Sum and Substance HVX? at a local nursery

[rufie98]

This Sum & Substance is at my local nursery. It is a very reputable nursery. I spoke to one of their employees. She was quite sure that it could not be HVX as she said their sources are very reliable. The two hostas in question were not removed.

What is your opinion on these two hosta? If they are virused, I will go back to the nursery and let the manager know. What should I tell them?

[Tigger]

Absolutely infected.

[Chris_W]

No doubt about it, those are very infected with HVX. If they won't listen then write a note to your state's department of agriculture. Ours has an online form to send plant health reports like this, and just from your pictures they should be able to tell it is Hosta Virus X.

Good luck.

Chris

[rufie98]

Thank you Tigger and Chris. The dark coloring in the veins had me suspect. Very disappointing to me to see that the nursery did not spot this themselves---then didn't take me seriously when I pointed it out! I will take your advice Chris. Thank you so much!

[ViolaAnn]

If they still don't take you seriously, let your local hort. societies know about them too.

[rufie98]

A couple of days ago I visited the nursery in question and asked to speak to the manager. He was not there, so the Assistant Manager assisted me. I told her that I suspected HVX on the Sum and Substance and had spoken to someone earlier. She picked out the ones with the dark veining which came to about 5 or 6 plants. I asked her whether the remaining S&S were from the same vendor. She said they were. I told her that if the plants were determined to be virused that all the S&S should be removed. I asked her to let me know what their findings would be.

A couple of days after, I received a telephone call from the Assistant Manager. She told me that the plants were indeed virused and that all the S&S from their nursery were removed. She told me that all the S&S would be removed from other locations that received shipment from the same vendor.

I am glad that the hostas in question were removed. Could I have asked for anything more? Actually there is one thing I would have appreciated---a thank you. I felt more like an irritation to them rather than a benefit.

[Tigger]

Thank you! We all have to stand up for each other. The nursery folks... well, you just sliced off some of their profits.

I wonder how many of those sold in the intervening time?

David

[rufie98]

Tigger, I understand that I have helped to "slice off some of their profits," and that they would not be happy about that. This nursery has a good reputation, and I thought their reputation was very important to them. (They have been in business for decades.) People these days have the means to communicate to others faster and they are able to reach a much larger population. Therefore I would have thought that this nursery would be very concerned about word getting around that they had had virused plants.

[ViolaAnn]

Well done, rufie and I'm glad they finally took you seriously. But the fact remains that most people still don't know about HVX and don't care. I've been posting over on the AHS Facebook group (see you there too, Tigger) and I'm quite surprised how many of the regular posters seemed to be oblivious to the fact that plants with HVX are still around. BTW, if any of you are on FB and would like to see pictures I took yesterday of infected plants in Ottawa, you'll find them at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 434&type=1 I'm not going to take the time right now to resize them so I can post them here.

[Tigger]

Ann,

I'm surprised at people who still have their heads in the sand about this. (At the same time, I'm surprised at the people who go overboard on the other side, and assume everything is infected. Maybe some would call me cavalier, but I think I'm reasonably cautious without being paranoid.)

I was visiting a garden today that will be on our local society's calendar soon, and found two HVX-infected plants. The gardener is a woman who seems to know her stuff (over 500 cultivars, which grow huge in her garden), but didn't see the obvious infection in a 'Winter Snow', and the infection on what I think was 'Lady Guinevere' had completely changed the color of the plant. I suppose the good news is that she is not wont to dig and divide (lots of ground to fill at this garden), but still the tools might be contagious.

David

[ViolaAnn]

David - I have to agree. And like you, I'm cautious. What really caught me off guard last year was finding HVX in my 'Ani Machi' after years being quite sure that my garden was clean. Such subtle symptoms that I almost didn't test the leaf and was actually surprised when it tested positive. That plant was probably infected when I bought it in 2006. Now I wonder what else I may have infected through carelessness. Let's face it - if you're SURE your garden is clean, the temptation to cut corners on the sanitizing is great.

This year I bought one hosta in a box store garden centre - 'Ann Kulpa'. It appears to be a very healthy plant, but I'm sure going to be careful around it for quite awhile.

As far as seeing the problems in my own garden, I take regular pictures of everything - weekly if possible. When I name and crop those photos (which I do, because who needs a bunch of photos labelled with numbers), I have, on more than one occasion, diagnosed issues with my plants. I think I just look at them differently than I do when I'm out in the garden.