Chris's 2009 list of hostas and sources to still avoid

[Chris_W]

#1) Avoid hostas that come in boxes or bags. These are still notorious for containing infected material. Could take a while to show symptoms, too, so don't take a chance.

#2) Avoid nurseries that are still buying bare root hostas from the Dutch and then potting them up for sale, or selling Dutch bare root stock, such as by mail. It isn't worth the chance as the Dutch are still only guaranteeing 95% HVX free, yet in the export process that 5% infected is enough to infect the rest. These could be box stores buying and selling finished material, but also some high end nurseries are still growing hostas this way. Until the Dutch crack down like some US growers and demand ZERO tolerance, do not buy these plants. That includes hostas by mail from Dutch (or other) companies that don't have a ZERO tolerance policy.

#3) This is my avoid list, because way too many reports come in about these plants being infected out there, and some of these just don't show obvious symptoms for a very long time, if ever. If you are going to buy any of these, get them from growers with domestic tissue culture grown plants that have been virus indexed:

- Halcyon (plus be very careful of others in this family of plants such as First Frost and El Nino)
- Minuteman
- Patriot
- Striptease
- Gypsy Rose
- Summer Fragrance
- Wide Brim
- Brim Cup
- Lady Guinevere

#4) Be careful with the following plants, as many are still infected, but they will likely show symptoms at some point if they are infected:

- Gold Standard
- Sum and Substance
- Golden and Diamond Tiara
- June
- Zounds
- Blue Cadet

This is NOT a comprehensive list of infected plants out there, and in fact, the list of infected plants sold these days would include hundreds of different cultivars and would be pretty useless as a guide. The list above is just a small starting point of plants that you should question the most, based on the number of reports I'm getting on them, or the chance they aren't likely to show symptoms.

If there are other plants that you hear about as often being infected please post a reply to this topic so we can discuss it.

Hope that helps some, feel free to ask questions.

Chris

[eastwood2007]

Thanks, Chris.