SIgnet. I agree with your ire over people not disclosing potential and actual problems in the plants they sell. I had no daylily rust till I bought plants at a local market. The seller insisted they had no rust even when I said a plant had orange spores. When it spread to all my hems I confronted her and she admitted it. I soon realised that was the reason she kept pulling leaves off plants she had on the tables. She said: "Everything has rust nowadays. Rust doesn't kill daylilies." I think that it DOES kill small plants, and can weaken big plants.
Also, I bought some hems from people who were closing down. Their site claimed they had no rust. But when it arrived, their DOUBLE PINK TREASURE had heaps of orange spores. It is still small and has not flowered. The gowers they sold their remaining stock to, soon had rust everywhere too.
I too feel annoyed when I still see the 'perfect perennial' pitch. I have had a few hems die not long after flowering. So I am now apprehensive about them all. But haven't given up yet. But I don't replace hems which die for no apparent reason. Maybe some can't handle our subtropical climate. Especially now when for the past 2 years it has been 2 degrees C hotter than long term average. We no longer get frosts here.
@sooby has generously shared her knowledge about daylily rust with many of us. It was very useful to me when she clarified that rust only lives in the green parts of the plant. I had thought otherwise from reading that it was neccessary to use a systemic spray.
Also the 'remove all green parts', which she illustrates, worked well for me on a plant that was urghgh urghh awful with spores. It took a while to grow and bloom but still hasn't got rust. But with small plants I just remove the ends or whole of infected leaves so they don't recontaminate the plant and neighbouring ones. Many of my small hems die. I would rather get one large fan from a seller than 3 very small ones. Some small plants still languish after 3 years and being moved to better places. Meanwhile some seedlings have grown big and bloomed.
Maybe on receiving new hems u cld remove most leaves then drench them in a 'bath' before planting. I never spray as it is too windy, and I probably wouldn't get into the spaces between leaves.
Good luck.
