I am sorry to report an incident of Hosta Virus X in domestic tissue culture. We knew it was possible, and here it is. This batch of Hosta 'Longfellow' came in last summer from Shady Oaks Nursery (now out of business) and the production date was a few years old so they had been around for a while. The entire tray was infected upon arrival, every single plant in it, and we got rid of it right away. But that means we will have to keep a very close look out on everything else and we already started testing the rest of what we purchased (other varieties) last year from them. I contacted everyone I could find online that was selling these plants and while I heard back from one of them, nobody else ever replied. A couple sellers removed Longfellow from their online catalogs right away, so I can only assume they checked and had HVX too.
Since this entire tray was infected I suspect this wasn't an isolated case in Hosta Longfellow, so if you have it I would recommend testing it or at least taking a look at it closely next summer. If you see some unusual spotting or even some unusual misting then I bet it has HVX. Longfellow is supposed to be a glossy green with an edge, but that's not what I see in most online photos.
So we have to ask, if Shady Oaks virus tests every single plant upon arrival, just before it goes into culture, how can this one get through? Well, if the virus concentration is low you would get a negative test in a lab. That means if the plant was infected when it was dug and divided just before going to the lab, then it could still be infected and test negative, then go into production and get replicated.
Here are the pictures so if you have it you will have an idea what to look for. And if you have Longfellow can you check it next summer and let us know if yours is infected?
