Asarum, I'd never heard of this before, but having read about it now, I wonder if you've found any fungicides that work on this, or if you just plan to keep your daylilies drier, or ... what else you plan to do to control this fungus. I'd be tempted to discard any plants that showed signs of this, but my daylily collection isn't very extensive to begin with.

I can't say whether any of my daylilies are infected or not, because I didn't know what to look for in the past. Now I'll try to keep it in mind when I notice browning foliage on these plants. I think most of mine are in fairly open areas where fungii are not so likely to be a problem, but ... plantings do tend to get more dense as time goes by. Thanks for the heads up.

asarum,
As with many things over the years I have collected more daylilies than I know what to do with. My initial attraction to them was the casual ease with which they could be added to any garden setting and be a reliable presence. That said I had a few troubling things going on with different daylilies that I have yet to diagnose to my satisfaction and I am hoping you might have a suggestion. The daylily below is one that I transplanted last spring into a newly created bed with composted soil from a nursery. Note that not only is the flower deformed but the leaf coloring was way too dark. In another bead again with composted nursery soil a very reliable lilly produced no flowers what so ever. I brought this photo with me to the daylily farm I had purchased it from the previous year but they were unable to determine what the problem is. Now here is what scares me the same nursery that supplied the soil is the same nursery I also bought a Patrinia plant from. There have been no reported cases of Daylily Rust in my community but the last I heard it has spread to 30 states across the country. Does any one know if MA. is on the list?

Runktrun: I didn't happen upon any list of states in my Google search, but I wasn't specifically looking into rust because I was fairly certain that I don't have rust. The leaf streak doesn't have an effect on the blossoms.
I think if you did have rust you would see clear signs of a problem on your leaves. All I know about daylily disease I learned by doing a couple of Google searches. You might try posting your question on the Daylily forum.

according to the U.Mass. Amherst extension site, daylily rust has been found in MA.

The site lists the following named daylilies that have been found to have rust in MA.

Susceptible Varieties
Daylily varieties differ in susceptibility to the rust. In Massachusetts daylily rust was diagnosed on the "Twice as Nice" daylily collection. The cultivars 'Raspberry Candy' and 'All Fired Up' are the two cultivars in this line that have shown the worst symptoms, with other cultivars, such as 'Moonlight Masquerade', showing less severe symptoms. There are fourteen cultivars in this product line. Varieties in other states which have been reported to be affected since 2000 include: Attribution, Gertrude Condon, Crystal Tide, Colonel Scarborough, Starstruck, Joan Senior, Imperial Guard, Double Buttercup and Stella De Oro.Symptoms range from bright yellow spots to streaks. Following inoculation of leaves, infections can appear in as little as two to three days. Not only does the rust have a short incubation period, but it also spreads fairly quickly in nurseries.

The University of Illinois extension states that the good news about daylily rust is that it "won't survive this far north" through the winter.
I'm thinking that it won't survive the winter here in New England under normal winters. Now this year wasn't normal, but we have had some really bitter cold.

I haven't had a problem with rust but have had the daylily leaf streak on some of my plants but not all.
It's caused by a fungus that can spread to suseptible varieties.

This info is from Cornell university's plant disease diagnostic clinic.

Management Strategies

1. Use resistant varieties: Different varieties of daylily have different susceptibilities to the rust. Select a variety that has some known resistance. And don't grow both hosts at the same site, keep daylilies and Patrinia apart. A limited number of cultivars have been studied for susceptibility to the rust pathogen.

Very susceptible: Attribution, Colonel Scarborough, Crepe Eyed Ruffles, Double Buttercup, Flower Shop, Hello Sunshine, Imperial Guard, Irish Ice, Karie Ann, Lemon Yellow, Little Gypsy Vagabond, Lonesome Dove, Ming Toy, Pandoras Box, Pardon Me, Patiencve Plus, Pink Beacon, Quannah, and Rosie Pinkerton, Royal Ebony, Russian Rhapsody, Silken Touch, Siloam Doolebug, Siloam Ralph Henry, Solomon's Robes, Splendid Touch, Springtime Treasurer, Violet Explosion, White Wow, and Woodland Romance..

Moderately susceptible: Butterflake, Crystal Tide, Gertrude Condon, Joan Senior, Prelude to Love, Star Struck, Stella DÂOro, and WilsonÂs Yellow.

Very resistant: Age of Gold, All-American Hero, Antique Rose, Barbara Mitchell, Butterscotch Ruffles, Catherine Neal, Creole Blush, Dainty Designer, Devonshire Cream, Ed Brown, Fashion Design, Femme Fatale, Gentle Rose, Golden Maondy, Happy Returns, Heartfelt, Holy Spirit, Joie de Vivre, Joleyne Nichole, Lavender Bonnet, Lilac Lady, Mac the Knife, Mae West, Meadow Sweet, Neon Pink, Pink Flirt, Prairie Blue Eyes, Raspberry Splash, Siloam Bill Monroe, Siloam Doulbe Classic, Siloam Ury Winnifors, and Yangtze.

2. Sanitation: Clean up all plant residue in the fall. Remove all remaining foliage from the plants and remove it from the site. Burn or compost the residue, hot composts will kill the urediospores. Newly purchased plants can be pruned back in the spring, this may lessen your chances for introducing the pathogen into your garden from new plant material.

3. Fungicides that may be useful include some products that contain the active ingredients neem oil or thiophanate-methyl. Some of these fungicides are currently registered to treat rust diseases and/or Puccinia rusts on flowering landscape plants in New York State. Once an infection has become established, applications may be needed weekly because new infections are constantly beginning while plants are actively growing

As for how I treat it, I just break off the leaves because I hate looking at them. Didn't know what the problem was till tonight. Now I find I've been doing the right thing all along. Breaking them off at the ground and throwing them out in the trash.

I did find it worse last year than I have before and another site I read tonight said that it is best to water daylilies at ground level and not get the leaves wet as this can breed the fungus.
Well if that's the case, then we all know why the leaf streak was worse last year than before or you had it for the first time. Just remember all the rain we got in April and especially in May. I know I had over 20 inches of rain in May and my daylily beds had ducks splashing in them there was so much water.

Here's a link from the Cornell U. site with 2 really good pics of what the leaves look like infected with leaf streak and one with rust. I know my leaves where leaf streak.
Just scroll part way down the page

Looking at the picture, I think my Joan Senior had rust last season. Last summer, I thought it was just because it's a semi-dormant & it tried to grow in January & then was hit hard by the cold. The blooms were just awful. This year, it has also started growth only this time in December. The leaves were 14-16" tall when the cold snap came. I've no idea how it will do when spring finally arrives. I purchased my Joan Senior 3 seasons ago from Newbury Perennials. I have no patrinia planted.

Joan Senior threw all of her flowers looking exactly like the above picture last year. Guess I'd better pay more attention to the leaves this year.

Tricia

littleonefb,
Wow thank you for so much valuable information. I took Asarums advise and posted on the daylily forum, between some suggestions from them and your info and photos I now feel confident that I do not have Daylily Rust but I will shovel prune my Patrinia. I believe the problem is the soil brought in from a nursery probably had a pocket with excessive nitrogen..hence the very dark almost blue leaves. It's made me think that buying composted soil from a nursery is as risky as buying ground beef from a super market chain. Thanks kt

Runktrun,
Glad to help. this post had me afraid that what I had was rust too. Sure glad to see it is just good old leaf streak.

I've also had something called "daylily spring sickness". They are not sure what causes it, but it happens in the spring when the leaves first start coming out. I've only had it happen when we've had some really crazy springs and it snows after the leaves are several inches tall. the leaves start looking like leaf streak, but a whole fan can be affected. I haven't lost a daylily from it though, and new leaves come out and the daylily does bloom.

From what I've read from googling daylily rust, it looks like the rust may not be an enormous problem in cold climates because it can't over winter in the cold.
I'd be afraid to buy daylilies from down south though, where it is a much bigger problem.

I've never bought composted soil from a nursery, but have had problems with bark mulch in the past from one place and it cost me big time.

They sold it as bark mulch, but in fact it was the cheapest junk going, the whole tree ground up as mulch. Just glad I had put the mulch down by the road at the end of the front yard because it was infested with termites. They refused to do anything about it after it was analyzed and proven to be full of cellulose from the tree as well as the bark.
So hubby and I had to pay to have it removed and then took the place to small claims court to get the money back. We won and the courts also turned the place over to the state for false advertising, bait and switch as well. We paid for pine bark mulch and got mulch consisting of ground trees and bark mixed together, which was half the price.

I use a lot of bark mulch but by from a local place in town now, that is more money but reliable, good and if a problem they make good on it with out any problems.
things like a few years ago I had 5 yards of bark mulch delivered. We had moved all but about 2 yards of it when we began finding a lot of rocks in it and debris that kids would have thrown into the pile when it was fairly low. I called the company and they came down to see it right away.
Oh, where they embarrased and angry at kids for throwing fast food stuff in the mulch and the nursery didn't catch it before a new load was dumped on the pile.
Anyway, they gave me the money back for 3 yards of mulch, shoveled out the stuff that was in my yard, gave me 3 yards of mulch free, and then the following year, also gave me 3 yards free.
Thats a local place in town that's been here a long, long time and really cares. Don't find too many of them around anymore.

There's always risks in gardening though there seems to be more and more in recent years. Seems to be partly the result of foreign imports of plants now causing the problem. that's where they believe the daylily rust came from.

Fran