I have a seedling which is driving me mad. It's in a #2 pot, sitting in a planter box on the patio, which it shares with two other seedling daylilies, which are also in #2 pots. (The problem seedling is sitting between the other two seedlings.)

The other two seedlings are doing fine - they are blooming, the blooms are opening properly, no buds are lost, no problem. (Well, other than that they are not potential Stout Medal Winners... )

THIS seedling, almost every bud fails to make it to maturity. The buds kind of look like they are shriveling and drying up, and then they drop off. When a bud does manage to make it to Bloom Day, it doesn't open fully, but rather maybe halfway.

All of the seedlings get watered at the same time, and the planter box does not drain, so there's a little bit of water left in the bottom (which has a layer of gravel). That tells me that this is probably not a drought phenomenon.

Any ideas as to a cause or a cure? I don't recall it doing this last year. (Please don't tell me to throw the seedling out... it's a poly seedling!)

I would suspect maybe spider mites or thripes. I have one plant in over 200 that gets spider mites every year. Why just that one they pick on I have no idea.

I was wondering about that too. I have a few scapes where every bloom is shriveling up and dropping. No rhyme or reason at all. Just random scapes.

Thanks for that suggestion Hemlady, I would never have known that.

That is interesting. I've had problems with the foliage, but never had a serious problem with bud drop. Never even thought of spider mites! Will keep my eyes on the look-out should I notice such a problem.

I have a couple more newly acquired cultivars that are croaking. Seems the leaf streak, thrips, rust, etc. are attacking them despite my organic efforts. So my plan of action is to let Mother Nature take her course. Perhaps, they just weren't meant to be grown here. Any high maintenance cultivars either make it or finds Daylily Heaven. Ironically, I've not had to cull any cultivars or seedlings yet to make more room for others, seems nature has been taking care of that for me. That is fine with me. I want the most robust plants to survive and thrive here, not the weaklings.

Thanks for the clue in the possible cause Hemlady. I have an unregistered seedling that I purchased that hasn't bloomed in 2 years. It produced scapes but they didn't grow right & all the buds dropped off. This year it has a scape and 2 out of 3 buds have dropped. I do think the last will make it since it is quite large now. The seedling is planted in a raised bed with several other daylilies and they all are fine. I guess that must be the tastiest one of the bunch!

Polymerous and Elena - I had a seedling like that as well. It never, ever did well. When it finally did bloom, the flower never opened completely and I was disappointed. Perhaps, I thought, that it's genetics were not a healthy combination and it would never become a "normal" plant. It died later that year despite the foliage looking decent.

Thanks, Cindy for the mites or thrips suggestion. One of the parents of this seedling has been a thrip magnet here. Occasionally I will lose buds on it, but nothing like this seedling has been behaving.

What is infuriating is that this seedling bloomed fine (well, as fine as it can - it doesn't open as fully as I want, a flaw to be fixed) last year. This year.... pffft. Even more infuriating, almost every bud on the seedling this year was (what I wanted) polymerous! It is my only such seedling!

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!!!!!!

There's a longer list of pest possibilities depending on location. On this AHS list check out Lopidea confluenta, Hemerocallis gall midge, tarnished plant bug as well as the more commonly suspected thrips. I've seen daylilies heavily infested with spider mites but not abort buds so I'm not sure if that is typical.

http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...

It could also be environmental - nutritional, moisture related, something going on with the roots and so on. Bud drop in daylilies comes in the "who knows", and various possibilites categories.

One clue sometimes might be the colour of the flowers that are being affected.

Thanks for the link, Sue.

I've seen some sort of grass-hoppery thing perched on some of the daylily blooms (its presence itself in the garden is unusual), but none of those daylilies are having bud drop, and I have not seen it in the vicinity of this seedling. Ditto spotted cucumber beetles and earwigs (which seem to like to hide out in the blooms) don't seem to be affecting those daylilies which I have seen them on.

Slugs and snails abound, but they do different kinds of damage.

One clue perhaps is that last year I was more liberal with (hose-spray) watering, and did not try to avoid the foliage. Given that I have been having some rust problems, this year I've been trying to avoid getting the foliage wet. Maybe that suggests mites? (I'm not sure what to look for, here.)

I'm not sure how to interpret your last line... The blooms on this seedling are somewhere between pale yellow and pale apricot or peach in color. The buds that dry up, look some shade of yellow with brown tips.

Both Lopidea confluenta and tarnished plant bugs would not necessarily been seen, especially in warm weather - they're kind of hit and run. Both are piercing sucking insects and the TPB at least injects a substance that can cause distortion and abortion.

The last sentence meant the colour of the flower when it opens normally, not when damaged. Some pests have colour preferences. Sorry for the ambiguity.

A mature daylily produces full blooms, but they drop prematurely, almost as if they are too heavy for the attachment. Don't see any signs of thrips or the like. Any thoughts will be welcome.

PaulBinGB,

This was an old 2016 thread about bud drop, so I am wondering if you meant to use the term buds and not blooms.
If you did actually mean to use the term blooms and they are "full blooms" when they just drop off, I have no idea what that might be. I have never seen that in my garden. Do you know the name of the cultivar that is happening on?

PaulBinGB said:A mature daylily produces full blooms, but they drop prematurely, almost as if they are too heavy for the attachment. Don't see any signs of thrips or the like. Any thoughts will be welcome.

With GB at the end of your username is it possible you are in the UK? Are the buds swollen and not opening properly? If so, have you cut any open to see if they are watery with maggots inside?