Do Your Daylilies Have Spring Sickness?

Spring Sickness?

Recently, another discussion on the AHS Daylily Email Robin spurred a member to take charge. Sue Bergeron from Ontario, Canada decided to take the bull by the horns and look into what many have called, "Spring Sickness." Some daylilies start to get twisted or deformed shoots as they begin to grow. They seem to recover as the weather warms, but may retain some leaves that are deformed. Sue has put up several excellent pictures on her site. They depict several forms that the "disease" can take. Actually, no one is sure it is a disease or what causes it. No one really knows whether it affects evergreens or dormant. Some people think it is climate induced from cold and wet spring weather. If you think you have plants with this disorder,there is a form on this site for you to fill out. Check the pictures first to see if your plants symptoms match. Maybe we can get an answer to this before it becomes more than a nuisance.

As the weather improves, most plants grow in a normal way. Some do not bloom as well and foilage may be stunted. It is unusual enough to create a need to know exactly what causes it and to see if anything can be done about it. I hope you will take the time to examine your plants carefully after you check the web site's photographs. This is a project that is a study in cooperation among daylily growers. Please take the time to participate if you have any plants that look as though they might exhibit these symptoms.

Sue also has a page about phenology. This is a study about how plants, animals, and insects are influenced by weather and climatic conditions. They use indicator plants that are markers for the season. Right now, daffodils and forsythia mark Knoxville's march to spring. When certain plants bloom, you can count on the insects coming to munch on these tasty goodies. Japanese beetles seem to love my roses. Check out the Phenology link. It is very interesting

I thought I would add some more information about Sue. She says that there are 26 volunteers with expertise in horticulture, botany, biology, and entomology to work on this project. It has been in existence for about two years.

Sue is from England and it seems that her family are all really into gardening. They even have a professional Head Gardener in the group!. When she was a teenager, she loved Fuchsias and had a small greenhouse of over 90 different cultivars. She became interested in daylilies in 1996, which was a few years after she moved to Canada. She soon joined the AHS.