We're facing a horticultural problem of huge proportions here in Tennessee
and probably the eastern region. Thursday I arrived at Lowes outside lawn
and garden department to discover the State Agricultural extension and
region agent with another man with him.

When we had the head's up concerning Monrovia's having shipped Sudden Oak
Death fungus to other nurseries which was carried on Camelia's and
Rhoddies, I alerted people on another newsgroup because if this western
fungus gets over here, it will wipe out all our oaks eventually. And think
about how many kinds of oaks we have here, and the fact that this fungus
kills a tree in two years or shortly there after..............solemn
thoughts there.

Apparently it's worse than that. Bad enough that Monrovia is one of the
largest distributing nurseries in the US, but now Means Nursery in Oregon
has apparently been using compost which had shredded oak
bark..............yep. Shrubs and plants shipped from Means Nursery to Lowes
and other stores that purchse their stock have probably gotten Sudden Oak
Death fungus that is in the soil of Rhododendrums, Azaela's, and Lilac's.
Any shrubs that are sitting next to these plants, particularly Viburnum's
will also pick up the fungus and be spread to those AND the oaks.

The state agent was at our store where he and his colleague were taking
plant and soil samples to ship off to the labs at UT Agricultural department
and the State agricultural department. They had already done this to every
Lowes in the area and were going to EVERY Lowes that purchased these shrubs
and such from this Nursery.

This is HUGE. We cannot afford to let this slip out and into neighborhoods.
These fungus have potential to cross breed and that means apparently a
stronger and more deadly fungus that WILL wipe out our oaks.

I wanted to give ya'll a heads up. We have what remains of our stock from
Means as well as some other shrubs from a totally different nursery here in
Tennessee that were sitting next to the possibly infected plants in the back
under quarantine. I'll let you know in two weeks the results.

madgardener in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36