Do My Wide Brim Hostas Have HVX?

[Nancy]

I need help!! Can anyone tell me if my Wide Brim hostas have HVX from the attached photographs?

Two years ago I purchased 6 Wide Brim hostas from Canadian Tire in Peterborough, Ontario. I was not aware of the existence of HVX at that time. I just learned about it 2 months ago and am now really worried that my Wide Brims have the disease. Some of the leaves look normal but others have areas where the tissue is shrivelled. I have also seen a few marks that might be considered "bleeding." Since healthy hostas are often wrinkled and have lots of colour patterns, I am having difficulty determining whether or not my hostas have HVX or are just showing normal variations in texture and colour.

I have about 15 other hostas in my garden, which all look fine right now, but I am really concerned that I may have inadvertently infected them with HVX when I cut all my hostas back last fall with the same shears which I did not disinfect.

Any advice would be really, really appreciated!

Thanks. Nancy

[ViolaAnn]

It looks VERY suspicious to me and I know that my Canadian Tire had plants with the virus last year. A year earlier and they were even more likely to have had infected plants.

Ann

[Chris_W]

Dear Nancy,

Yes, that is definitely Hosta Virus X on your Wide Brim. To prevent spreading this to anything else, if you haven't already, is to dig up the plants, dry them out on the driveway, then throw them away in the trash. Afterwards clean your shovel and hands thoroughly with Lysol or other disinfecting cleaners, and if it was me I wouldn't even touch another hosta with that shovel for the next few weeks.

Sorry

Chris

[Nancy]

Ann and Chris, thanks so much for your help! The diagnosis is bad news for me, but I would rather be in the know so I can get rid of the infected plants as soon as possible. I'll be busy tomorrow digging them up.

I just hope I haven't spread HVX to my other hostas. Can the virus live on shears and shovels that have not been disinfected over the winter? If it can't, then my other hostas just may be okay. If it can, then they
are toast...that would be so sad!

I love this forum. It's great to connect with other gardeners and I am learning so much. Thanks again!

Nancy