1

                                                                EXHIBIT 24.01(c)

                               POWER OF ATTORNEY




    KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that S. Joseph Fortunato, a director of
General Host Corporation, a New York corporation (the "Corporation"), hereby
constitutes and appoints Harris J. Ashton, James R. Simpson, Robert M. Lovejoy,
Jr. and J. Theodore Everingham, and each of them (with full power to each of
them to act alone), his true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent, for him and
on his behalf and in his name, place and stead, to sign, execute and affix his
name thereto and file the Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended January 28, 1996 with the Securities and Exchange Commission
and any other appropriate authority, granting unto said attorneys and each of
them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing
requisite and necessary to be done in and about the premises in order to
effectuate the same as fully to all intents and purposes as he himself might or
could do if personally present, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said
attorneys-in-fact and agents, or any of them may lawfully do or cause to be
done by virtue hereof.

    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned has hereunto set his hand this day
of March 23, 1996.




                                                     S. Joseph Fortunato       
                                                ------------------------------
                                                     S. Joseph Fortunato