Thank you Jon, that is great that you had someone willing to throw out. I also would like to add that I thought some plants at Home Depot were infected, I just saw them yesterday. Gallon Sized Guacamole I thought had possible signs of infection, although to be fair, it COULD have been weather related....and Guac also does unfurl in an unusual way. However, on the quart sized pots, I did see a few hostas of one variety that I definitely felt were infected. I will not be buying any from HD this year.

Regarding Lowes, I have never seen an infected plant at Lowe's. I have purchased a few over the years and not seen any signs of infection in their stores or with plants I brought home. I'm not saying I consider it a good place to buy hostas, just saying that I haven't seen a problem and if one really grabbed at my heartstrings, I might buy it there.

Jon, I do hope that Home Depot eliminates the infected hosta stock. Good of you to speak up. I do worry that if this person was merely an employee, she may not have the final decision in this case. It may just wind up back on the selling block.

That's my experience. It's the multi-plant grower that is sending HVX infected plants into the marketplace.

These are regional growers, so the plants that are infected in Dallas come from Dallas area growers and would not be the same growers that they have in NJ.

bk

This post was edited by bkay2000 on Sat, May 10, 14 at 13:09

Mary, these were definitely HVX. The sunken areas with discoloration were very obvious. The affected leaves were old and new and didn't look at all like the possible examples of freeze damage. I would kill any hosta in my garden that looked like these did, without hesitation.

I do find Lowes has a better selection and they always have people with vendors jackets on roaming around keeping shelves stocked and in good order. Both places are friendly.

newhostalady, she immediately grabbed the rack, started to wheel it away and said she was going to throw them away. I'm confident she meant what she said. If she seemed hesitant I would have asked to see a manager.

Definitely a regional grower. The grower brings in all the stock, HD just waters the plants and collects at the register when it is sold; only ten does the nursery get paid. HD doesn't lose when they throw out suspect plants.

Jon

Glad you brought up the HVX concerns, Jon. A heads up to everyone.

Ahh, Bkay, but where do they all get their tc's from? Just because you cannot see HVX doesn't mean that it isn't there and will show up in a year or two. Didn't you have some direct experience with that. Ouch.

Sometimes I can get a nursery manager to remove obviously infected plants, but they leave the others there, and if they all came from the same place, you betcha that some of those innocent looking plants are infected too. A store manager might be convinced to toss the ones that are unsightly, but I doubt he will dump a plant that looks perfectly fine to him.

Just be cautious when buying from a source that cannot confirm that they do everything possible to prevent HVX contamination. Then keep that plant separate from your others. Once your soil is contaminated you are SOL.

There are test strips available. See the link at the Hosta Library.

-Babka

At least here, they buy their TC's from brokers. They have no idea of the origin of the plants they buy. One of my favorite nurseries buys starts that way also, but his chosen broker sells starts from Walter's. (He grows out some hosta over the winter to sell in the spring.) I don't think he knew the difference until I told him. For a while, he would not buy hosta from Green Lake Nurseries because I pointed out the diseased ones to him. But, I noticed he bought from them again this year.

It's really easy to tell the Walter's hosta. They have the plant ID stake that says so.

bk

I look for those 'Walter's Gardens' stakes when I browse locally, BKay. I even find some, albeit very infrequently.

Don B.

Yes the Walters or Q&Z tags are good to see. Then you at least know the stock started out as virus free. These TC producers index their stock for many diseases not just HVX.

Jon, the regional grower in CT is probably the same one that I identified last year in my visit to HD in Oxford, MA. I'm trying to remember the name. I found the thread. It's The Plant Group in North Franklin CT. I contacted them to try to find out where their plants originated from but got nowhere with them. The thread is linked below.

Mary, here's a picture of a Hosta Midwest Magic I found at Lowe's. It isn't HVX, but probably Tomato Ringspot Virus or Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Just be careful. If something looks funky or is on sale, leave it. Better yet buy from trusted sources.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: HVX Alert for the Northeast