Sprays don't help when disease is already present.

If they were my plants, I'd cut off the "rusty" stems and the burn or trash them.

have you actually had a diagnosis of rust ...

or just some rust colored gunk which you yourself have called rust ...

it probably is a rust.. but we.. mostly.. I ... dont react until i have a professional opinion as to the actual disease ...

one might ask.. if its a rust.. why not the whole plant.. your eaves really arent that magical.. to stop rust from infecting the whole plant ...

post a pic.. maybe we can insure your ID of the problem ...

ken

ps: i trust that jean.. when she SEES A RUST .. that it is actually a rust ... otherwise all i have is your personal biological assessment of the problem...

Ken,

Thanks for the quick response!!!

In answer to your question, no I have not had a profession diagnose my plants, that being said, here are some pics of the gunk I am calling rust that is killing my poor kerria.

Please note that the first and second photos are both from the same plant, affected area sticks out past the eaves, the unaffected area does not.

I have attached a pix of my "Magical Eaves" only to show how wide they are and how protected the back half of the plants are compared to the front. :)

Thank you for any help you can provide, and whoever jean is I do hope she says "not rust!" lol

BTW, I just want to be clear that I never ever water my plants from the top, only at the base. I had hoped these were leaf burn from rain then sun, but it has been dry several days now and its spreading.

This post was edited by imbaddakota on Sat, Jul 13, 13 at 16:16

healthy back part

Magic Eaves

Look underneath the affected leaves - if rust, the pustules will be obvious (correspond to the spots on the leaf surface).

With that in mind, I have never encountered rust on kerria. They do get several different kinds of fungal leaf spots, though. The photos look more like Septoria leaf spot than rust. And while disfiguring, it is NOT killing your kerria :-) Kerria is a very tough plant. Since it is too late to treat for this pathogen now (as is the case with most fungal diseases, you need to treat BEFORE you see symptoms), you can elect to ignore or cut the shrub back hard. If you ignore, you just need to clean up any fallen leaves thoroughly and destroy.