I used to order from the south. The 2 years I did I ended up with rust. It won't kill the plant but they do look bad. Even if they dunk their plants I would still spray for rust, if you decide to order from them. You would just have to worry about it the year you order them, as winter does kill it up North.

Most places south will only ship early spring or fall as it is too hot to ship in the summer. If you get a fall shipment you could possibly eliminate the rust problem but, would that give them enough time to get established in your garden before the cold sets in. I like to give mine a good 6 weeks to settle in.

Andrea

My question is, if you purchase from a southern seller who dunks the daylillies in fungicide before shipping, do you still need to be concerned with the plants bringing rust into your yard?

Most definitely! If you need to get them this spring, plant them away from your other daylilies, or pot them up. I would say it's near impossible to kill all the rust in a plant with only one application. If you look at your daylilies, look at them last. Don't carry rust from the newcomers to your existing plants. Ed

Andrea, Ed, thanks for the posts. I was thinking the same thing about fall planting perhaps not giving enough time for plants to establish. If you don't mind one more question, what would be considered the border states for rust on a average weather year?

Thanks,
Gale

Oh I'm not sure on that Gale. I would say nothing below zone 6. But maybe Ed can give you better advice since he is in Zone 7 not sure how bad the rust is in that zone or if they even get it in an average year.

Andrea

Zone 6 and north is pretty safe. Zone 7 if you take prudent steps to make sure rust is exposed to the cold.
Good luck, Ed

I'm in zone 7A and never had rust until last year when I ordered from a southern grower. I refuse to spray, so I pitched almost all of my bad rusters and kept only a few which I then kept isolated from the herd to see what our winter would do about killing the rust. We had a cold enough winter for the daylilies to go almost totally dormant (and kill the rust spores), but only time will tell if I was successful...... I think rust is spreading all across the US and in zone 7 I would say it depends on what their winter was like. If they had a mild winter they could carry rust over from the last year....... Personally I would like to have my daylilies from the questionable zones (7a-b) as early as possible in the spring. That way if they have had a good rust killing winter, the newly emerging foliage has a better chance of being rust free. The longer you wait the more chance that hidden rust spores may develop and spread throughout their fields......... Waiting until fall means that the plants you buy will probably have been exposed/infected with rust if the nursery had it, unless of course they are rust free cultivars (few and far between). If you buy early enough you can always pot them until your ground is workable. Put them in an unheated attached garage if really cold temperatures threaten and then take them out again when it warms up. Growing the first year in a container is also an easy way to isolate them while you see if rust develops......Maryl

A couple of points about daylily rust.

Rust spreads by spores carried to unaffected plants. The mother rust lives only in the green foliage, undetected until it produces spores to reproduce/spread. When the daylily foliage dies back in the winter, the rust must infect an alternate host (patrinia) or die. If you have only dormant plants, you don't have a problem, but if you have evergreen or semi-evergreen, there is the possibility that the foliage will stay green throughout the winter and provide a place for the rust to over-winter. It would be prudent, just before a good cold period, to clean up old dead foliage, pull the mulch back away from the semi and evergreens and cut the foliage down to the white. Spraying around the plants with a contact fungicide to kill any remaining spores will pretty much insure yourself that rust will not over-winter in your garden.

This works well in zone 7, but less successful in zones 8 up, especially for those that have many plants.
Ed

thanks everyone for the responses. I believe I will limit my self in the future with purchases from zone 6 or lower. I do have a order due from Blueridge, they advertise as rust free. I'm not sure on their zone, I would guess maybe a 6 or 7. Should I plant in pots until mid August?

Thanks,
Gale

Gale: I've ordered from BlueRidge a couple of years ago and never had a problem with rust and they were planted in the spring. I have another order coming this week from them. I got an email notifying me of my shipment and they included some photos showing their gardens which got hit with snow in late March and they've had frosts/freezes in late April.
I don't pot anything new coming in unless I've got too much and nothing has been moved out.
Whether to pot or not is a personal preference. Do what you think is best for your garden and what your most comfortable with.

Julia

Like Julia I have a couple of daylilies that just came in from Blueridge. I will be potting mine today, but that's mainly because I grow most of my daylilies in pots. I too got the picture from Bob showing his garden covered with snow, which made me hope that any rust spores were taken care of with his winter cold. I don't think he claims his garden is rust free though. I swear I saw on his site that he sprays for rust, so I would again make the point that you need to have him or any marginally zoned nursery ship as soon as you can possibly tolerate it to prevent any possible rust from spreading. If a nursery has the newer southern cultivars in their inventory, chances are good that they could have rust later in the growing season....Now that I've had rust I have been very careful to strip off and cut back the old foliage to the bare bones, along with dipping the plant in bleach water (thanks Ed for the measurements) before potting them up. Hopefully all these precautions will be enough for a rust free garden for me again this year.....Maryl

Julia-Maryl, Thank you for responding. Your right about not stating rust free garden but it does say rust free plants will be shipped in the buy it now auctions on the LA were I purchased the plants, so hopefully that is the case. I feel better hearing that you had no issues Julia, thanks.

Gale

Gale: I buy from BlueRidge on the BloomingAuction versus LilyAuction. I got my order today and all looks great and planted all of the ones I ordered. They sent a bunch of gift plants but I have no room here so I'm potting them and hopefully I can find someone to take these off my hands.

Julia

Here is a link that might be useful: BloomingAuction