Chris weighs in, but I don't like the looks of it...

My problem is that the original plant has been there for three years. All the other times I have seen the virus was on a plant in its second season. I know it can take years for the virus to show itself but the original plant doesn't show anything wrong. Just this "sport" is strange and it is growing better than the original - bigger, faster.

Hello, It does look very suspect to me but not necessarily HVX. If it is virus related (which I hope it's not) I would bet more on ArMV (Arabis mosaic virus) or TRV (Tobacco rattle virus). Just my 2 cents which are only worth about 1 with inflation.

Hi Steve,

Thank you for your input on this one. Steve works for AGDIA so I would go with his instinct on this one, but I also don't think this is HVX. Ed, do you know if this plant came up yellow and then turned green? Often times when hostas like Gold Standard, Striptease, and even Paul's Glory come up and then go through some color changes, the change isn't completely consistent. If this eye came up yellow or yellow-green and then is darkening to green it might be doing it unevenly. However, if it came up green and new leaves are now coming out spotted I would be leaning towards some virus other than HVX. Too many viruses floating around in hostas these days, especially from the mass marketers. Back when we were screening all of our incoming plants for any virus in 2004 through 2006 Dr. Lockhart was finding several kinds, though most of the time it was HVX. We saw something similar on some Whirlwind coming from Holland and he wasn't able to ID it from the virus morphology alone and we never pursued it.

I don't think this is worth spending money on virus testing, and I personally wouldn't keep it.

Hi Chris, I didn't notice this piece. The plant came up normal - all yellow. This thing developed on the back edge out of sight until it "exploded" into view with leaves that are taller and bigger than the original. It became the dominate piece of the plant. I cut it off and potted it to see what it does.