Yesterday stunning gardens, today RAMPANT suspected HVX!

[dmm2646]

Hello,

This is my first post to this forum, precipitate by a devastating situation in my gardens. While my front and back yard gardens are not huge, I have TONS of beautiful hostas. HAD. It all started a couple of weeks ago, when we noticed that the leaves of some young So Sweet plants looked strange. My husband put them all into little pots and tried insecticidal soap and fungicide. No change.

Then today, it is apparent that there is a horrific situation happening, with many, many (maybe ALL) of my 100+ hostas succumbing to what I believe is HVX - all at once! The photo examples on many websites match what I'm seeing in my garden. The victims: A Huge Sun Power, several Sum and Substance, probably 30 So Sweet, Eliator, several Brim Cup, 12 Pacific Blue Edger, 6 Blue Cadet, 20 Hadspen Blue, a Golden Sculpture, 2 Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Clausa, and several other varieties that I forget the names of at the moment. I am completely devastated by the prospect of a hosta-less garden!

Is there any possibility that what I am experiencing is not HVX, but some other hosta-infecting bug. If it's HVX, how is it possible that so many, if not all, are succumbing at the same time?

[Chris_W]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums, though I sure wish it was under better circumstances.

First of all, don't jump to conclusions too quickly. Can you post or email some pictures of the suspects? If you have a digital camera and can edit your pictures so the file size is below 150kb you could post them here to the forums, or if you aren't good at editing them you can always email me the pictures and I will take a look. My email is hallsons@perennialnursery.com

Once we've taken a look we can tell you if you are really dealing with widespread HVX infection or something else.

In order to spread HVX to everything in the garden you would need to be cutting, digging, or dividing them all at the same time. Do you cut down the gardens in the fall? I've heard horror stories about people using their lawnmowers to cut down hosta beds, and it isn't too uncommon for some to use hedge trimmers to cut them all down in the fall. Some also go around cutting down all the flowers. These practices create the perfect chance to spread Hosta Virus X around the garden.

The other concern I have, though, is that many of the plants you list are on the suspect lists, often plants that are commonly imported from the Dutch, so it is also possible, if HVX, that these hostas were purchased that way and it just took this long for the symptoms to show up. If you have been buying most of them in the past 5 years this might be a possibility.

Before I go on too much more I sure hope you can email me some pictures. I'll take a look and let you know what I think. If I can't tell you could possibly email me some leaves to check out in person and possibly test for you.

Let's hope things aren't as bad as you think, but if they are we'll try to help you get going again.

Take care,

Chris

[caliloo]

Wow - I am so sorry to hear.... and we will keep our fingers crossed for you until you can get Chris some photos. Hang in there and dont panic yet!

Alexa

[dmm2646]

Thank you for the speedy replies! Chris, I will definitely be out there tomorrow with my camera in hand, as soon as it's light enough!

[dmm2646]

Sorry, forgot to respond to some of your points, Chris.

I do cut some hostas back in the fall, depending on how big the leaves are, and where they land when they droop due to frost/freeze. We don't use the lawnmower or hedge trimmers. Just secateurs. I do admit to removing flowers that are not so nice (in my opinion), as for me, hostas are all about the foliage. For example, as the So Sweet flowers come to the end of their attractive period, I would, indeed, go to each one and snip off the flower stalk. And other hostas in the same situation at the same time. I have so many hostas that there are bound to be many that have fading flowers at the same moment. So there's a certain possible cause for spread.

I have purchased most of my hostas from Ontario mail order hosta growers, or have gone to the grower in person to make my choices. I have been buying hostas well over 10 years, am a bit of an addict in that regard, so many would have been purchased in the last 5 years.

We did do a bunch of moving this spring - some hostas needed to be moved to more opportune positions due to height and spread, as they mature. And I ordered a batch of Pacific Blue Edgers this spring and put them in the ground the same day as I moved some Blue Cadets to the same border.

I'll be back Monday with photos! Again, thanks so much for the quick replies.

[dmm2646]

4 (of MANY I took) Pics attached, I think. Sad situation.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Pineapple underside.JPG (18.08 KiB) Viewed 3595 times

Sum&Substance

SumSubstance.JPG (20.25 KiB) Viewed 3595 times

Clausa

Clausa.JPG (22.37 KiB) Viewed 3595 times

Eliator

Eliator1.JPG (20.31 KiB) Viewed 3595 times

[steg]

Picture are helpful, but is there any chance you can go a little larger? I think you can post a pic up to 120kb. At 20kb they really hard for me to look at. I would like to get a better look at some of those photos.

Mike

[ViolaAnn]

I also would like to see slightly larger pics. But off hand, I'm betting your hostas, or most of them, are victims of the weird weather we've had in Ontario. (Where are you in Ontario?) I have had infected hostas and they came from GOOD hosta nurseries around 2005-2006. You MAY well have had some and spread infection to other plants, but it would be very unusual for you to have so many succumb all at once.

[dmm2646]

Thank you all for your interest! Sorry for the tiny pics - new to the shrinking for uploading thing!

Chris is thinking this is not HVX, but perhaps some chemical overspray from neighbouring lawn care, overspray from window washing or car washing, or combining of fungicide and insecticidal soap (an early attempt to halt whatever it might be). Sure hope he's right, needless to say. Ugly garden for this year, but hopefully to return to its former glory next year! Thanks! Donna

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Sum&Substance

So Sweet

Clausa

Eliator

[Chris_W]

Hi,

I hate to say this now, but that is the first time I saw the entire picture of your So Sweet clearly, and THAT one does look like Hosta Virus X. The rest don't. So I think your gut instinct that So Sweet first started to look bad was the right one. If other So Sweet look like that (you really have 30 like that?) then they could be infected too.

Sorry I didn't notice that one sooner.

Chris

[dmm2646]

Oh my. This will be not pretty. So Sweet form the backbone of my front yard garden (Attached photo) - removing them all will be devastating. But I will, of course. And also where I have transplanted them here and there in the back garden beds. Sad situation.

Thank you to all who have taken interest and made comments. And thank you, Chris. What a great service you are providing to hosta growers!

Donna

The "before" picture, today. Tomorrow - not so nice.

[steg]