H. 'Twilight'

While I had purchased a 'Twilight' root last year, 2005, it was one of the ones that year which did not come up with any shoots, so, money down the drain. We're faring much better in 2006 however, three roots and all three are sprouting nicely.

While it may not be a particularly uncommon variety - this 'Fortunei Aureomarginata' sport was introduced in 1997- I think I'll take one of the three roots and do the 'slice-n-dice' routine on it for propagation.

And then again, perhaps not. I took a close look at one of the three on May 13th and I'll have to keep a close eye on it. It looks as if it may be infected with HVX: Hosta Virus-X! There are at least two other varieties, and there may be as many as five, that I purchased from the same source -Costco- that exhibit definite signs of the dreaded viral infection. I'll wait for another couple of weeks or so and see how things progress, but I do not hold out much hope....This picture, taken on May 21st, shows why I'm concerned, this does NOT look like some nutritional deficiency.

I had no trouble returning these infected plants to Costco for a refund, along with another 4 varieties similarly infected. At least I can be comfortable in the knowledge I have taken the most obviously infected ones out of the yard and garden, but there are still another three remaining varieties that will be closely monitored for infection signs. 'Francis Williams', 'Yellow Splash Rim' and 'Twilight' are 2006 additions that didn't make the grade however, and are no longer in our yard; they all proved to be HVX infected, along with a new batch of 'Patriot' and 'Guacamole'. For at least the next couple of years I'll look at anything unusual on any of our Hostas and wonder if it's a sign of something serious or just the plant's way of dealing with it's environment and pests.

Fast forward to 2011, and I've gambled on another set of five roots from Costco. Let's see how these do. First of all, let's confirm the contents match the label, and early indications already throw doubts on that. We'll see though.