Oh My! What's going on here?

This spring I watched with eager anticipation for several of the lilies I've planted over the years. The most dependable, the large trumpet lilies, were among the first to emerge and everything looked great. One of the lilies, however, seemed to be struggling - the lower leaves were black and dropped off. Today I noticed the whole plant seems to have died.

Does anyone have a clue as to what's going on? None of the others seem to have the same problems - if it's a disease, I want to keep it from spreading. I'd appreciate the input from those of you who have more experience.

Seems to be a lot of that happening this year, with no definitive answer. Could have been our up and down temps earlier in the year. I find an application of fungicide helps to prevent further leaf damage and loss.

This one looks done to me - I don't think anything will save it. What do you think? My primary goal is to prevent the spread to others in the garden.

Try the fungicide, especially to leaves that still have green. Keeping those on as long as possible will help for next year's bloom. It's not necesarily a goner ~ just for this year.

Would Bordeaux work? I gought some years ago for peony spots. Fortunately, my peonies have not been bothered at this house.

Yep, that's a good choice.

This message was edited Jun 11, 2012 1:18 PM

Did you dig up the bulb and take a peek? Maybe a critter got it form underneath.

I didn't - I cut down the first one and disposed of the stem to avoid contamination in my compost pile. I guess I could dig up the bulb and take a look.

That is just what I would do first. Save having to go buy something and spray. And being it only hit one of them - something may have found a tasty treat...

I'd leave it alone and avoid overhead watering. Some lilies are just more prone to fungus, and the hit-and-miss symptoms may be due to their position in the garden, eg: air circulation.

I had something similar happen to two of my three Rio Negro lilies last year. They are back this year looking fine and only slightly smaller than the one which was not affected. Last year I simply cut and eliminated the ugly black stems.

Gary

All good information! Thanks, everyone.

Leawood Gardner
I have had the same thing happen to one of my clumps of orniepets. Two of them were growing side by side. Everything was going well: up to 6' tall and lots of buds. One of the plants developed the brown leaves at the very bottom, which had slowly and steadily crept up. Now the buds are shrivelled up and falling off. The other one is healthy and happy. Every other lily in the same bed is doing well.
I did have some lilies in the another area fail to bloom. They are all green, but never developed flower buds. I think all of this is not a disease but due to the weather. We had extremely warm weather which caused my lilies to sprout and then extreme cold. Despite tht fact that I covered them with black pots, I think it was too much for some of them.
Check out the article on the B & D Lily site on fungus problems: http://www.bdlilies.com/whatisbotrytis.html I think that is what is happening to my one bulb.

I had a similar thing happen some years back so I dug up bulb and planted it in a container to keep it isolated from healthy ones, it bloomed just fine the next year, so it got replanted in the bed again that fall and has been fine since. Good luck. Patti

I cut the diseased plants back, disposed of the foliage in the trash and sprayed the stump and ground with a fungicide. Let's hope that takes care of it.

I have had lily borer and that is how the lily looked...you can find like sawdust and a hole on the stem if this is the problem..

Rose drenches come in handy in these situations. They are systemic and will catch both fungal and pest based disease processes. Wait until the ground looks like it needs a drink and drench the whole area. I am not a fan of toxic chemicals but sometimes...you got to do what you got to do.