Things are beginning to looke better

[Rob]

A couple of months ago I went to an information day, organized by the NHV (Dutch Hosta Society).
One of the speakers was one of the better known Dutch wholesale perennial and hosta growers.

They finally seem to take the HVX problem very serious, and do thorough and extensive testing.
As I live in the middle of HVX country, and have seen a lot of HVX over the last couple of years in garden centers all over the country, I'm pleased to see a lot less infected plants now. In fact, I haven't seen any this year so far.

Commercially speaking, this is logical. The hosta export to the US, the main source of income for wholesale hosta growers, had stopped completely. To get back in business, they had to prove the outbreak is under control. Well, it seems they have made it in the end.

A word of praise to the dedicated wholesale and retail hosta specialists like Jan Van den Top and Marco Fransen, and others. From the very start of the HVX outbreak they have done everything they can, at great personal expense, to supply buyers with virus and disease free plants.

[R. Rock]

Hello,
Yes, I believe these two very smallsources of plants to the U.S. are doing right. Frankly, the problem here lies w/ Garden World and Van Bloem. They are allowed and do take full advantage of the 5% rate of infected plants allowed to pass into the country. What I see tells me the rate is actually incredibly higher! They ship millions. I thought there might be some progress. Everything I have seen this year is as bad as before, which was/is an incredible amount. Without a doubt, a mininum of 30% showed signs. I and all should assume the ones not showing signs were also terribly infected. A little bit has the same effect on our plants and gardens as do the heavily infected ones. My statements come from personally viewing plants from at least three very large sources.

[Rob]

So sad to hear that.
It's cowboys like these that spoil everything.

[R. Rock]

Hi Rob,
No pun intended, but I love your description and use of "cowboys"!!!

[Chris_W]

Hi Rob,

The problem in the past was that even if these good suppliers exported virus free plants, once they went to be washed for export they could and often would become infected.

The other problem I've been seeing is that growers are getting much better at culling out the obviously infected plants and then sell the ones that LOOK fine, even though they could still be infected. Wait a couple years and it shows up then.

But I am very happy to hear that some growers are taking it seriously. Unfortunately until the USDA cracks down and implements a zero tolerance policy people will continue to take advantage of things.

Thanks for sharing Rob!

Chris

[Kas]

I thought the cowboys were the good guys.

Kas