daytime wilt, night time recovery

We have had a very wet spring. I am seeing wilting on an established plant. When I look at it in the early morning, it looks fine. By noon, the top several inches is wilted. It is in the middle of a large bed, not easy to get in there and really look the situation over, other than by telephoto. Am worried this is more than heat causing this. My elderly Mom lives with me, and she informed me tonight that she "did me a favor" and put three watering cans of water on it, and she had to lean way in to get it to the plant - that is over 6 gallons of water. I doubt it needed that with all the rain we have had this year.

I looked online at disease sites, but didn't see anything that really fits.

I do notice, when I was enlarging/cropping these photos that there appears to be something eating part of the leaves, as big areas are missing.

I'll fight my way into that bed and take a good look if anyone can tell me what to look for.

Flowers seem to open and look normal. Just started flowering. Not sure which cultivar this is - I have had it 3 or 4 years, and it is about 5 feet tall.

Temps have been in the high 80's, humid. No rain for a few days, but a very wet spring.

These photos were taken at about noon... by mid afternoon they look a bit worse.

second photo

Sounds like heat effect to me. If the plants are okay in the morning. I would keep an eye on them, but if you have good drainage the extra water will not do any harm. If you notice more symptoms like browning or discolored leaves then investigate further. Good luck with them.

Be really careful not to over-water this plant. I have had some issues with poor drainage in some new flower beds. This looks just like my plants looked. I lost some stems off the plants before the blooms could open. If you have more than one person watering this plant, it will be very easy for the plant to rot at the roots and crown. If this is an established plant, you shouldn't have to water it much at all, especially since you say you've had a rainy spring.

Thanks !!!! My Mom normally does not water anything, thank goodness. I have no clue why she did this one. She looked at it this morning and was convinced her watering fixed it, until she just came in now and said it's wilty again. I have not watered it at all except what we have had naturally.

I never knew about the drainage, watering issue. Explains why a few may have died for me in the past.... bad drainage!

That plant looks awful tonight.

Do you think I should get in there and cut the buds off and perhaps part of the foliage to reduce stress on it?





This message was edited Jun 22, 2010 9:47 PM

Do you have clay soil? If you dig down in the soil after watering is it really soggy? If it is, let the soil dry. Don't water at all. You'll probably notice that some bloom stalks will die to the ground. I always just rip those out. If the plant is large enough sometimes they recover. Can you post a picture of how the soil looks? I bet you need to improve your drainage in the future. I have been using pine fines and they work wonders.

Definitely clay. This area was dug down to about 2 feet maybe 15 years ago, and about half the clay soil was removed. Then, added lots of compost, green sand, shredded pine bark mulch, leaves, alfalfa pellets, top soil, and I probably am forgetting something. It has been wonderful soil since for growing misc. perennials. But, the thing is, the rain we have had this year. Other than my Mother thinking she was doing good by watering the plant last night, this entire bed has not been watered this year, with the exception of a plant here or there that was transplanted this spring and watered in. I have not had to water the transplants after planting because of the natural rain. With this rain we have had - way more than normal - and all the organic matter in the soil, it has probably stayed on the wet side. Other coneflowers planted in the bed seem to be doing good, both plants that have been there 3-5 years and ones transplanted this spring. Other plants around it are monarda, lots of daylilies, globe thistle, phlox, salvia, spuria iris, peonies, shrub roses - lots of stuff. This one coneflower seems to be the only one that is not doing well.

There is a mulch on the bed of small to medium pine bark nuggets. Sounds like I should pull the mulch back away from the coneflowers a foot or so, until we get a break from the rain. That might help it dry out some.

The problem coneflower is on the left edge of this photo, just to the left of the red monarda... the little coneflowers in the center front are some seedlings that came up in another area and were moved there this spring. As you can see, it is pretty thickly planted. This spring, we enlarged the bed by 4 feet on the side I was standing on when I took the photo. That's why the plants in the foreground are not as large or thick as the background.

Sounds like a problem I had a few years back then a lovely lady told me that they really don't like wet feet for any lenght of time..Look under my thread on dividing coneflowers,I really know jack about what works except for me ..JOE

Have managed to keep my Mom from watering them. ;-)

But, the damage may be done. 3/4 of the plant stays completely wilted all day now.

Daylily... remove that plant. Wilt is exactly what you have. It will happen sometimes with older cultivars. Crowns buried under the mulch, plants to close together and then too much moisture cause fungal and bacterial disease problems.

When you remove it try and go at least a foot around on each side and a foot or foot and a half deep to try and get what root s remain and also what dead plant material that may stil be in the ground to keep it from infecting your other plants. Do not put it on a compost pile. Destroy it by burning or put in and and put out to trash and throw away.

Go around in a circle digging to loosen it up and then try and lift out all together as much as you can to dispose of.

Moving mulch away from the crown as of the other plants and giving them plenty of room to breath will help to keep the problem from reoccurring.