YES

BUT PROBABLY WON'T DO ANY GOOD

THIS IS THE REASON I ALWAYS PROMOTE LOCAL VENDERS NOT BIG BOX STORES
LOOK LOCALLY OR MAIL ORDER
ITS THE ONLY SAFE THING TO DO ANYMORE
HVX IS BAD I AM ALWAYS PREACHING ABOUT IT

RICHARD
BLOOMINGTON,INDIANA

I always say something. Occasionally an owner or manager will act interested and say they will remove the plants, but it is rare that they actually do the removal. Still, if we don't educate them, who will? You have to start somewhere, and the voice of the consumer, is sometimes the one that gets the most attention. So be brave and just do it as kindly and as well-intentioned as you can. You may actually get their attention.

Lainey

I complained to manager, do not know if it did any good.

I stopped by our local Menards a couple times this spring and was actually surprised that I DIDN'T find HVX on any of the hostas. But each store could get plants from a different grower, or the symptoms may have taken some extra time to show up.

I've complained to the corporate offices of Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe's in the past, but it did little good. It wasn't until I contacted the Dept. of Agriculture that something was done about it.

But make sure that you are really seeing HVX and not some other problem. Plants get pretty abused at these types of stores, and a lot of people are mistaking drought, frost, fungus, and other problems for the virus. That's not to say a lot of it isn't out there - the local grocery store had in a bunch of hostas a couple weeks ago that were just LOADED with HVX...

I had gone to an upscale nursery here in NJ last year, and found HVX on a 'Paul's Glory'. I took one of the flyers that I'd printed (someone posted it here) out of my glove compartment, and showed it and the plant to the manager. Well, she threw the plant in the dumpster. She appreciated the flyer and thanked me.

Despite the manager's response, I'll only buy hostas online from reputable sellers now. Better safe than sorry.

Donna

Local Vendors instead of Big Box Stores do not be surprised if they came from the same place I had a problem with HVX at my local HyVee and they removed all infected plants.My point is Local Vendors sell to the Big Box stores. The employees need to be more aware.It is as simple as remove infected plants or I will blog you at any internet site I can find,
that works pretty good.

The only place to complain is to the state inspectors, no one else cares and the state inspectors have the power put a stop sale on the plants and then the home office will react. They may not apply any pressure, but you can pressure them.

You waste your time telling a store manager or even calling the home office. I spent 17 years calling on these people.

ctopher - I'll get pictures and post them here. You and others with experience should be able to verify whether they have HVX or not.

HVX can not be confirmed with a picture on line. You can send it to Dr "somebody", Lockhart I think the AHS is supporting.

Does anyone have that an address?

I've been a long time hosta grower, but only this year have started a "collection".

I was at Home Depot and picked up a Sum and Substance that was "spotty" and thought it might have just been a mislabeled hosta. I also bought 2 other s&s that didn't have the spotting.

Do y'all think I should dig them up and return them?, or at least the one who seems to be infected?

Will the AHS also put pressure on the grower?

The AHS has no enforcement authority; if they interfere with a private business then they could be libel. The AHS is the Registrar for genus hosta and they undertake education functions but mostly itÂs social, if youÂve ever been around some of the high mucky mucks itÂs sometimes anti-social but mostly social.

Horticulture is controlled by each state under laws of that state and the plant department is usually under the Agriculture Dept. The state can inspect and investigate plant disease problems, one problem is most are more interested in crop diseases. BIG BUT they have authority and power to influence retailers and wholesalers we on GW forum do not.

When I was calling on Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc we conducted classes on plant material and care, it was a waste of time. They would send whoever worked in the dept that day which changed so fast that we could never get anything done, it was mainly PR. It could have been effective but management really didnÂt understand or support any knowledge based management, they want to sell a plant exactly like they sell toothpaste.

Now they will respond to returns if there are enough but that isnÂt going to happen.

by esther_opal
HVX can not be confirmed with a picture on line.

That's where your wrong!! HVX doesn't need to just be tested for, and the human eye can detect it without getting all the tests done in certain hostas. I get the pleasures of working in 4 to 5 yards a day and I've seen plants that I knew had HVX and didn't have to get them tested. Post a picture of a plant and I bet quite a few of us can tell you if it's HVX with 100% accuracy

by esther_opal
HVX can not be confirmed with a picture on line."
hostagalore

I don't think you read me carefully enough, I said confirmed, I concide a level of accuracy but not 100%. This may be a difference without significance.

My main point is we cannot reach retailers telling the garden center manager, the store manager, or the buyer and waste our time trying. There may be a path through state inspectors in some if not most states.

So, I will concide any part of who can and who can't identify HVX on line, having done that what do you do next?

If you feel the need to take me to task further, I swear on my best H.'Great Expectation' that I give!

duckaday--- please don't shout. It hurts my ears (eyes).
Duane

esther_opal,
When i read your post the impression I got was this virus can't be identified without tests.

Why send and waste Mr.Lockharts time and money when we can ID it visually with our own eyes via pictures or in person? I can see if it's a HIGH dollar plant but with most on the market being around 20 to 40 bucks, is it really worth the time and effort to send to Lockhart or just to replace it?

hostagalore, great point. Have we reached the point where Lockhart is not needed?

My point wasn't that Dr.Lockhart wasn't needed. Would you rather he spend time iding something we can clearly see in person or would you rather he studied the virus itself? Identifying the virus has been done and now it's time to study the virus itself. Sending a thousand plants to Dr.Lockhart to ID if it's a virus or not takes time away from him doing research on how the virus lives, comes from, etc..

Here are the photos. I didn't take the time to ID the hosta, (I'm sure they are all common), but I did take the time to remember the grower. :-)

All clickable thumbnails...
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100% sure that's HVX. You should bring it to he attention of the stores garden manager. Not that it'll do any good though cause I let some at Walmart last year know about it and I seen there's more there this year. Hope you have better luck at getting your point across. Even the links I provided to walmarts employees wasn't enough for them to pull off the shelfs.

Thanks.

I just emailed the grower to let them know there is a problem and asked what steps they are taking to avoid the problem in the future. I'm am approaching this as if they would be horrified to know that they have shipped infected plants. Somehow, I doubt that they will care, but will probably pretend to concerned.

The Menards store warranties all of their perennials for a year, so they might be interested that they are buying diseased plants.

BTW, how long does it take for a hosta with the virus to die?

Not sure there's a answer to that. I'm sure some will grow forever with the virus having no effect on the plant except appearance.