In this pic are emerging tiger lilies. There are stripes/spots on the leaves. These were there last year. Is this a virus? These are planted by other lilies, asiatic, oriental and Turks cap. I had a lot of aphids last year, and I know aphids can transmit viruses. If this is a virus, should I remove and destroy the tiger lilies? Thanks, Gardenfish

I am not certain, but it would concern me. Others will have to comment further.

If it is a virus, do not dig them out, considering the promixity to the other lilies. You run the risk of leaving an infected piece behind or going through the roots of multiple plants, transferring the virus. It is better to poison the infected plants in situ and cover them to prevent insects feeding on the dying stems.

Thank you, Joshua, for a good way to remove them. I forgot to say the other lilies aren't affected, at least they seemed ok last summer. I hope the whole lot of them don't have to be removed.

Lilies with virus usually have curled leaves but i don't see that in this picture. One question. Did you have any hail storms in recent days? I am asking 'cause i had similar white markings after hail last year. Also i read somewhere that some mineral deficiency can cause white leaf markings but i am not sure if this is true. I understand your concerns, but other experienced members should give their opinions first before you kill them.

Thank you Lucius. No, no hail here for quite awhile. I'm not real big on fertilizing them, I usually put bone, blood and cottonseed meal lightly on them in the Spring.

Is that a real tiger lily (lilium lancifolium) ot some asiatic hybrid?

You said these markings were there last year, too. Did they bloom normally last year? Could we see the bloom?

The name "tiger lily" gets put on several different lilies. A flower pic (from any year) will help us determine which it is. Some of these tiger lilies are very tolerant of viruses, and rarely show symptoms at all, even if they are infected. If you don't have any flower photos, what is the color and does the flower face upward, downward or out to the side? How tall does it grow?

Some viruses cause leaves to curl, but others do not. And curling could be caused by several things other than virus, so it is not a good test by itself.

Bright orange with dark brown freckles. It grows tall, approximately five feet, and I don't have a pic of the blooms. These are some I received from a friend. I think, if I remember right, that the blooms are slightly off to the side, and the blooms are downward pointing.
It bloomed beautifully last year, and the flowers looked fine. It doesn't have curled leaves, just those streaky stripes on the leaves. I'm going on the data base to see if I can find it for sure. Thank you all for your help. If I find it in the database, I will post again.

I just checked the database, and the first lily that comes up when you type in tiger lily is lilium lancifolium, and the picture by the listing is an exact match to my blooms.

Lilium lancifolium is the one most commonly called tiger lily. The good news is that it is probably the most virus tolerant of any lily. The bad news is that 99.99% of all Lilium lanifolium have viruses. The good news is that it is very rare indeed, that any virus symptoms ever physically manifest on L. lancifolium. You never would know it had any viruses by looking at it. The bad new is... so what, the viruses can still transfer from your infected Lilium lancifolium to any other lily.

Everything I have said thus far, is not the result of your pictured symptoms; rather, it is true for all Lilium lancifolium.

For every plant, animal, fungi, etc., there are many different viruses that can infect, and this is no different for lilies. There is something we call a virus load, and this can be a high concentration of a virus's particles, or the presence a high number of different kinds of viruses. With lilies, it is usually the latter, and my best guess is that this is what is going on with your plants: they have so many different viruses attacking that it is finally showing a symptom, but the species is so resilient, that it still does not reduce the overall health.

whether I am right or not is debatable, but the action needed is not. You need to get rid of those plants because of what I stated in the first paragraph here, and they are planted so close to other lilies that are susceptible. Realize that all those little black bulbs that form at the junctures of leaves and stem are automatically infected, too. You will need to be very fastidious about the removal of all these little resulting plants, because they, too, will be sources of inoculum to infect your other lilies. This is doubly important since you say you have a good population of sucking insects (aphids) that transmit the diseases.

If you choose to poison the lilies, know that it will take multiple applications. The lilies will take in the poison and distribute it throughout the roots and large mass of the bulb. The concentration of the poison will become so dilute that it will not be strong enough to kill, hence multiple applications will be needed. Likely, you will spray, the poison will look like it is working, and then the plant starts to look better again. That will be your cue to spray again. Do not be tempted to spray at a higher dose than recommended, as this will likely burn the foliage and the poison won't be taken in at all.

If possible, use a gel application of poison (use appropriate PPE!), as it is easier to apply directly to the plant you need to target, rather than risking overspray onto the neighbouring plants.

Thank you so much for the information! Yes, the gel form would be the best. I plan on removing them. One more question; how about the hybrids? I found some that are pink, I really liked the look of them but I'm not sure of the parentage; should I risk buying and planting these?

My lancifolium spent so many years with some other asiatic hybrids and i never had any virus problems. May be i am lucky. May be he is virus free.

Seed-raised lancifolium should be virus-free; the problem is that if it does pick up a virus, it will be hard to tell until the virus load is excessive.

@gardenfish - which pink hybrid were you thinking of? Many hybrids several generations removed from lancifolium should be fine - the usual risks of virused stock apply.

Mine is not seed-raised. My father found some stem bulbils in 1992.
Look at this:



Same white marking. Every year i have few of them on most of my lilies (mostly asiatics) and every year the flowers, leaves, stems look just fine. I don't think they would be fine after 3 or more years if they have virus. They would be worse each season but in my case i have better lilies with more flowers each year. Also, as i mentioned earlier, hail storm damage make millions of those white markings so i started to believe that those white spots on lilies means some kind of damage to leaves (not virus infection).
The problem that we have here (with your photo):
1. you said you didn't have any hailstorms in recent days/weeks,
2. you have a lot of aphids on your lilies,
3. too much white spots and lines.
I believe those three reasons are enough for you to listen to Rick and eliminate those lilies.

Lucius, I would tend to agree with you, especially as the damage shown is on the same side of both plants in the photo - this suggests environmental damage.

I get a variety of environmental damage here as well. Viral markings will be chlorotic and in the leaf, as opposite to damage to the leaf's surface.

This year i will definitely keep a close eye on all of my lilies and see if those white spots remains, if they are rare or numerous.

Thanks, everyone! Joshua, the markings are clearly in the leaf, not on the surface as would be by damage. The pink ones I'm looking at are on the Gilbert Wild website; I will go back on it to see if they list the parentage. I will remove my orange ones. Wouldn't you know it, they are the most vigorous lilies I have, next to a dark red noid asiatic? I did have an oriental whose flower looked weird last year, all crumpled up. I will remove that one, too. And I will stay on those aphids! I have never seen the number of aphids like I had last year, I had them on my tomatoes, my lilies, and my milkweeds, three different kinds, because they came in three different colors. I used soap spray on them because I am organic. I don't like to use Neem oil in the middle of the summer because of my summer heat; the aphids arrived in mid summer, and the temps were already in the 90s.

In ways, everyone is right here. Just as the thousands of human cold viruses are different (more or less severe, differing symptoms, etc.,etc.), so are other viruses, including those of lilies. And just as humans can be more susceptible or resistant to cold viruses, in ways, so can lilies. Don't think of lily viruses as one virus, there are many, many.

Some background is needed for Lilium lancifolium itself, as it is quite an anomaly in the natural world. It is actually a triploid that never produces seed. In technical reality, it should not be classified as a species, but undoing centuries of literature is unpopular, and there are countless similar reclassification examples that are yet unresolved, too. Someday, when an answer becomes more clear, perhaps it will be done. But for now, we just live with the paradox. The triploid's origin has long been speculated, but is yet unknown. There is supposedly a diploid form that can produce seed, but as far as I know, it was man-made, is rare, and does not exist in the wild. Once a clone is infected, it can't be undone, except perhaps by meristematic tissue culture in a laboratory. This is why 99.9% of all L. lancifoliums are triploid and virus infected: since it is never sexually reproduce (i.e. by seed), viruses are always transferred from the old plant to the new plant. Through the centuries, this build up of viruses must be comparatively large, and the resilience of L. lancifolium is incredible.

But the species is so widespread that certainly there are plants with different mixes of viruses within them, than others. Gardenfish, no one knows which ones yours have. I can't be certain that viruses are causing your leaf blotching, but I am certain your plants harbor viruses if it is L. lancifolium. Like Lucius, originally my first thought was mechanical damage like hail, too. But I am guessing it is virus because it occurs even on the youngest leaves still emerging from the growing point with the same symptom, as much as I can see at least.

It's true that some lily growers still grow lilies that are known to carry virus. But they try to keep them separated as far as possible from the rest of their lily collection to reduce infection probability. In the end, it will depend on how comfortable you are living with viruses. But no one would ever knowingly grow infected lilies right along with uninfected ones, and expect no virus transmission.

The good lily breeders will breed virus tolerance into their breeding lines in addition to the other physical attributes. Thus, it is possible for hybrids (that inherently have more vigor) to contract a virus and go unnoticed. But eventually, the virus load I previously mentioned (https://garden.org/thread/view...) can build up and diminish the affected lily. Meanwhile (and unfortunately), the "unnoticed" lily will be a source for further infections of nearby lilies, just like the Lilium lancifolium. This is a trade off. Would you want lilies that succumb to virus easily, thereby reducing future transmissions to other lilies? Or would you want resilient lilies that can tolerate virus disease, live long and prosper, but also increasing virus transmission to other lilies. It's a quandary everyone must decide for themselves.

Ideally, we try to buy lilies from more reputable growers that will have a better handle on disease and virus control. It's always a good idea to keep a close watch on newly purchased lilies in the garden, so they can be quickly removed if they are found to harbor virus. Knowing I can take these precautions, I wouldn't hesitate to buy hybrid new lilies for my garden.

Leftwood said:It's always a good idea to keep a close watch on newly purchased lilies in the garden, so they can be quickly removed if they are found to harbor virus. Knowing I can take these precautions, I wouldn't hesitate to buy hybrid new lilies for my garden.

Every year i test my new purchased lilies in pots and then, if they are good, healthy and resistant, i relocate them with other (older) lilies.
This fall i will make special bed for lancifolium well away from hybrids...lancifolium and candidum alone.

EDIT: Testing ground :D