You might be ok in Oklahoma. If it gets cold enough over the winter, it should kill the rust. The recent warm winter allowed rust to spread into areas where it normally does not appear.

As to whether you want to destroy the plant, that's up to you. If it was ever growing next to other plants, they may already be infected also.

Curiosity compels me to ask which cultivar it is. The better we know which plants are bad rusters, the more we can improve everyone's gardens.

Nate

Maryl, some cultivars are more susceptible to rust than others. PIRATE KING was the first one that came down with it here, and then those around it were affected. From there, it spread throughout the daylily beds. I would think that with the colder winters in Oklahoma, you won't have the severe problems that we are plagued with living down near the Gulf Coast.

We had rust so bad this year that almost every plant had at least some. I've had a professional spray weekly, alternating with with Nickel Plus, Mancozeb, Cabrio and Banner Maxx. It has diminished it, but with our water restrictions, we can only use our sprinkler system (or hose-end sprinklers) twice a week between 10 P.M. and 4 A.M. This leaves the daylilies wet at night, which creates a perfect environment for rust.

Since we were able to eliminate all visible signs of rust by spraying only with Nickel Plus when we lived in the country (with no such water restrictions, being on a well), I suspect the water restrictions are causing a big problem here.

Rust does not kill a plant, normally. It does weaken some of them, depending upon how bad it has invaded the plant. Most of them have it in the outer leaves only.

Several years back, the first rust I saw in our garden came from a bonus plant from Maryott's. I understand from another member of our forum that he sprays weekly for it.

Usually in the hot summer, rust goes into hiding and I don't see it again until fall, when the nights are cool and the days are warm. The daylilies have a lot of heavy dew on them in the mornings, which brings out the rust once again.

Rust spores travel through the air. I can attest to that, as the little round bed of Lambertson seedlings I have in the front of the house (pictured earlier) were separated from the big daylily bed in the back of the property by a high board fence - a couple of hundred feet away. They had no signs of rust until it got bad at the back. They were far removed from the others, but in a direct line wind-wise. They, too, eventually were affected by it, but not badly.

We are going to try one more thing this week. I have used Soil Mender's Plant Wash in the past with what appeared to be very good results. I haven't used it here in our new location, but we are going to give it a try. As I recall, it is not a fungicide and non-toxic. Someone here at the forum recommended it a few years ago, but were promptly shot down as being effective. I was impressed with it, and will see what it does here.

Recently a vendor in Florida recommended Azomite. I looked into it, and contacted a supplier in this area, but never heard back from them. She said a daylily from Florida uses it with good results. I'm not sure how to use it, as it is a ground-up rock from Utah with many trace elements in it.

Jean lives in northwest Arkansas and I don't think she has any problem with rust. So I think your climate will be such that you are...

I live in Utah, and this is the first year that SOUTH SEAS has come down with rust. I've cut off all affected leaves.

South Seas is planted next to Plum Perfect, Elegant Candy and Black-eyed Stella - and these are all OK right now.

I've NEVER had rust before, but this winter was freakishly warm in the West Desert. Some of my daylilies have yellowing foliage, but appear normal otherwise - odd.
Candy

About the yellowing foliage, are the plants trying to go into summer dormancy? It's a bit early for that, but if your area has been hot and dry, that might be the problem.

I'm on Central Florida's barrier island, and we have heavy dew every morning. Our afternoon temps have been in the very low 80's and evenings in the low 70's. Rust has been here something awful!!! Spraying has helped, but the foliage looks lousy and the plants look like it's August because we've had so little rain. Just 4" so far this year, when we should have had 12-14 inches. Depressing.

Thank you all for your experience and advice. I hadn't heard that Banner Maxx was effective for rust on daylilies before. Really?...We had a mild winter, but the daylilies, including this one, DID go dormant. That's why it's such a surprise now. So it just may be that this one rusts regardless of winter dormancy? The other varieties that came from Maryotts btw have so far shown no signs of rust, just this one. The weather conditions this May are about like yours Beachlily....Geezel Peazel I hope it hasn't spread before I pulled it....Here's a picture of it. It's blooming now and lovely. It was going to definitely be a keeper. Not now....
Texas Heat Wave {{gwi:747621}}

About Banner Maxx: our pest control man who does the spraying for us said it is now off the market. We just happened to have an unopened bottle that I never used. We were trying everything we could think of to diminish the rust. I've never seen it this bad before.

Our temperatures are steadily climbing, and it should put an end to the rust, at least until fall.

Nancy

I'm not saying your pest control man is wrong, but as far as I've heard Banner Maxx is still available. I use it for my roses. There's also a generic that's available called Honor Guard. Below is a link to the mail order source that many many Rosarians use for their chemical supplies. Rosmania concentrates on roses, but may carry something that would work on daylily rust too. Thanks for all your advice. This has been such an experience for me. Now I need to find out if there's another daylily out there that's NOT rust susceptible but is the color of Texas Heat Wave......Maryl

Here is a link that might be useful: Rosmania

Maryl, I did a quick on-line check and you are right. Banner Maxx is available.

Nancy