What is the best way to handle this on a daylily fan?

Is it a new arrival and came that way or is it something that was planted? Either way, I would pull the gook off and soak in a 10-20% bleach solution for a little bit.

It was a new arrival. Kind of ticked me off that it came that way. They were not soaked in news paper/paper towel when they arrived but it was that way. Why would someone ship a plant like that?

Unless the plant is completely dry and I mean really dry then it could have gotten that way pretty quickly in the box. The boxes can get pretty hot during transport if the postal service or airlines leave them in the sun or someplace hot.
It's not uncommon for the lower portion of the fan to be split and have browning (especially if it's getting ready to bust out an increase there). If any of the brown is still damp it can get mushy like that in the box.

Looking at the photo it seems that about 6 layers of foliage would of had to be removed to get rid of the splitting and that may have caused the fan to be really small so it was left alone. The seller may not have intentionally sent it that way, but then again I don't know.

Cat said:What is the best way to handle this on a daylily fan?

I would send that photo to the seller and ask that the plant be replaced.

@farawayfarmer I thought about doing that but was not sure if they would or if that was something that happened on the way in shipping but it seemed kind of bad for just 2 days shipping. I had tracked the package so it wasn't out in the box long. Just the 2 days.

To me it looks like the plant was hit with a shovel or something during division but there is no evidence of that on the crown. Kind of strange. At a minimum I would contact the seller and let them know how it arrived should it have related troubles later on.

JWWC said:To me it looks like the plant was hit with a shovel or something during division but there is no evidence of that on the crown. Kind of strange. At a minimum I would contact the seller and let them know how it arrived should it have related troubles later on.

I know from observation that some dealers simply ram a shovel through a clump to accomplish the dividing. That can do a lot of damage. And my experience is that if you send pictures and a polite complaint, reputable dealers will back up their reputations.

I will send an email just to see what happens. I bought it from a LA seller. I had several plants coming from this one seller so it kind of ticks me off. I just was not sure how to handle it.

I sell a few daylilies ... I'm bad, I'm a shovel rammer sometimes. I wonder how many fans the auction listing was for? It looks like there are 3 fans, and if the auction was for 2 fans, then I guess as a seller (though I don't sell on the LA since I sell perennials and not just daylilies), I consider the 3rd fan, even if hit by a shovel as a bonus as over pulling it off because of looks, because I've found in transplanting, that they usually survive, and I would consider the customer getting a larger amount. I guess I'm looking at it from the seller point of view. (But it was nice to see that a possible shovel wound could end up looking like that in shipping, because they usually don't look like that at digging/shipping time.)

There are always two sides to every story!

@HoosierHarvester The auction was for 2 fans. So, I did think of that as far as I got my order. I just wonder why send it if it is damaged. I thought it was a bonus. The whole thing ended up breaking off at the crown. I planted it that way after cleaning it up. Hope it doesn't affect the other two. Just "Food For Thought" I guess...

Cat, I have received ones sliced through the crown like that. Daylilies are amazingly forgiving thank goodness and they usually survive quite well. Not that I would buy from them ever again.

I recently dug up a daylily to send to someone and I found a fan like that. We have had tons of rain and I really think too much rain has something to do with it.

Yes, that was what I thought also. I cleaned it up and am hoping for the best. The rest of the fans looked fine.

Maybe its a form of fan blasting, sort of like scape blasting. Scapes can break open from too much rain.