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I have Hosta Problems.

I have hosta problems.  Four years ago I planted a large blue hosta which took off immediately and became a focal point near my front entrance. Two year ago, it developed a problem and died off, as did two other blue hostas in the same area. Last year a few shoots from the original reappeared. Now that hosta seems to be coming back and is looking healthy. However, the large blue on the other side of the walkway now has the same problem. A couple of days ago I discovered what looks like greenish-yellow stains on the leaves. This am the leaves are all infected, shriveling up and are completely discolored. Hope you can help.
 
Thanks for this opportunity. When I first had the problem I visited every nursery in my city as well as many websites and could find nothing except that hostas are problem free. Love your site.
 
Maud

Doug says:

First - the general Hosta care page is here.

However, one of the problems with Hosta is a relatively new problem called "Hosta Virus X".  This sounds suspiciously like the streaking you are seeing on the leaves. 

Most often we'll see a blue or green streaking on a lightly colored leaf and they follow the leaf veins.  From these veins, they "bleed out" or spread past the vein making the marking look mottled or streaky. 
Sometimes the infected leaf tissue will be thicker or puckered up (something hard to tell on some Hosta varieties)

Twisting and deformed leaves are sometimes seen with this problem but not usually a severe and fast dieback.

To really frost your gardening cake, many varieties don't show the disease until they've been in the ground for several years.

The plant will simply become weaker and weaker as the virus spreads and the plant leaves will continue the streaking and mottling.

It is hard to identify except that the leaf is discolored and not true to type.  It spreads from plant sap being exchanged between plants (like pruning off flowers with the same pruners)

There is no known cure - chemical or organic - and the solution is to dig up your plants and toss them into the garbage.  Do not compost.

Do you have it?  If you've been getting hosta from the big box stores or other mass market places, there is a very good chance your hosta are infected.  This seems to be the source of many of the plants in the gardening world.  Watch your plants and if you see suspicious leaf markings appear (that are not slug damage or frost damage) then I'd be really concerned.  I watch mine but as they're all over 2 years old, I'm not overly concerned anymore.  But if I bring a new plant into the garden, I'll be watching like crazy and isolating the plant before I let it out into the garden.

If you want to ask about other hosta problems click here