Is Buttered Popcorn on everyone's list for any particular reason? I'm asking because I nearly got it from Oakes and then didn't, but now I'm wondering if that was a mistake.

It has shown a good rust resistance to rust according to a 2002 Georgia University study. That is why I want it.http://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-030/426-030.html

If you live in the northern states, rust probably is not a real issue for you like it is here in the south.

Becky, rust resistance was one of the main reasons I purchased 'Buttered Popcorn,' sadly it has shown more rust than any of the other plants (about a half dozen) I got from Wild's in that order. You can see a photo of it in my blog, not a really bad case but more rust than I was hoping for.

Larry - THAT is disappointing! Well, I have not obtained it yet, so maybe I will pass on it afterall. Or maybe it has been exposed to a different strain of rust that was not tested on it during the university test. (I don't think it is known how many different strains of rust fungus there are that can attack the foliage of daylilies.)

I have however obtained several (both tets and dips) that have a 1.0 rust resistance rating and the foliage looks amazing to me. (Of course those gardeners in the northern states would probably laugh because they typically see only nice foliage.) I probably have enough rust resistant cultivars to dismiss getting any more for breeding purposes. I must be getting serious in my hybridizing efforts because I do a pedigree search now of all daylilies BEFORE I consider acquiring them. If there are not good rust resistant genes in it's pedigree, then they get removed from my list .... unless of course there is some genetics that I really want .... you know .... those patterned faces and big, bold eyes. I hunted down and got a number of rust resistant cultivars without breaking my budge to start using them as parents in my rust resistant breeding program. Now it's wait time until Spring ...... which requires the patience of a saint in anticipation of bloom season to return.

Someone told me that plants can respond to rust differently in different years. Has anyone found this to be true? I hate to get rid of something because it was rusty one year if it wasn't going to be consistently so.

Leslie - I have often wondered that too. Last year my daylilies looked awful. This year many do have rust, but not as bad as last year. Same daylilies. I don't know why that would be. And we have had high humidity and lots of rain with warm temps. Perfect conditions for rust to go wild .... yet I haven't seen that happen this year at all.

I have a plant of XYLOPHONE JAZZ that for some reason became covered with rust and I simply could not get rid of it. So I ended up doing something that was extreme, but Guy Pierce said he does this whenever he sees a plant with rust -- I cut it back to the ground! And lo and behold, it came back with absolutely no rust! That was at least three years ago, and my XYLOPHONE JAZZ has never had rust since, so that is what I will do if I find it agaiin.

I'd forgotten about cutting down to the ground. I've done that too. It works. You have to make sure to clean your scissors between plants or you could transfer it from plant to plant as you go. When rust first appeared in the early 90's some of the the nurseries had to cut all their plants down.

I don't have much experience to base my observations on, but one year when I added a lot of new plants from my Mom's after she passed away, many of the plants ended up getting rust that year. The next year after a very cold winter here (for zone 8b) I had almost zero rust. None, till the fall and then very little on any of the plants. This year I have again added lots of new plants and now in the fall I have many of them showing rust.
I don't plan on getting rid of any of them for a few years, but plan to observe them and take notes on which ones do get bad rust and which ones don't. If I see the same plants are susceptible year after year I might get rid of them. If I see that there are seasons of little rust, or that the plants vary as to which ones get rust or not , then I will just have to learn to either live with it or start spraying for rust.
I was surprised that many of the new rust resistant varieties I added this year have more rust than some that are not "listed as rust resistant". The worst cases of rust are actually on just a few of the "not listed as rust resistant" plants.

Lalambchop1 said:Someone told me that plants can respond to rust differently in different years. Has anyone found this to be true? I hate to get rid of something because it was rusty one year if it wasn't going to be consistently so.

Plant fungal diseases are dependent on the environment and since different years can have different weather patterns, this will affect the incidence and severity of diseases such as rust. As an example, if you have a susceptible daylily in your house where there is no dew, fog, rain etc. so the leaves are never wet, you can totally cover it with rust spores but it will not get the disease. This is because rust spores need a minimum number of hours of leaf wetness at the same time as suitable temperatures in order to germinate. Of course this scenario won't happen outdoors, but some years and seasons are wetter, drier, cooler, hotter, windier etc. than others and this directly impacts such diseases.

This is why it is usually recommended to avoid overhead watering or, if you cannot avoid it, don't water in the evening or overnight because that prolongs the time that there is water on the leaves allowing spores to germinate.

One of the concepts in plant pathology is what is called the "disease triangle", where one side of the triangle represents the host plant, another side represents the pathogen, and the third side represents the environmental conditions. If any one of these factors is missing, e.g. the host plant is not susceptible, the pathogen is not present, OR the environment does not favour the disease, it will not occur. If any are limited, a small amount of disease may occur. If the host is very susceptible, there is plenty of the pathogen, and the environment is very conducive to the disease, then you'll have a bad case of rust.

There's an example diagram of the disease triangle on this page:
http://www.gocorn.net/v2006/In...

I didn't have any rust this year
Hopefully that means there are no spores in my plants

Is it clear what combo of temps / rainfall (or moment of watering?) / humidity trigger rust?
Perhaps my summers are just not hot enough to get rust?


Mayo

I will always get a small amount of rust in the fall and have since the big outbreak in 2001 when we all had to cut everything back to the ground. Since then I have had a spray program to keep it to a minimum and only see a little in the fall.

Being we have a thread devoted to rust talk, I decided to go out and take some photos of my most rust prone daylilies at the moment. Usually this is about the worst time of year for me with rust.
'Tuscawilla Tigress'

'Awesome Blossom'

'Darla Anita'

'Mexican Sunrise'

'As Time Goes By'

'Spacecoast Tiny Perfection'

'Red Volunteer' more rust than I was expecting

'Malaysian Monarch'

'Pallaidian Pink'

There were others showing rust but the ones above were the worst cases of rust I have so far.

I have found that the bigger and the healthier the plant is in general, the less rust it will have. If you have a struggling SF, and it gets rust, I would hardly say it was prone to rust, until you could get the plant bigger and then see what happens. I too, have rust on different plants, different years. The weather also plays a big role.
Last year was the year I sprayed round up on all my plants, and had to cut them all down to the ground. I think it sure helped the plants, Im going to do some cutting back this year as well.

You sprayed round up on your plants???

Lalambchop1 said:You sprayed round up on your plants???

yes, I was wondering about that too..
Doesn't kill Round Up all plants...?

@Seedfork
Larry, if that is the worst rust can do to Daylilies, I think nobody would worry about it


Mayo

Stupidity, sheer stupidity.

gardenglory said: Last year was the year I sprayed round up on all my plants, and had to cut them all down to the ground. I think it sure helped the plants, Im going to do some cutting back this year as well.

Wow, I was wondering if I read that right!! I am surprised and also extremely glad that they came back

Larry, the rust does make the plants look raggedy and weary, but fortunately in most cases it doesn't kill them. I wondered at times why we only take pictures of just the blooms, then when I look at some of my foliage, I know why

I really love clean looking foliage, so plants that always look nice and green are a big plus, and those that don't move further down my list. It is just hard trying to figure out which ones will always have nice foliage and which ones will look ratty.