Thanks Tink, that is what I think of as spring sickness.

Thanks, those do seem different to me than flopping fans, or roots climbing out of the soil. (And, the flopping seems to occur later in the summer, after scapes have bloomed.) What a great site resource, though - many thanks for bringing it back up.

If it turns out they match Brian's fans, I'm sure he'll be relieved to know for sure what it is.

Now if we could just figure out the flopping and godzilla fans that get happy after relocating ... I'd sleep easier

New leaf floppers I just prop up and, like James, watch the coming news leaves don't get trapped. They are quite common for me. My feeling is the new leaves just grow quicker than their structural strength. But they are a worry being very vulnerable to being stepped on and snapped off by rampant, inconsiderate animals when flopped.

Godzilla screws are always new shoots for me. They straighten but heaven knows why the pirouette.

I wish daylilies could talk. Would clear up a lot of things.

oops did it twice

chalyse said: or roots climbing out of the soil.

If the roots that are climbing out of the soil (or seems like they are) is at the base of the fans where a scape has/had been this may be proliferations that formed at the base of the scape. If I see any this year I will take a photo, but we actually get that quite often here. I find that you don't always have to have a bract for a prolif to form; there could be a nick or some type of crack in the lower scape that may be present and then a prolif can form.

It almost looks like some sort of bug damage to the fans.

@Michele that is a wealth of helpful info, thanks! I just gathered together photos of a number of "unusual" things in my daylily gardens, and thought maybe a new thread could branch off from here where anyone can post things they see but don't understand. Not limiting it necessarily to spring sickness (this thread) or even an illness or bug, so that the question of what it might be could remain open to experienced eyes noting whatever they know of such things ... it sure would be an interesting topic to me. I really like all the ideas that get generated, the stories that describe information about things that look similar, links to comparative photos, and other members pics of what they find.

... well, here goes...

Hi everyone, I only just joined ATP a few days ago and am still figuring out how everthing works but notice a few familiar names here from Tinkers and the AHS Robin. I created the spring sickness website (the one that also includes the image gallery Tink mentioned, http://web.ncf.ca/ah748/sstf.h... ) on behalf of the informal "spring sickness task force" and may be able to answer some questions. (The web site does need some minor updating but as Tink said it is still mostly up to date largely because we've kind of got stuck on proving the extent, or not, of the involvement of bulb mites in the different aspects of spring sickness).

I'd like to mention that the second site that was mentioned further up the thread isn't entirely accurate and sounds rather alarming! I think perhaps the spring sickness task force site has been misinterpreted because we're the ones who initially suspected bulb mites as being involved (although there was a Polish study that we found afterwards which describes something similar to ss in daylilies and also attributes it to bulb mites). A study at Ohio State U also proposed that the leaf streak fungus could be involved. The reason we started looking for pests is that the leaf streak fungus is believed to need an entry point such as pest damage to get into the plant. The damage of spring sickness on daylilies is very similar to that described as bulb mite injury on other plants and they tend to be associated with fungi.

Currently what we are working on is that bulb mites, the leaf streak fungus (Aureobasidium microstictum) and environmental conditions may combine in some way to cause the disorder, which starts before the fans emerge in spring. It's also possible that there is another missing factor, maybe another pest that starts the bulb mites off. One task force member has had some improvement in spring sickness by experimenting with fungicides and insecticides/miticides but didn't entirely eliminate it. We wrote this up in the Daylily Journal - it's also available in PDF on the AHS web site members only section, Journal archives.

Anyway, back to the "Decadent" article - spring sickness is not "a dangerous plant disease". It is also not an "emerging disease", it's been around since at least the 1950's, maybe even longer than that, and probably isn't solely "a disease". While it can affect a whole clump, it won't spread from one or two fans to affect the whole clump if untreated, as suggested. In fact a clump may have one or two fans or all affected in any given year and not have any spring sickness at all the next. The randomness, inconsistency, and full year between events makes it very difficult to study.

I hope this clarifies a few things. If there are any other questions I'd be happy to try and answer them.

There are a few more pictures of spring sickness in the AHS Daylily Dictionary here:

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

OK better stop now, this is getting rather long for a first effort!

Sue

Sue, and thank you for the information. ~Jan

sooby,
I find long posts normally the most informative, it is hard to explain things or make a point most of the time in a very short post.

Sooby is in the house!!

Awesome history and examination of questions and various research finding around spring sickness, thanks!

tink3472 said:The first link I posted has some photos of spring sickness if you look at all the pages. Make sure to click the images to enlarge. Also here is the link for all the photos together http://web.ncf.ca/ep568/galler...

Yep, that's what mine has.

Seems to maybe be getting better.

Sooby!!!!

sooby

Welcome Sue

Thanks everyone for the lovely welcome!

My mother grew daylilies just 50 miles from here from 1948 to her death in 2001, and never ever had any afflicted with spring sickness. In fact I had never heard of it until I ordered some new ones, and one of the "freebies" turned out to have spring sickness. Then it spread to the two on either side. I have taken out the first two afflicted and will be taking out the third. I believe this can spread, so I will simply remove any that become affected, because I don't want this in my garden. I will not replant new daylilies where the affected ones were taken out. I will put something else in there instead.

Are you sure it is Spring Sickness? I get it every year on a small number of my daylilies but it doesn't spread and doesn't kill them. They just won't bloom that year. The next year they are typically fine. I had a few plants have it this year but we've had so much rain and no hard freezes that some fans have snapped out of it so to speak & may actually bloom this year.

I'm not sure anyone knows exactly what causes the problem or how to fix it. But I wouldn't toss any plants because of it. It may only happen once in any particular cultivar for their entire time in my garden. If I remember correctly there may be other diseases that can cause plants to look the same way and those can spread. If you post a picture of the plants someone might be able to give you a definitive answer.

Yes, I'm quite certain it is spring sickness. And I am quite certain my Mom's plants never had it. And no, it doesn't kill the plants, but it does affect vigor, and reduce the number of blooms. My unaffected plants are much more vigorous and floriferous.

So, yes, I will be digging out and sending the affected ones to landfill. Unfortunately we are not allowed to burn here.

Has anyone thought to do tests for plant virus on plants that have this problem?