We’ve had a crappy spring this year where I’m at. Cold, wet and not much sun so the Hosta look kind of yucky. People who have heard of HVX but haven’t seen it in person start asking “Is this HVX?” Since it’s way too crappy outside to do anything else, I thought I might share a couple of Hosta pictures from my yard and talk about HVX a little more.
My Garden Challenges
In the fall I got new human neighbors and my dogs got a new canine neighbor. Who’s a good boy!
Not my dog! He started running up and down the fence and peeing on all the things, trampling an entire row of Hosta into oblivion instead of them dying down naturally in the fall.
Spring comes and my boy dog still has a hate on for the boy dog next door. They’ve done so much leg lifting the ground smells like dog pee and I’ve got Hosta pips coming up. I had to do something so I put the underground pet fence back up. It keeps him away from the fence and put a stop to the peeing frenzy. More important, it kept him from breaking all of the emerging pips off of the Hosta planted along the fence.
Why are you telling me this?
By now you’re probably starting to wonder what my point is right? Well my point is there are a lot of reasons other than disease that can cause your Hosta to look less then their best. There are a few things that might damage the emerging pips – weather, late frost, trampling by humans or pets – and that damage will show in the leaves as they unfurl. As the leaves unfurl, less than ideal conditions – too much rain, too cold – can make your hosta look kind of ugly.
Probably Not HVX
So now I have a row of Hosta that have been peed on, stepped on, under water and haven’t seen too many warm days yet. Let’s take a closer look at them.
This one is Spartacus. Spartacus is out of the ‘pee zone’ so it’s looking pretty good this spring. I should move it soon before the maple roots choke it out, but other than that Spartacus is fine.
Sun Power is looking pretty good too, it is out of the ‘pee zone’ too.
But then here is Guacamole and it really looks sad. Crinkled leaves, blotchy color, it just isn’t nice at all right now. If you had never seen Hosta Virus X in person, you would maybe start to panic right now. Especially if you’ve been collecting Hosta and have a lot of time and money invested in your collection.
When you look closely at this leaf and see the way the tip is damaged, that’s most likely because it’s been trampled by boy dogs trying to establish who is top dog. Or it could be because some varieties of Hosta have a harder time unfurling their leaves when the weather is less than favorable. Either way, this is not HVX damage.
The sickly looking color in the leaves could be due to the cold, the wet, or just the long winter months of dog urine. But there is no ink bleed – dark areas ‘bleeding’ out from the veins – so again this is not HVX.
This one is Church Mouse. The picture is from last year, right after I planted it. The leaves are supposed to be rippled like that, but notice how even the blue coloration is.
This is the same plant as it emerged this spring. Kind of sad looking isn’t it? Church Mouse didn’t get peed on or trampled. It just doesn’t like this cold wet spring we’re having so it looks yellow and sickly.
Definitely HVX
This is a plant – Hanky Panky – that had HVX.
This is a close-up of one of the leaves. Notice the blotches of dark green disrupting the normal variegation. Hard to see in a photo, the tissue is depressed because the plant cells have collapsed. It looks almost scalded.
It’s probably not HVX
HVX is one of those things – once you’ve seen it, you know you’ve seen it. So if your hosta came up a little sickly looking this year, keep an eye on them, but if it was fine last year most likely it’s not Hosta Virus X. Just continue to practice good garden hygiene and avoid activities that could spread the sap of one plant to another.
For more on Hosta Virus X – Hosta Virus X, What you need to know
