I thought I only sprayed the fans.. but I guess it is possible it touched the buds too..
Yes, some of the other almost-ready buds have the same problem
I remember I added more methylated spirit than usual, as it was the last in the bottle
Try an experiment, spray a few other buds when they get to the same stage and see if they do the same thing while unsprayed ones do not. Then you'll know for the future.
I have many doing this right now, we've had alternating hot and cold temps, with a LOT of rain. I've lost many blooms like this because it was in the 80's in May which sprung them all into action, now June is cold and rainy. Meteorologists are referring to it as Junuary.
A True gardener will purchase a thousand plants before thinking of where to put them :P
This is what occasionally happens to a lot of early-blooming purples in my climate too. Usually they straighten themselves out when the weather approaches 'tolerable'. I suspect it's more prevalent flowers having a thin 'veneer' of color, as opposed to a saturated color, and when purples are out-crossed to pastels in order to improve form, ruffles or fringe.
It seems to happen more when the colour is related to anthocyanin, which is water soluble. But to me there look to be raised spots on this plant, which is why I wondered if there was more to it than weather.
cybersix said: sooby, here's two of my blooms that looks similar. I opened a discussion just to ask if the problem it's only rain related]
There are various things that could cause it, I've seen it more often from cold but usually late or early in the season rather than mid-season but it's usually hot here when the majority of daylilies flower. Mayo's looked a bit different to me because there's more "bubbling" than I've noticed before and there's the spray which could be a factor. If there's no alternative possibility then whichever seems to fit the weather/irrigation pattern. If it's been cold on a previous night before opening but there was no rain or irrigation then you know it was more likely cold. If there was heavy rain but it was warm, then consider rain. Sometimes it might be pests if none of the above fit. There's no known single answer.
One thing you and Mayo need to be alert for with buds (and so do people in the NW of North America or who buy daylilies from there) is the Hemerocallis gall midge. That's a much more significant problem than the occasional blotchy distorted bloom.
yes, we've had warm a period followed with colder temps and a lot of rain now.
The distorted flowers I showed were from the seedling that I showed before:
this 1st flower was when it was warmer
Than it started to rain and the purple color started to run..
regarding the spraying: the outside of the buds are smooth, It's just the inside that looks like it has chickenpox...?
Name: Sabrina Italy, Brescia (Zone 8b) Love daylilies and making candles!
Thank you very much Sue. Here we got a warm spring until 20 may then cold and rains (it's raining really a lot and temperature especially at night dropped). So the plants were ready with lots of buds but they don't open well, rain gets into them and they are ruined. Today's been a warm day with no rains until 10 PM and I noticed some flowers tried to open in the afternoon! So, they are a bit open, rain hits them, cold too..
I checked for gall midge the past year and Italy was free. I should check again maybe.
no, you are right.
The blistering continues as the bud grows (?).
But if you look at the bud behind the opened flower, you can see that the (still green) outside of the growing bud is smooth
Because I am starting to worry about that too I have cut off one of the buds of the affected seedling and cut it open.
As you can see the 'blistering' has already started, but there is no sign of gall midge maggots
Well, I'm glad it isn't some bug or virus.
