I never realized what a problem rust can be until I got a number of rust-infested plants this year on an auction. By fall, the rust had spread to lots of healthy plants. Fortunately, it will be killed this winter, but I can better empathize now what it must be like to live with rust all the time.

I remove the most rusty daylilies in my garden every year. Ironically, some of my favorite daylilies are also the most prone to rust. It seems like if a daylily increases rapidly, the rust is worse...or at least more noticeable. This year I threw out the following -

AUGUST FROST (excellent plant, but...)
DESTINED TO SEE (removed for the second time - purchased the first time and bonus the next)
ENDOWED WITH BEAUTY (never performed well here)
COLLEGE COLORS (never performed well here)
SUN TEMPLE SPIRIT (quick to multiply, but...)
SCATTERBRAIN (hated to get rid of this one - it was a large clump, but I've been warning it for years)

So far, we've had a very mild winter here. Nothing has frozen down to the ground, yet. Not good news for the daylilies. But, all my tropical plants are loving it. The hibiscus are almost as tall as my roof and if this keeps up, I'll have bananas this year. Gotta look at the bright side, right?

Kathy

Thank you Kathy for your list. It's appreciated. I was hoping for a larger response from the members here. At least in naming their worst offenders if nothing more. Oh Well......Maryl

Hi Maryl,

Just wanted you to know that I did read your post but haven't had any issues yet as I've just started collecting. But wanted you to know that I did read your post. I hope you have a rust free year!

Rena'

Scratch SUN TEMPLE SPIRIT off of my list. I am cutting back all the foliage on my daylilies today and discovered this one is still here. Maybe it hid under the bushes when I was shovel pruning...hmm. Anyway it got a pass for the time being. We'll see how rusty it is this year.
Kathy

I was thinking about responding, but I'm still learning a lot about just how bad they get if not treated. I haven't treated anything since last summer, and almost everything is showing rust. There are a few isolated sections of plants that it hasn't spread to yet.

Of the plants that I know *should* be rusty based on the ones around them, FIRE AGATE is still my best. It has spots on the outer leaves but no visible spores, and it is in touching distance with seedlings that have been rusty all year.

As for which plants are worst, the weather has been back and forth between mild (rust spreading), chilly (leaves wilting and rust not spreading), and mild again (clean leaves growing), so it's hard to get a real read on it. I will keep watching and update when I know more.

Nate

I didn't post Maryl because I don't have the issue here. However, one never knows so I'll knock on wood that it hasn't happened here.....yet.

Interesting thread and hopefully the problem corrects itself for you and the others.

Julia

I can echo Nate's post, because the weather is so variable right now, it is hard to get an idea of what the rust may or may not be doing. Today we had ice, but it will probably be gone tomorrow and in a few days we will have sunshine and temps in the 50's--very frustrating. I could easily list 50 or more rusters since it just about got everything we grow this past season, but I will name some that are probably familiar names.

Chance Encounter
Destined To See
Persian Market
Beautiful Edgings
Frilly Bliss
Princeton Silky
Dublin Elaine
Welcome Mat
Imperial Lemon
Turkish Turban
Always Afternoon
Moon Over Monterey
Jean Swann
Over The Top
Wild Horses
Enchanting Esmerelda
Midnight Magic
Malaysian Marketplace

This is just a sampling, so my husband and I have our work cut out for us this spring when we begin to start cutting everything down and spraying and hoping to at least minimize this stuff. Avedon

What do you all spray with? Someone told me that Cabrio [I think this is the correct name] is really the only thing that will get rid of it. Its expensive, about $70, but I would buy some just to keep it at bay.

I dont have any of the above lilies except Beautiful Edgings and my huge clump bloomed all season and had no rust. One of my best lilies.

Cabrio does work. If you have a home garden, the $70 container of Cabrio is probably more than a lifetime supply. The most economical thing to do is to get a smaller amount from your local daylily club or buy that container with some other people and split it.

Nate

Where do you get the $70 container of Cabrio? Every source I have looked at lists it over $200, but we would pay that if necessary. We can toss all the freebies, proliferations, and the few DLS we bought that aren't all that great, but that leaves many more that we want to save. Here are more that rusted, but as I repeat, nearly everything we have fell victim to rust, it was like wildfire ran through the daylilies.

Strawberry Candy
Custard Candy
Hot Embers
South Seas
Forsyth Flaming Snow
Sm. World Snow Owl
Joan Senior
Sunday Gloves
Leebea Orange Crush
Miss Amelia
Miss Tinkerbell
Orange Velvet
Buttered Popcorn
Starstruck
Princeton Point Lace
Northfield
Hudson Valley
Lexington

Siloam Double Classic: the jury is out on this one, because I didn't see anything until the very end of the growing season, and I believe I saw a little bit on them.

If I think of any more that are named, I will list them, but I have already tossed a bunch of the NOIDs that were passalong plants. Avedon

A hybridizer told me that in his experience every daylily gets rust. I took that with a grain of salt since to say some don't get rust would mean that he might have to stop selling his rusty ones. Your list is pretty comprehensive Avedon, and also some of them you have listed are on the Daylily Rust Survey I have and are also listed as rusters. Thank you for contributing....I think there are rust free daylilies or daylilies that get only a minimal amount of rust, and if we can keep the worst offenders out of our garden, we will have a better chance of at least controlling the situation. Again, I hope if others have some they wish to add to the worst of the worst list, they will take the time to do so. I and others will be watching this thread when we order in the future......Maryl

I checked all of mine after you posted that you have rust,and I didnt find any rust on any of mine,at least not yet.Hopefully,I wont.But Kansas KItten you have rust on,I have that daylily, too, but found no rust on it.Sure hope you can get rid of the rust.

Jean

You know it's funny about Kansas Kitten. It was sitting smack dab in amongst the rusters for months and never showed one spot. I had about convinced myself that it had escaped the plague and would be on my rust free list. Another dayliliy friend of mine warned me however to wait until the weather changed in fall to see what "popped" up. Sure enough about the 3rd week in September, after months of staying clean, it cooled down to the high 80's and the rust went nuts on the thing. Now mind you Shores of Time for example was rusting like crazy in 105+ degree heat all summer, all the while KK just sat there like a good girl. By mid September I thought I'd thrown out all the rusters, and I had only clean ones left at that point. I was miffed to say the least when KK exploded. I didn't want a new round of rust to start up on my now clean ones, so I threw out KK. It was a nice daylily, not great, but nice. Certainly nothing to risk exposing my others to spores again. I've learned quite a bit this year about rust. And thanks Jean, I hope not to have to learn more about it in this upcoming season......Maryl

I agree with all the "rust status" listed for plants above with a couple of exceptions. I have grown JOAN SENIOR in numerous locations for over 10 years, and never seen any rust on it. Do you think maybe I have a mis-identified JS, or maybe it has been tissue cultured and some variations have lost their resistance? I also have had SHERRY LANE CARR for some time and it gets pretty rusty, but it is such a heavy blooming, well formed flower, that I have kept it around. Just not close to other rusty plants. I do like MISTER LUCKY, but it will rust when pressure gets very high, as will SILOAM DOUBLE CLASSIC. But I think both are above average and would recommend them. I tend to look at any new potential acquisition's back ground. If they have notably rusty parents in the last couple of generations, I tend to stay away from them unless they really have some unique trait I can't do without! Some very rusty ones would include: tet SILOAM RALPH HENRY and BELLA SERA.
I have thrown away last season, because of rust susceptibility: BLACK STOCKINGS, PATSY CARPENTER, LAKE EFFECT and DARLA ANITA. I kept BELLE COOK, even though it is quite rusty. Probably more, but this is off the top! ;0)
Ed

I have Joan Senior in ground (as opposed to my normal pots) and it made me very nervous when the rust popped up as I too had read it will rust. But mine never did (thank goodness). When Shores of Time began to rust I took it away from my other pots of daylilies and stood it on a table we have in the middle of the yard trying to keep it out of direct contact with my other daylilies. But there really is no protection because of our wind. Ageless Beauty was downwind of SOT and yards away, but spotted up like a leopard (other pots beside it of other daylilies did not). Joan Senior was upwind and yards away and got nothing. With the wind variances I would think the chances of a stray wind NOT blowing spores towards Joan Senior for the months that Shores of Time remained on that table were minimal. I think Joan Senior may be more resistant then others, or like Kansas Kitten requires just the right conditions in order to succumb......I've heard that there is some thought about different races of rust, but I'm not buying that just yet without more research. I've grown roses for years and there are at least 5 acknowledged races of blackspot (now they are thinking even more exist), but this is after years and years of evolution and chemical attacks by humans. They say daylily rust first showed up in the United States in 2000. I would bet that it actually showed up a few years before that but it just wasn't bad enough to cause a major investigation from the Ag department. The point is that it is relatively new to the US and may not have had the need nor the time to develop new races. But until the scientific community does extensive research on rust, as they have been doing for many many years with diseases of roses, we are just guessing about why some daylilies rust, and when and how they do....Like you I kept Mister Lucky and Sherry Lane Carr. They are very good daylilies and didn't exhibit unmanagable rust (stripping the few leaves with rust on them when it occured seemed to contain it just fine). Perhaps minimal spraying would stop any from popping up altogether, but personally, I'm not going to spray my daylilies....Thanks Ed for contributing. If you think of any others to add to the list, please do so...........Maryl

Thanks Maryl for bringing up this topic. I've added all the new info to my list of rusty daylilies to avoid. I've been keeping this list since 2008. I refer to it often. Since I have my list open, I can now add other rusty daylilies that I've thrown away in years past:

ABSOLUTE TREASURE
ALAKAZAM
CHANCE ENCOUNTER
CHERRYSTONE
DAVID KIRCHHOFF
DESTINED TO SEE
DIXIELAND MEMORIES
MAGIC CARPET RIDE
PEARLFISHER PINK
PRETTY GAUDY
SHIMMERING ELEGANCE
SPACECOAST SURPRISE PURPLE
SPACECOAST STARBURST
STORM OF THE CENTURY
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
VOLUSIAN SPIDER
WISPY RAYS
FRANK SMITH
NIGHT EMBERS
CLUSTER MUSTER
FANCIFUL CANDY
CHEROHALA
SEA SWEPT DREAMS
AWESOME BLOSSOM
MAKE BELIEVE MAGIC
GRAHAM MEMORIAL
CANADIAN BORDER PATROL

Like Ed, if I see one of these rusty daylilies in the parentage of a daylily, I won't buy it. I would guess that about 1/4 of these daylilies I've thrown away have been bonus plants...which is why I'd much rather have extra fans of what I order than a surprise.
Kathy

Thanks for the reminder about rust. I am getting a few new ones from the south and now I will keep them separate from my garden for a year. It must be very discouraging, even worse than the mice that try and live under my daylily clumps.

I've had pretty good luck with rust. I cut the offending daylily to the ground and see what happens. If it comes back and prospers, it stays. If it rusts again the following year, it goes. So far, I've only had to dump one, DELTA BLUES. On the following list are those that showed rust one year but have been rust-free in subsequent years.

MOONLIT MASQUERADE
AUTUMN WOOD
CLAUDINE'S CHARM*
PARDON ME
ELIZABETH SALTER*
MEDIEVAL GUILD
ISLESWORTH
SEA URCHIN
LULU'S KNOBBY

The starred cultivars are those I think were initially infected and passed the rust on to their neighbors. INDIAN GIVER gets honorable mention -- it was in the middle of a bad outbreak in 2007 and never got so much as a spot then or since.

Kathy: I'm so glad you were able to add some more to the list. Being in Florida you have an extra long growing season for things to develop. As with all lists, there may be some differences in experiences as with JOAN SENIOR from the above discussion. You named CLUSTER MUSTER in your rust list, while mine (in direct fire so to speak from all the rusters around it) was completely RUST FREE the whole season. Not one spot. I would say if someone reads two totally conflicting reports take it into consideration, but don't let 2 with such opposite results stop you from buying what you like. Heck, If I wanted Cluster Muster (and it's a very nice prolific blooming double)I'd get it and pot it up for the first season so that if symptoms DO occur you can whisk it out of the way.......Thanks too Random Harvest for not only your list but your explanation of it. I'm familiar with the DFW area, and it is possible that you could be getting enough cold winters to kill off rust spores. Zone 6-8a information is particulaly interesting to me....Anyone else care to contribute your worst rust bucket daylilies? Ordering season is upon us.........Maryl

Except for Ming Toy and a couple of NOID's, I've only had daylilies a couple of years. The only rust I've seen so far was on Primal Screem last year and it was purchased from a Southern grower in the fall of 2011.
Enchanting Esmerelda and Malaysian Marketplace is high on my want list. I'll have to rethink those two. Any other rust reports on them??

MALAYSIAN MARKETPLACE is definitely not trying very hard to keep from rusting (is that a nice way to put it?). The flower is very nice though. But like I said, it seems almost everything will rust here if I allow it.

Nate

I am going to add more to the "Ruster" List:

Voila Francois
Mystical Rainbow
Susan Weber
Prester John
Green Mystique
Twirling Parasol
Christening Spirit
Royal Heritage
Tender Love
Smoky Mountain Autumn
Blue Ribbon Roundup
The NOID I think is Jolyene Nicole
The three Westbournes that were brand new in our garden this past year:
Mom's Cinnamon Rolls, Living High On A Hog, and Good Old Days
Winsome Lady
Hyperion, BUT we have 2 in the Main Garden that were affected, but a few others in a different area that were not.
So Lovely--we have two rows of these and some showed a little bit and others seemed to be okay.

I may have a few more, and if I remember them, will post those names. Avedon

I live in Florida and am fighting rust. My Taken by Storm gets it very badly. It is a tall daylily with beautiful large flowers. Should I get rid of them? I had Viola Francois on my list to get and maybe Joan Senior. I read them above so Viola is out. What about Joan Senior. I read the information above and am not sure. If I threw away all my daylilies that have gotten rust, I don't think I'd have any. I am using a systemic fungicide I think it's called. I do not have a daylily club nearby and a "lifetime supply" well, I dont trust the container to last a lifetime. I am wondering if I should give up on daylilies, even though. I love them. it seems to spread to all of them. Some worse than others. My taken by storm I guess looks the worst when it gets it. The plant doesn't seem to get sick. It looks hearty, gets lots of blooms, etc. but the leaves look disgusting in the summer. I never even thought of getting rid of it til I read this thread. Long ago I had a daylily I adored, Colonel Scarborough. I guess they were SEV because they died back, and never came back one year. I couldn't get them anymore. My local nursery searched for them and they found out no one grew them anymore because of rust. I never saw any rust on them. I grew them maybe in the 1990s. I'm not sure how long I had them. How do I know if a daylily will not get rust? I'd hate to get rid of all my daylilies. How long should I continue spraying for rust? I mean all year? It seldom freezes here.

The rust question is a tough one that every daylily grower in the south has to decide for himself or herself.

In general, if you are using an effective treatment, you may only have to spray a few times in the spring (Feb - April) and then one or more times in the fall (whenever the weather first cools) to keep rust from showing. For so few treatments to work, you have to catch them before they start to show rust. And there are other factors that make a difference, like planting daylilies further apart so rust doesn't spread as easily.

Alternatively, you can just live with some rust, or you can chuck your daylilies.

Most daylilies will get rust if untreated. Some are obviously worse than others, but you may find it very frustrating figuring out which ones you can't stand and which ones you can. As you can see, in any list about rust resistance, there are some plants that people can't agree on. Some of the plants that have been best for me rust for other people, and some of the ones that other people say are good have rusted easily in my garden. To some extent you have to be willing to experiment a little.

Maybe this isn't very helpful in the way you hoped, but I hope it is helpful in the way you need. :)

Nate

Mary, did all your daylillies get rust? I am considering a couple in your bottom list. I am trying to determine if these were the best against rust, or if there were some in your garden that did not get rust at all. Thanks so much. I am pulling my hair out about rust, as every DL in my garden got it to one extent or another this year, even in beds not near the main offenders.

I was going to get Destined to See but I see a couple of you have it on the rust list. I spent some time last night looking for it online. So disappointed. Nate, you mentioned spraying when it gets cooler in the fall. How cool? Here we don't get much of a fall. I started spraying, sprayed 2 weeks ago tomorrow. It's still high eighties to low nineties, (same as it's been since late May) but we're going to start getting some days in the low eighties and at night it's going to drop to low seventies later this week. Should I spray again this week or wait ? I don't have that Cabrio stuff. Am using something that says systemic fungicide I believe, and has daylily rust listed. Would it be better to cut off the leaves?

I should add my worst ruster here, which I am considering getting rid of after reading this: TAKEN BY STORM. I love the flowers, but the leaves looked disgusting this year, though the plants produced lots of gorgeous blooms. But i could barely stand to look at leaves and cut many of them off. It is a large, tall daylily plant with gorgeous reddish purple flowers. I don't know what to do about TBS.

When your days are in the 90s, you probably won't see any new rust development. It really loves the middle temperatures in the 60s and 70s, especially with high moisture. My advice above was specifically for our Gulf Coast climate -- the dates are wrong for other areas. But generally, once it gets to be hot every day (about May) you don't have to worry about new rust until the cool returns (maybe late September or October).

Nate

Hi Nate, I am far from a rust expert, but I had rust on my plants all summer. Late September (starting later this week) brings us SOME days with lows in the 70s, but not highs in the 70s. I am so confused now. I have no idea whether to spray again this week or not. If you are talking about highs in the 60s and 70s, that's winter here. We might have some days like that in November, probalby not before to have sustained 70s. In October there might be a few days, but they'll be mixed in with high and middle 80s. 60s during the day usually not til December and even then there are days that are high seventies and into the 80s. I'd like to get new daylilies and if possible plant them and get them established before it might freeze. It could freeze anytime between December and mid march, but i have not had a freeze here in several years. (But others in my town have.) I'm not sure of the difference between new rust and old rust, but I want to get rid of the rust here before I bring in new plants. Otherwise I would not know where to put my new plants. I don't really know new rust from old rust from dead rust from live rust, I must admit my ignorance. I jsut hate it. I have a new bed that I'd like to get started. I had dug out a hug mass of creeping juniper. There are 2 daylilies currently in the bed. They did not rust badly, but got some. I don't see any now. but the other bed which is not super close by had a lot of rust in it.Someone mentioned overhead water. I have a sprinkler system which gives overhead water. I also water with the hose though as needed. Help!

Missylyn: I can hear the panic in your voice and boy, can I identify with it. Rust is no laughing matter on daylilies. In Florida I would think that you would have to spray almost full time in order to keep it at bay. Fortunately for me, we had a cold enough winter that all my rust from last year is gone I think (so far anyway - the season isn't quite over yet). The few daylilies that I kept over winter that had exhibited light rust have no new rust this year, and any new daylilies I took in this year were thoroughly cleaned in bleach water, old foliage cut back or off even further then what arrived, and then they were isolated from the rest of the herd. So far so good.....Yes, overhead watering spreads rust. The only way I managed to control the light rusters was to put them under my porch so that even the dew could not settle on the foliage. I then stripped off all foliage showing spots and prayed for our normal cold winter temperatures to do the rest (temps in the teens I had heard may be necessary to kill the rust). The cold winter solution will do you no good unfortunately. I guess you will have to decide if you want to commit to spraying your daylillies. There is a ray of hope though. I bought a new daylily from a private nursery this spring that has been hybridized by a well known Florida breeder to be very rust resistant. It's called Key Largo Moon. I think there is a series of these daylilies that are out. You may want to look into them (that would be an interesting experiement since you have established rust in your garden). You also may want to contact the hybridizer through his website and see if he offers any more of his daylilies that he considers very rust resistant.....Link below is about Key Largo Moon. It bloomed for months for me and it's a keeper here....Mayl

Here is a link that might be useful: Key Largo Moon by Ted Petit

I probably shouldn't speak for your climate, because maybe it isn't quite the same as mine, but my point was that at least in my climate there is a time of year (summer) when the temperature is in the 90s or higher during the hottest part of the day and it barely gets below the 80s most nights. During that time, rust is mostly dormant. If your plants had a lot of rust in the spring, they will look bad in the summer because the leaves will die back uglier in the heat than they would if they didn't have rust.

Then there is a time of year (spring/fall) when the temperatures range through the 60s and 70s most of the time, even though the high temperature might be higher. This is when rust loves to grow and spread.

And there is a time of year (winter) when the temperatures are below 60 overnight and sometimes during the day. Again, rust will slow down, and your more dormant daylily foliage will die back. But you're right -- around here the winter is a mix of this and more moderate days.

If you prevent rust during the spring and fall weather, new rust will not appear during the summer and winter weather. If you have rust during the spring and fall weather, it should mostly slow down during the summer and winter weather, although it may spread when the temperatures are unseasonably moderate.

I'm going back over my notes, and this year I allowed rust to spread unchecked until mid-March in order to evaluate plants for hybridizing. Then I used Cabrio + chlorothalonil on the "public" plants in the front yard March 19, March 26, and April 11. I might have sprayed once in May and forgotten to record it. Over the summer, all the new foliage looked good and the old rusty foliage died back. Then this morning I sprayed again for the first time since spring because we had a cold front that brought daytime temperatures into the 70s with highs maybe hitting the 80s the last couple days.

I have rust in my garden, and I control it as well as I feel I need to so that the front yard looks ok to me. To do this doesn't take a lot of work. And I allow it to spread naturally in my seedlings so that I can evaluate them for rust resistance.

Nate

We had rust last summer, but for some reason, have seen very little of it this year - I have no idea why, but wouldn't be surprised to learn that it had something to do with the weather.

I am planning to spray with Cabrio next February, provided I can find a source.

Hi Maryl, Thank you so very, very much for your empathy and adivse. How do you put bleach on a plant without killing it? My daylilies are in the ground. I know many people have them in pots, but my landscaping scheme includes daylilies in my flower beds. If I can't do that, then I have to concentrate on figuring out what to use instead. :( Everyone told me daylilies were so easy. I can't even pray for a cold winter because that hurts our Florida economy, raises the prices of our food, and I hate covering the non-cold hearty stuff (and i have some baby hibiscus). I looked at that website. It seems to be aimed at the commercial trade, talking about how these compact dayliles fit well on the shelves, etc.I noticed that some of the description may apply to all daylilies, not sure exactly what they mean by "self cleaning flowers." I mean the daylily flowers do fall off easily. It does not say if they are evergreen or dormant. It's not clear to me. And they are not sold in Florida. ?? I wrote the company and asked for more info.I asked if it was dormant, SEV or EV and what rust resistant means, etc. Thanks so much!

I probably shouldn't speak for your climate, because maybe it isn't quite the same as mine, but my point was that at least in my climate there is a time of year (summer) when the temperature is in the 90s or higher during the hottest part of the day and it barely gets below the 80s most nights. During that time, rust is mostly dormant. If your plants had a lot of rust in the spring, they will look bad in the summer because the leaves will die back uglier in the heat than they would if they didn't have rust.

Then there is a time of year (spring/fall) when the temperatures range through the 60s and 70s most of the time, even though the high temperature might be higher. This is when rust loves to grow and spread.

And there is a time of year (winter) when the temperatures are below 60 overnight and sometimes during the day. Again, rust will slow down, and your more dormant daylily foliage will die back. But you're right -- around here the winter is a mix of this and more moderate days.

If you prevent rust during the spring and fall weather, new rust will not appear during the summer and winter weather. If you have rust during the spring and fall weather, it should mostly slow down during the summer and winter weather, although it may spread when the temperatures are unseasonably moderate.

I'm going back over my notes, and this year I allowed rust to spread unchecked until mid-March in order to evaluate plants for hybridizing. Then I used Cabrio + chlorothalonil on the "public" plants in the front yard March 19, March 26, and April 11. I might have sprayed once in May and forgotten to record it. Over the summer, all the new foliage looked good and the old rusty foliage died back. Then this morning I sprayed again for the first time since spring because we had a cold front that brought daytime temperatures into the 70s with highs maybe hitting the 80s the last couple days.

I have rust in my garden, and I control it as well as I feel I need to so that the front yard looks ok to me. To do this doesn't take a lot of work. And I allow it to spread naturally in my seedlings so that I can evaluate them for rust resistance.

Nate

Nate, sounds like our climates are similar but our spring is not as cool as yours . Very few days are 60s and low seventies but mid to high seventies we have and lows in the 60s. Should I spray now or wait til it gets a little cooler? I'm just afraid to let plants into my yard. I'm not sure how to get Cabrio and I don't know how much I'd need. It's so expensive. I have heard that the daylilies sold at the local nurseries are not ones that get it. ?? Should I not spray since it's in the 80s to low nineties? Is the systemic fungicide (I think its Fertilome) not good enough? I have not seen CAbrio anywhere. Thanks so much.

The Bleach solution is for any new daylilies that you bring into the garden (bare root). You briefly dip the new daylily in a reduced bleach solution before planting them.....Nat's climate is closer to yours then mine, so his spray advice is very good. If you don't have to spray every week or two, if you get some sort of break due to the weather, you may want to consider it.......As for the rust resistant daylilies by Ted Petit, I just happened to see them at a local nursery in bloom. Key Largo Moon in particular had a pretty color on a full petaled daylily, which is what I like. It is available (and perhaps the rest of the series, you'll have to look that up) through Sooner Nursery - a mail order supplier that has an excellent reputation. It is located in Oklahoma which may be why this nursery had some. I've provided a link to it. Key Largo Moon is listed as a Sev. It is basically for landscaping, not exhibition. Some daylilies have their old blooms cling to their scapes dripping goo and looking generally pretty icky until you pick them off manually. Others fall off cleanly without the need to constantly deadhead them. For larger landscaping purposes the clean falling dead flowers are preferable.....Ted Petit has his own website for selling other daylilies he has hybridized, some of which probably are not rust resistant. Google him to find his nursery..........Maryl

Here is a link that might be useful: Sooner Plant Farm

Whether the fungicide is good enough depends on its active ingredient. Some work and some don't. And even if the label says it is good for some rust fungus types, that doesn't necessarily include daylily rust (I've never seen a product that specifically mentioned daylily rust since the problem is relatively new and there aren't enough daylily growers to base an industry around).

I got a small jar of Cabrio almost 3 years ago from my local club, and I haven't used it up yet. It is very inexpensive if you can get it that way.

You can spray now and it won't hurt anything. The only reason I waited for the cold front was to minimize the number of times I have to spray.

Nate

I'm very happy to say that since moving to Oklahoma and going through winter and one ice storm, I have not seen any rust this season on about 400 plants. I did eliminate all my "rust buckets" for the most part, and I feel if you are faced with rust in your garden, as Nate recommends, space your plants out where you have good air circulation around them. Water early in the morning to allow them to dry before evening. Isolate any plants that get rust, cut them back and spray thoroughly, often. It won't take long to identify those plants that just get rust so bad, you can't help them. Those go to the compost pile!
It's also true, as Nate says, that all systemic fungicides are not effective against daylily rust. The most effective tend to be those developed for food crops and most have not been evaluated for use on daylilies.
There is lots of good information about rust and its treatment on the AHS site. Link below.
I checked the fungicides available at Amazon and the most reasonable in price/quantity I would recommend are Armada and Cleary's 3336. They are both systemic and have proven effective against daylily rust. I did see Cabrio available for $229.95 for 5 lbs. If you're in a rust area and could get your club to invest in it, it would be a great buy. I think we paid $275.00 for 5 lbs. years ago.
Good luck all, Ed

Here is a link that might be useful: AHS

Dear Nate and Ed,
There is no daylily club really near me. The bottle of Fertilome Systemic Fungicide does say Daylily rust. I just googled it and the nearest daylily club is in Orlando, a good hour and a half from me. I just went to their website and emailed them, as well as the club president. I know there is no club in my county. The other ones in Florida are even farther away. (I am in region 12, but that's all of Florida). I will be happy to join the club .It would be wonderful if they buy the product the way your clubs do and would share it with me. :)
Ed, I'm glad you are away from daylily rust now. But I think I'd rather face rust than the ice storm. But I hope you are enjoying O.K. I don't really have big enough flower beds to really space my plants far apart. But I try to alternate daylilies with other things, so maybe they are father apart than I think. I am starting a new bed where I had a big clump of junipers removed., and will try to be sure to have them farther apart there. Meanwhile I'm copying all the rust buckets listed here, and will not purchase them. But my main rust bucket isn't even listed (Taken by Storm.), so I assume others are not either.
. Should I cut off all the foliage on all my daylilies and then spray? How far should I cut the foliage? I guess you have to have some foliage or the spray will not go on the leaves? I think every daylily had some rust, but I don't see it now on everything. My sprinkler system starts about 5 am and my main daylily is my last zone, which is done by 1o or 11 am. So except for days when we have no sun (a rarity in Florida- but today is a day like that) everything dries out well before noon. Now on a day like today they don't dry because it rained. Thank you so much for your suggestions. I do notice that the rust buckets are still being sold. I hope the club buys it because as a newcomer who no one has met, I don't see how I could get them to buy the stuff. Especially since being so far away, I don't think I could attend many meetings. Thank you again for your suggestions which I really appreciate. Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Maryl, Thank so much for the information. I will write and find out more about those daylilies. I prefer Evergreens as I never know what to do when soemthing dies back, or if I have killed it. But I will find out more. Also, I don't like to spend too much on one plant. Thank you for giving me this information.I don't exhibit, but I do like really pretty daylilies. Those were not as pretty as some of my yellows, but if the price is right and it's bother free, I could mix it in. I also like the other yellow one. My name things biodegrades, so I don't remember the name of my yellows. One is Emerald something, it's gorgeous. Only one color but just luscious in shape. I also have Betty Warren Woods, but for some reason it dies back. And I can't remember the name of my other yellow but I love it. I didn't like any of the otehr colors of the daylilies at that site. But the two yellows might be interesting to mix in with mine. Thank you so much for your suggestions and help. I truly appreciate it. Lin

Hi Lin,
I'm sorry, but the Fertilome Systemic Fungicide does not work well, if at all, to prevent or eradicate daylily rust. There are many daylily hybridizers in Florida. If you are close to one, I'm pretty sure they would sell you a small amount of fungicide.
The rust lives in green tissue, so to fully treat a plant, I would pot it up and cut it back to white tissue. Then spray the emerging green tissue every 3 days. It should grow out clean.
If you just want to clean up clumps that show some rust, try to cut off that foliage that shows spores, the orange pustules. They come from mature rust in the foliage. This should set the rust back and prevent spread.
It sounds like your watering system is as good as possible. Try to space your clumps on 3 foot centers or more. This will prevent easy spread of rust. Also try not to spread rust yourself, by transferring spores from one plant to another. Use good garden hygiene.
You might have EMERALD SPLENDOR. It is gorgeous, and seems to be pretty rust resistant. One of its parents, IOWA MEMORIES is a pastel yellow and very rust resistant. More favorite yellows are FRED HAM, RUFFLED DUDE and OLYMPIC SHOWCASE (more gold), but all very rust resistant. You should not have to pay a premium for rust resistance. One of my most favorite daylilies is LITTLE ORANGE TEX, and it will not get rust, guaranteed.
Hope this helps, Ed

thanks Ed. I am not into gold or orange for the most part. Yes, it's Emerald Splendor. That's it! The Kinnebrews are not far from where my mom lives, but I do not know them (and can't afford to buy daylilies from them). I have not seen Iowa memories sold around here. I will check into the ones you mentioned. I wish I could remember the name of the other one I bought from Gene wynn at the same time, but it's beautiful too. I just got an answer back from the Orlando club president. She invited me to their next meeting which is when I'll be out of state. She does not know anyone who belongs to the club who uses Cabrio. I asked her what they use and if she thought someone would let me buy some. She didn't mention what they use of if they share it. I don't have enough pots to pot them all up, but what if I cut them all back (clean the scissors with what- bleach? in between) and spray them and the ground around them really good. How do you know you're not hurting the plant when you cut off the leaves? What should I wash my hands with in between pulling leaves in the garden? How do I tell dead rust from live rust? Thank you so very much.

I only dig up and pot the really troublesome plants for treatment, so I can isolate them.
I would pick the coldest time of your season (I used to do it in January in Houston) and cut everything back to the ground. You don't have to worry about hygiene at this time. Worry about that when you're cutting back rusty foliage or dead heading.
Any remaining green foliage will then die shortly, but you need to start spraying to kill any rust spores around to prevent the new foliage from being infected. Continue spraying on a regular basis until your bloom season is over.
Most daylilies will replace their foliage each spring, but cutting the foliage off will set the plant back to some extent. The question is, will contracting rust set the plant back more? Cutting the foliage back will also eliminate some pests, and as I said, the plant is going to discard foliage as well. The difference is that the plants will not be able to recover nutrients from the foliage that is cut off, as it would in the normal discard process. I always felt it was beneficial. Lots of people cut back, even before rust appeared.
I arranged my plants in such a fashion to go from no rust to the most rust, so I didn't carry rust into the plants that were not infected. I recommend Lysol disinfectant spray to kill germs on shears between plants. Change shirts and wash your hands after cutting rusty foliage. Active rust will produce orangy gold spores, usually on the undersides of the foliage. If you kill those spores, they will turn blackish brown. A spray of ultra fine oil or 5% Dawn diswashing liquid will kill spores. I always tried to keep something handy.
Hope this helps, Ed