That's good to know Sue. I'm glad you were able to clear that up. I haven't grown Hollyhocks (Alcea/Althea) in decades, but do remember that rust was one of the diseases listed for them way back then in Pirones 5th edition (which didn't even have daylily rust listed as a disease yet). I wondered if they had researched the Hollyhock rust and put it into the daylily rust catagory. One can get confused with all the classifications and reclassifications. I'm still working on what to call my "Mums" now-lol.........Just as an aside, I also remember when Patrina was being heralded as a new low maintenance perennial for the home garden. I still have an old Holbrook Farm Catalog from 1995 where he talks about Patrina Scabiosaefolia being brought in from Korea a few years earlier by the National Arboretum (of all places). I see Plants Delight still carries it. I'm glad I never bought any for myself, even though Plant Delights picture of it is enticing (link below). I'm assuming that all Patrina species are considered alternate host plants, not just one specific type............Maryl

Patrina in bloom:
http://www.plantdelights.com/P...

The Patrinia that are recorded hosts are Patrinia gibbosa, P. rupestris, P. scabiosaefolia, P. triloba and P. villosa. There are more Patrinia species than that so either the others are not hosts or it's just that nobody has formally recorded daylily rust on them. Hosta rust (not present in North America) also uses patrinia as alternate host, and there is a plain old patrinia rust as well in Asia. I don't know how widely grown any of the unlisted patrinias are in North America, even the more commonly cultivated patrinia species are not widely grown here.

@sooby Just reread this thread for more information on rust. Sue, I am seeing some of my grass blades and wild strawberry weeds foliage showing orange pustules underside of the leaves. They look a lot like the rust pustules currently appearing on my daylily leaves. Are these rusts the same? I have never seen rusts on my grass before. This new development is rather disturbing. Do the daylily rust infect grass and other plants too?

There's rust all over the grasses here too, but it's been a wet coolish summer which is what rusts typically like. There is no rust on daylilies here. There are something like 7,000 different plant rusts each of which is typically specific to a few certain plants. The amount of rust I see on grasses here varies by year since the weather patterns also vary.

Since they are inclined to like similar environmental conditions (dampness, not too hot, not too cold, not too much light etc) you will tend to see different rusts on various plants at the same time. It does not mean they are all the same rust. The only plants susceptible to daylily rust are daylilies, patrinia and Dianella. Daylily rust (Puccinia hemerocallidis) is the only rust that affects daylilies.

Thanks so much Sue for clarification. Having no experience with rust, I am a bit overwhelmed seeing so many plants affected by it this year. I took a walk around my neighborhood and saw that some of their grass showing rust also. Must be the weather. It has been a rather wet and cloudy summer.