Sue - What you said makes perfect sense to me. But what I am seeing in my garden is quite the opposite. Which is why I have asked this question several times. I don't quite understand what is going on in my yard.
My front yard is sunny and dry. Rust loves that area. I have three partially shady beds that have MUCH nicer foliage. Go figure!
Maybe what I am seeing in the front bed is damage from the heat and not all from rust. (Though I DO see rust on those leaves.) Lots of foliage is ugly in the front yard, while the shade areas are looking much nicer. Maybe the heat is causing the plants to go summer dormant which is why the foliage looks so bad as well? Much of what I see appears to be rust damage though.
And I will say that I had the shady area plants in a full sun area originally. The foliage looked pretty awful, but since I moved them, they look so much nicer. Could it be the heat and full sun taking a toll on them?
Also, this is a photo of the foliage from seedlings that are 4 months old. As you can see, there is one leaf in there that is almost covered in rust! I suspect the rust will cover the entire leaf (and plant) before long. They have only been outside a little over a week. No rust was seen on this cross until they went outside. They were started and grown inside in a south window. I would have to say that this cross is a rust magnet! Would this current photo be rated as a 3, 4, or 5?
