Hallson Gardens

Last fall, we planted quite a few hosta. Now, reading over some of the lists of "bad" ones, I'm a little concerned....we have a Twilight, a Guacamole, a Sum and Substance and a Golden Tiara that all are listed as problematic. Is that still true? How early can I tell if they have problems? I will go over the DVD in a week or so when it arrives but, things are poking out of the ground and I'm just a little concerned about our new hobby.

Hi Jerry,

With some of those plants you might be able to see signs on the first set of leaves, but I generally say to wait until you see the second set of leaves before you can know for certain since frost damage can make leaves look bad no matter what. Once frost damage is passed then take a closer look.

While the "bad" list is no longer really valid, only because every single hosta is susceptible, I would still normally avoid those you listed. However, where did you get them? If it was a Dutch mail order or box store purchase I would be pretty leery of them. Around here I almost never see Golden Tiara that isn't infected.

Your DVD will go out tomorrow in the mail. Sorry I couldn't get it sooner but my DVD burner was acting up. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask and after things come up you can post pictures (or email them to me) and I'll be happy to look them over.

Chris

We got these hosta from a local greenhouse. I don't think they are imported because he talked a little about planting, etc. but, I didn't ask. I guess you still have to plant imported ones. We got them last fall. We saw them while wandering around the greenhouse. He didn't have any out for sale when we were there because it was basically the wrong time to be selling them but, they either stay in his pots or go into our hosta garden so we talked him into selling them to us;) Seriously, that's pretty much the way it went.

No rush on the DVD. I'm working on the deadline for a big project, can't watch it right now anyway;) No rush, really. I know how time consuming computer problems can be...that's what I do for a living.

We stopped in at this greenhouse on Saturday for some Easter flowers. Talked to them about HVX - they said they haven't had much problems and, they DO ship them in, mostly from Walter's. After hearing that name, I've seen that name a few places...seems like a good place.

Oh, got the DVD today. My wife and I watched it this evening. You got some ugly hosta there;) I think that will help identifying problem plants.

My wifes parents have some hosta and we'd talked about getting a cutting from them so, yesterday, we were over at there place. I think I'm getting paranoid;) They did have frost quite a few mornings in the past week or two.

1 - original clump:

DSC_20120408_152412_Hosta_Hmm by jerryshenk, on Flickr

2 - closeup of leaves - the back left leaf makes me wonder:

DSC_20120408_172648_Hosta_Hmm by jerryshenk, on Flickr

3 - whole plant in pot - to keep an eye on for awhile:

DSC_20120408_190736_Hosta_Hmm by jerryshenk, on Flickr