As you know, the "sudden oak death" pathogen got shipped around the
country this spring on Monrovia nursery plants. If you've bought a plant
that has a Monrovia tag on it, especially a camellia, you might want to
take that plant to a Cooperative extension office, on the off-chance that
they've instigated a whole-state search for it. If you've already planted
the plant, just call them and tell them. The state Ag departments can
trace the plants all the way to retail nurseries, but often nurseries
don't keep records of who they sold each plant to, and the trail goes
cold.

Other than that, be calm. Go to http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/ if you
have questions, and certainly check out the list of hosts, and the
pictures of symptoms.

Unless you have a tanoak or a live oak bonsai, your trees are not in any
danger from this pathogen, which doesn't do a lot of damage on most of its
hosts. The problem is that it might spread off an infected plant into the
ecosystem, and there's no way to know (at this point) what that would
mean. In Australia, Phytophthora cinnamomi got loose and has
significantly altered the forest structure on that continent (any Aussies
want to comment?).

The government is trying to regulate the spread of the pathogen through
"official" channels, doing inspections of nurseries, etc. The only
concern I have is that bonsai travel through very unofficial channels;
friends trade bonsai, sell them at shows, etc. Be careful: don't move
host plants out of California, don't buy host plants from California. If
you have questions, but don't want to incriminate yourself, you can ask me
and I will tactfully get an answer for you.

Nina, your friend in the government, unless that's an oxymoron.

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by John Quinn++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++