We've had a huge amount of rain, and I notice that the tops of my oriental lilies, flower buds and continuing about 1/3 of the way down the plants, are turning a sickly greenish-yellow, and one plant is entirely yellow and leaves are dropping from the bottom up. Any ideas? HELP!
Oriental lilies turning yellow
Hi Jeanne, welcome to DG and the Lily forum.
All this rain is wonderful, but we could stand to spread it out a bit, eh? Sounds like the lilies that are dropping leaves at the bottom need to be sprayed with a fungicide. Botrytis is usually the problem. Go ahead and spray all of your lilies and the soil around them.
As for the ones that are just yellow, you might try a dry fertilizer such as Osmocote to give them a boost.
Your plants are stressed by too much water (in the soil). Botrydis is a disease that is encouraged by wetness above and ground, and below the soil line because it stresses the lily. It could be an added complication.
Dry Osmocote is a good fertilizer because it is very slow release. In wet soils it is very important that you do not use fast acting types.
Unfortunately, since the underlying cause is too much water, the soil drying out is the only real solution.