Last summer I had an outbreak of - well, everything. Nematodes, anthracnose, and Bacterial Soft Rot. The BST was the worst. Think of flesh eating bacteria, only it dissolves plants. It took a while to figure out what the problem was, since it's not common. By then it spread from Journey's End to Goodness Gracious. Almost everything I read said to throw the plants out, but one source suggested Phyton 35 as a cure. The trouble is, erwinia bacteria adapt very quickly, and if you don't get all of it, it comes right back.

So I dug both plants up, washed all the dirt off well away from any other hosta, and literally submerged the whole plant in Phyton mix for 20 minutes. Afterward they went in huge pots - they were big mature specimens. The BST kept coming back, and I watered them with nothing but the Phyton 35 mix all summer. In the meantime, I got Journey's End a little too close to Dancing Queen and Night Before Christmas, and they got it, too. I just watered them with the bactericide, since digging up the other two hadn't helped.

By the end of summer, the BST seemed to stop. Journey's End had severe root rot, looked almost dead, and I stuck it in the ground away from any other plants. Goodness Gracious had done better at fighting off BST, and went back in it's old spot.

This spring, Journey's End came up - small, but looked fine. Goodness Gracious has deformed leaves on the small part of the plant that came up.

Dancing Queen and NBC looked great until mid July, when I spotted BST on Dancing Queen. I just dug the whole thing up, and the roots were badly infected. It went on the burn pile. Two weeks later, NBC had a tiny spot. It's a huge plant, so I dug up half of it and removed all the soil from the area. so far it hasn't come back. Fingers crossed.

Journey's End seems to be cured, but is starting to sport to solid green.

In conclusion, all the advice about just get rid of the plant before it can spread was right. Luckily I found a replacement GG and it's on order, along with Grand Tiara. That one has looked strange for a couple years. Finally decided it had some kind of virus and got rid of it. See, I CAN be taught.