Is anyone familiar with this problem? Healthy Heliopsis - Loraine Sunshine plants had many flowers end up with crusty black centers that also resulted in preventing some of the petals from opening up. Otherwise, plants looked good & did not see any particular bug infestation on them.
Would like to find out what it may be and ways to prevent it from happening again next year. I'm in central northern Michigan -zone 4 to 5 range.
Thanks for any help.
did you try taking one apart over a white sheet to see what, if anything, falls out? it might be thrips. they can prevent flowers from opening. i have this plant too but i've never noticed any problems. i dead head religiously during the growing season and throw them away.
no i didn't think to do that - however, do you know how to treat plants to get the thrips before they do much damage? i'd liked to treat the plants ahead of blooming next year just in case that is the culprit I can be ahead of the damage.
treating ahead of time usually means treating with a systemic product. someone more qualified than i am should answer your question. since you haven't determined the exact culprit yet, it might be prudent to wait and see what developes next year.
Thanks for your help, trackinsand.
