Hello, daylily folks. I have a request. If you have cultivars in your garden that have shown good rust resistance, would you please go to the database and enter that info in the description of your plant?

I'm in Florida where rust resistance is of paramount importance because of our very long, humid warm season. We just have a lot of weather that's inviting to rust.

Daylilies grow, bloom and re-bloom wonderfully here but I am always hesitant to buy and plant any plant that doesn't have rust resistance in it's description. Very few of the database entries have this attribute listed, but I know there are quite a lot out there.

UF has a list of about a dozen cultivars and it hasn't been updated for at least the last 7 years I've been looking.

Please help us all out, and enter the rust resistance factor in the database? I'm sure I'm not the only daylily fan who would find this info helpful.

There are only two options for the "shows resistance" and "shows susceptibility" drop-down, so as far as I can see it only reflects the opinion of the last person to edit. The decimal scores were calculated based on various university and other studies to arrive at a number. I don't know how editing this works for NGA members, but it does appear one can change the decimal numbers. Say, for instance, that I go to edit a cultivar that is rated at 1.4 and I think it rates as a 5. Does changing the number to 5 make 5 the new number, or does it calculate an average between 1.4 and 5? if the former then the rating is not really all that useful because it would again only reflect the view of the last person who edited. I'm also not sure how calculating an average between the one current decimal number and one new one would be useful for that matter since we don't know how many studies were used to come up with the 1.4.

Edited to add a link to how the decimal scores were calculated: https://garden.org/barn/notes/...

Even if they just enter "shows resistance" that will be helpful to me as to whether to try a given cultivar.

A written description in the notes under the database entry would be much more help, though.

I have a lot of the same concerns as rust is a problem here as well.

I have not changed any of the rust decimal ratings in the database because it would seem arbitrary to me. I think they were arrived at by looking at studies available at the time, and I have not conducted any kind of formal study. Some of the numbers are very outdated even if they were arrived at using the studies that were available at the time. New strains of rust have been spreading, and several cultivars with 1.0 ratings have been rust buckets in my garden: Buttered Popcorn and Alabama Jubilee spring to mind.

I have used the drop-down menu to add "shows susceptibility" based on my own experience.

I can share the names of the cultivars that have not shown a speck of rust in my garden through several rust outbreaks: Victorian Princess, Cosmopolitan, Lemon Vista (unregistered), Chorus Line and Pandora's Box (both rated susceptible in the database--not here), Jolyene Nichole, Laura Harwood, Miss Amelia (unregistered), Siloam Double Classic, maybe one or two others. A lot of mine are too new to judge yet, but I have hopes. I have ordered several of Brian Reeder's and Ron Reimer's cultivars bred especially for rust resistance. I can report back after I have had them awhile.

Thanks, Nan. Good to know about Pandora's Box especially. I have that one in my daughter's garden in Utah (where rust isn't a problem, very dry air) and will snatch a division when I visit next. Nice to try it out without having to invest money, for sure!

As I said to Sue, even if everyone would put in the "shows resistance" info in the database, that's helpful.

Even better if more people would post here with the ones they've found are resistant.

I should add that my next-door neighbor has several clumps of an old-fashioned cultivar that looks like "Linda." They have remained rust-free also although they have been exposed to rusty plants in my yard.

The problem with "shows resistance" is that the plant may not have been properly exposed to rust in that particular garden since rust severity is dependent on environmental conditions, the presence of spores etc. If there was an option to list multiple ratings, so you could see if 3 people chose resistance versus 0 for susceptible it would be more meaningful. But how it works now is that someone may have selected shows susceptibility then another comes along and changes it to shows resistance. IMHO rating a cultivar as susceptible is more meaningful since if it is susceptible it is susceptible, the only mistake could be if it was mislabeled, but if it is rated as resistant it may or may not be resistant elsewhere based on one plant in one location in one garden not getting much rust.

dyzzypyxxy said: Thanks, Nan. Good to know about Pandora's Box especially. I have that one in my daughter's garden in Utah (where rust isn't a problem, very dry air) and will snatch a division when I visit next. Nice to try it out without having to invest money, for sure!

As I said to Sue, even if everyone would put in the "shows resistance" info in the database, that's helpful.

Even better if more people would post here with the ones they've found are resistant.

Remember that I have found Pandora's Box to be resistant to whatever strains of rust are in my yard. Your mileage may vary.

One more thing--whenever I make a report in the "Daylily of the Day," I always add my observations about rust, because that is the first thing I want to know about a cultivar.

In 2012 I had my first and (so far only) attack of rust. Back then I pitched all the rusters and have only ordered from places that say they are rust free (and I always ask). At the time I listed the few daylilies that remained rust free as they sat smack dab in the middle of the rusty ones. Since then I see that most of the cultivars have had their listing changed on the database from my reported "no rust" to susceptible. The one cultivar that still stands out as having a clean record all these years later is Yesterday Memories. It just happens to be one of my favorite daylilies. Mileage may vary when it comes to rust, but I certainly would look into this older, but still outstanding daylily. I also had Pandora's Box, but it wasn't close to the rusters, so I can't honestly say if it would have rusted or not....Maryl
Yesterday Memories

Ruffled Ruby has a reputation for being rust resistant. It was dead center in my rust storm last summer, everything around it got rusty but not Ruffled Ruby.

I see Yesterday Memories is an evergreen...hmmm...pretty, too. It's going on my want list for next year. Thank you, Maryl!

I do realize we may have different strains of rust in different places. Still if I want to have the best chances of growing daylilies long term here in Florida, I must look for any hint that what I buy may or may not be resistant.

It's certainly more informative to read about each gardener's experience and get direct recommendations than to search a cultivar by name, and find "shows resistance" in the listing. You don't know where it was growing, and for whom, when it showed resistance.

I suppose most good daylily growers have to battle to keep their stock free of rust anyway so it's useless to hope that they would know whether or not their offerings are resistant.

Yeah, I'm with you on that, Elaine. I do value other gardeners' experience a lot, and I'm much more willing to try a cultivar if someone in my zone or close to it has had good luck with it.

I'll look forward to hearing how Pandora's Box does for you.

For what it's worth, my Pandora's Box didn't get rust last summer. It wasn't in the rustiest areas either though. I did put in a bunch of rust messages last fall on a bunch of cvs, after a severe outbreak in my yard, brought in on a Bell's plant ( the lovely Seashells and Lace). Hopefully ( unlike Florida) we had a severe enough winter to kill everything. Of course, I have lots more plants coming this year but I will be more willing to dig and quarantine, now that I saw what it can do to the yard. The super rainy summer probably helped the rust spores no end.

I for one appreciated the notes you left in the database, Zoia. They actually made me think better of one cultivar I was considering.

I'm glad to hear that about Pandora's Box.

Thanks Nan! I'm not sure I got all the way through my list, if I have a chance I'll post the rest.

I notice that Heavenly Garden / Spacecoast daylilies often make mention of "rust" resistance in their newer cultivars. Spacecoast Crimson Icon for instance shows good rust, leaf streak and insect resistance. Hardiness zone thrown in for good measure.
https://heavenlygardens.com/im...

I have heard varying reports on the Spacecoast/Heavenly Garden offerings. Some say they are rust-resistant; others say not particularly. I have also heard that the plants introduced in 2016 or so are more resistant than the ones before. I am going to try a few (if I get my order!) and report on my results.

I would like to see others chime in.

Another one that has shown good resistance in my garden is Dynamite Returns (AKA Passionate Returns). It has been growing right next to a plant that has shown rust and has remained clean even though some of the leaves are touching.