Again, I learned plenty of lessons from my first rust attack last year. Most of it was commonsense logic. Even northerners can have rust in their garden by fall, particularly if they have brought in new daylilies from the "rust belt". So fall is a time in particular I am cautious about who I buy from.................. This spring however, I just HAD to have a daylily from a grower in zone 7B. Unlike the year before which was warmer then most, areas in the upper south had a "normal" winter which may have killed off any lingering rust (as it did in my zone 7a garden) or slowed it down. The year before most of the zone 7a-b daylily people were talking about how warm the winter had been. That's never a good sign if you are ordering from marginal zones. I then ordered my daylily and had it shipped as early as possible. I was hoping that the coolness of very early spring might inhibit any infectious spore production, be it in the one I ordered or in the surrounding plants. When it arrived I soaked it in Bleach water for about 15 minutes and then whittled it back to nubbins (it DID have a nice root system). It was a bit scary, but the plant rebounded, and not only flowered, but put off a division as well. If you want to spray that's fine by me. I'm not anti-spray (I grow Hybrid Teas), but if you can have a rust free garden without the effort or fuss, that would be ideal I would think.........Below is a picture of how the daylily looked after I trimmed it back. Scares me even now-lol........Maryl:
