I have never heard of cutting back evergreens to force them to grow new foliage. I thought that cutting back the foliage on daylilies wasn't a good thing (unless they are being divided, or they have rust). It saps energy or something?

For some reason the foliage on the dormant daylilies is appealing to me more and more. I think it may go beyond having fresh green (or blue green) foliage in the spring. I notice that the foliage on many of my evergreen (and SEv) daylilies just looks ratty now, with the leaf ends brown.... and that starts in spring on some of them! It's not rust. It's not leaf streak. But I do think that maybe it is SOME kind of fungal disease. (And I refuse to spray.)

But the foliage on most of my dormant daylilies (OSTERIZED and SEARS TOWER come to mind) just looks good over a long season.

It's bad enough that daylily leaves age and turn brown and have to be pulled... I want the leaves looking good until they start dying of old age, lol.

I have one partly polymerous daylily (maybe 25-33% here; it's hard to say as I quit taking detailed notes (except on seedlings) long ago) that has a beautiful flower (when it opens all the way), but which has ratty foliage. At first I thought it was lack of water (irrigation spray blocked), in part because of little to no increase on the clump. (Of course it doesn't help that the clump gets a lot of shade...) Fixed that problem... got increase.... foliage still looks ratty! I've been reluctantly (partly because there are so few tet poly parents available, partly because this plant has other flaws) using it in crosses, but the cross that I have wanted to make the most (against OSTERIZED, because its foliage always looks good) has been just about impossible.

The daylilies had been whacked when I bought them and I planted them in pots and they got ratty. So I whacked them again and planted them out and they came back beautiful. I don't whack them very often and I just thought of it as pruning. I prune all the evergreen grasses and stuff like that here in the early spring, to cut off the ratty foliage and it grows new foliage.
If you suspect a fungus and you do not want to use chemicals then try a milk spray. It is very safe and effective. You can Google it. Also aspirin water will boost the immune system and is just plain good for plants in general. You can use a stronger dose and get rid of rust too. I will look for the article but you will like it and it is very safe for the environment.


http://www.plantea.com/plant-a...

Aspirin spray? I want to grow hollyhocks but ALWAYS get rust! Would that work?

It sure is cheap!

HERE IS THE ARTICLE, click 'view all' and scroll all the way down to the aspirin paragraph, here is most of it:

Aspirin is the remedy for fungal headaches
Black spot, powdery mildew, and rust are a terrible trio of fungi, which can attack and destroy your plants. Scientists have found that two uncoated aspirin tablets (325 milligrams each) dissolved in 1 quart of water and used as a foliar spray can thwart these diseases.

http://www.finegardening.com/h...

Hmm... I have a squash plant that is just covered with powdery mildew (happens every year). I am debating between the aspirin (somehow seems wrong to be spraying that in a veggie garden) and trying the baking soda spray. (Too bad that I was just at the hardware/garden center last night - could have gotten yet another spray bottle.)

For what it's worth, I just picked up the last two 'Angel Daisy' plants from the nursery today (rather one of three nurseries I regularly surf, not including the hardware garden center). I thought that they had the white Echinacea there too, but noooooo, that's at one of my other haunts. SIgh. (Some days it's hard to remember which plant I got from where.)

I also picked up a large flowering white dahlia, 'Kiev'. (This is a dinnerplate which is supposedly white and pink (per Google), but the flowers on my plant look pure white to me. I am presuming that the nursery label is correct (but I have seen mislabeled dahlias at nurseries before).) That will make 3 different white dahlias for the Moon Garden now ('Prince Charming' (cactus), 'Eveline' (decorativel with a bit of lavender in the center) and now 'Kiev' (very large very white).

Those will have to be planted next weekend. Today we played around with the irrigation heads, so that we could plant out the two 'Flower Carpet White' roses.

Try the milk spray for the powdery mildew. I need to spray too because I have some on my Monarda didyma 'Raspberry Wine'.
That Dahlia sounds wonderful, please post some pics when it blooms.

I'm going to try the aspirin! Thanks!

I've been busy the past couple of days, so haven't been able to spend much time in the garden - just a minute or two here or there. (Yesterday I was sucked into court as a potential juror, and so missed one bloom (which I hadn't realized had opened) on a somewhat polymerous seedling that I'm watching, not to mention the last bloom on Belle of Ashwood. )

Anyway... I managed to buy some spray bottles, so I'm going to try to save the squash from the powdery mildew, though I fear it may be too late.

Last weekend I put in a couple more 'Angel Daisy' Shasta daisy plants, and the Dahlia 'Kiev', into the Moon Garden. I'll try to get pictures in a day or two.

I still need to go back to a 3rd nursery to pick up a couple more white coneflower plants, but I think other plants need to be dug and moved before they could be planted, and first I have a couple of roses to deal with (assuming the potted one hasn't keeled over from not getting watered). It never ends, does it?

I have been busy too, I know how it goes. Also familiar with Jury Duty. LOL.
Sorry to hear about 'Belle of Ashwood' and your seeding. Hopefully you will see another bloom. I have gotten a few plants in the mail for fall planting, that's funny huh? Shopping spring sales and keeping them in the shade till fall for planting. I just love stress!!
I got two dusty millers and a beautiful white phlox. I don't remember the name of the phlox but I will look it up later. I got a lot of work to do but it is not happening right now. In the fall (or sooner) I am removing two large Miscantheus and i will add a couple of evergreens for winter interest and a few white things to make it seem more like a moon garden. I have a couple of white (or near white) daylilies I am growing and whiteout roses. Hope it looks good, it is a small garden in the corner of the yard as I live on a corner in the city. It is a big mess right now with the huge grasses taking over but it will be nice with the White Crape Myrtle and roses. Oh, I do have a white iris I am going to add and Powwow White. Let me know if you know of anything small that I could add. I will probably wait to see how much room I have once the grasses are gone. I am thinking about a white clematis running on the ground, that would be beautiful. Roses do not do well here because of fungus, I just don't have time to spray every day, but I heard the milk spray is good, and sure would be a lot cheaper.

The only small things I can think of are annuals (alyssum, vinca and/or impatiens, Nigella hispanica 'African Bride' (which will self sow)), Cerastium tomentosum, Nemesia, or Dianthus (which has the added benefit of grey foliage).

I don't know if you would consider them small or not, but I use a white flowered Pelargonium throughout the Moon Garden (both the floral and leaf shape are a nice contrast to the daylilies), and I also have a few white flowered society garlic plants (which you need to search out online; I got mine from http://www.secretgardengrowers... ).

I did have two different white flowered daffodils in the Moon Garden, but either irrigation issues or last year's terrorist gopher did for one clump. I had/have 'Misty Glen' and 'Stainless'; both are nice, and if you can work it so that you can plant them behind something dormant that will come up later and hide the dying foliage, that would be great. (Another great white daffodil is 'Thalia', but I already have a large planting of that under a willow tree, so I wanted something different for the Moon Garden. 'Ice Follies' is good too, but it is not pure white; the cup starts out yellow and then fades to white.)

Thanks!! Great selections.