Growing Daylilies Together

There is still no scientific explanation for spring sickness that I'm aware of but it continues to plague daylilies and especially their owners! I know that Susan Bergeron has been doing a lot of work on daylily spring sickness. Although findings to date are inconclusive as to cause, certain factors have been eliminated. Some daylilies in my garden develop spring sickness year after year while others never seem to be affected. Some fans grow out of it but others wither and die. Is spring sickness a coincidence or could daylilies genetically pass on a predisposition to get spring sickness. I'm going to throw out a few questions: have you noticed that some of your daylilies are affected more than others, does it occur more in the north than in the south, do some daylilies get spring sickness in the north but not in the south and vice-versa, does it occur more in daylilies that don't grow vigorously, and a question to the pollen dabbers out there, would you use this daylily for hybridizing? Let's hear about your experiences with your daylilies and spring sickness.

Do we have any images of spring sickness?

I found this photo of a daylily afflicted with spring sickness in my files from last spring. There is a healthy fan to the left and behind the diseased fan. The fan starts to twist and grow sideways, the leaves can become ragged and quite brittle, and growth is stunted. The fan may recover but flowering will not be good in that same season, or the fan may simply stop growing altogether and die.

This website has an informative article and some photos: web.ncf.ca/ah748/sstf.html

A few of mine had spring sickness extremely bad this year, I was sure I was gong to loose them. I wish I had taken some pictures. The leaves were very brittle and tore up all over the place. They all have come back slowly and look fine hopefully they will bloom. Other daylilies planted right beside them had no signs. Go figure .

I can really sympathize John. It's so discouraging to see robust, healthy daylilies that we've babied along become crippled with spring sickness. Hope they recover so that you can enjoy a good blooming season.

The only daylily I've found with it this year was SILOAM SUGAR TIME. Never has this daylily shown the signs of SS but this year it did. It is slowly pulling out of it with our unusually high temps. However I thought I read that temperatures were not a factor for plants showing SS. We also had a milder than normal winter here with less snow cover.
If I get a chance today I'll take a pic of it.

Give spraying with Neem oil a try if you have Spring Sickness.