I just came in from pulling an entire row of oriental lilies I planted last year. They were my low growing orientals I bought from VB Wholesale last year and planted in the front yard in a row between a row of daylilies. There is a second row of daylilies and between them are my Jacquieline Asiatics but those are fine.
I noticed already this spring that many did not come up or got all krinkly leaved coming up. But I could see the virus mosiac pattern very clearly even on ones that came up fine. So I just dug and pulled them all.
I am quite dissapointed as this means there will be no lily show in that area after the asiatics. I don't want to even try to plant anything new in case I missed a bulb or two. So I guess I will have to stick some annuals in the bare spots, wait to next spring in case anything missed pops up and then find some low growing orientals from a good source to redo the lily show. Bummer :-((
Oh, heck. Virused Lilies.
I think you'll find the more lilies you grow, no matter what you do, you will come up with a virused one here and there each year. Someone once said, when in doubt, throw it out, if you have a lot of lilies around. The only time I would beg to differ is if the one you are looking at is no longer in the marketplace. Then I'd move it to seclude it.
Sorry to hear about that Rita.
Its not a virused one. Its dozens of virused ones. It was groupings of 3-5 lilies in a row between daylilies and there were about 14 groups. There were 4 really good looking ones amoung all the junk but I was afraid to leave them as they were the same ones from the same batch planted at the same time. I figgure after everything else I pulled leaving 4 lilies wouldn't really help and I didn't want to leave them as I thought they were probably not healthy either.
Rita, which varieties had a virus problem? Just wondering here. Some are known to be prone to virus and I avoid them. A few years back I purchased 30 "mixed" LAs and every dang one of them opened with tulip breaking virus. And they all looked to be the same variety, not a mix at all.
I'm digging and tossing a few here and there from around my gardens. They don't all look virused; some look to be in decline. Unfortunately there is a "lily symptomless virus" whose symptoms are first decline, then disappear.
They are lilies I bought from VB Wholesale last year. All shorter Orientals that I wanted for the front of a raised bed.
Tags say-
Miss America
Rodolfa
Mona Lisa
Miss Rio
Garden Party
and my favorite of the batch Miss France
Remember there were lots of bulbs of each. They looked great last year.
FYI, Lily Symptomless Virus (LSV) is present in all Nellie White Easter lilies. Supposedly, it's what makes them short and stocky according to Dr. Neil Anderson of the U of Minn.
And Nellie Whites make up nearly all the white Easter lilies grown in the U.S.
This message was edited May 2, 2010 6:20 PM
A good reason to not plant them out after Easter!
Did I mention I hate lily viruses?
As a lily neophyte I planted all those leftover Easter Lilies from church last year. They do not look like they made it through the winter although I see a few babies in the area I planted them. I am headed out to dig whatever is left, out of the bed. Do I need to remove the soil around them? Anything else I can do to prevent the spread of a virus?
Thanks!
Lisa
You don't need to remove any of the soil, or even avoid planting more lilies in the same place, as long as no living part of the Easter lilies that remains.
It is important that you don't spread virus through careless handling. Much like a common cold virus, it is spread by contact, either directly or by an intermediary, like a sap sucking bug like an aphid or leaf hopper, or even a pruning shears, trowel or you! Lily viruses don't seem to be as virulent as cold viruses, and a transfer of the lily fluid or sap needs to occur. But that could be at a microscopic level, so best to disinfect or allow your tools to completely dry for a day or two before you monkey with other lilies again.
Thank you so much Leftwood! I will do as you suggest.
Lisa
So......when you have 350 or so stalks to chop, how does one wait an entire day between chops at the end of season in order to prevent possible disease transmission?
I use Clorox wipes and snip the clippers through the wipe couple times before moving on.
It is my hope that one doesn't have 350 virus suspect lilies! You could also dip the clippers in a bleach or alcohol solution, or wave them through a flame.
And depending on what kind of lilies you grow, perhaps all/most/some would be dead anyway. Most of my lily stalks are pulled in the late fall. I've given a lot of thought to the dichotomy concerning the pulling versus cutting stalks at the end of the season. In the end, I don't see a big difference. But I hadn't considered the mass cutting's effect on possible virus transmission. Perhaps this is fodder for another thread . . .
I guess when I think about virus transmission, and it does concern me, I understand that all lilies carry some viruses. Seedlings start out without virus, but from what I understand, all lilies end up with some virus transmission before they show the symptoms. It is when a lily is overcome with multiple viruses that indeed the lily shows signs of failure and virus. So if a lily that shows no sign of virus (lily A) next to one with no signs of virus (lily B), but somehow by clipping the stalk or yanking by hand, one becomes infected with the other, with no viruses in common, lily B would now have the viruses present in lily A and then perhaps would have enough virus present in spring to show the signs?
I am very, very careful, both in chopping and pulling technique in fall and in spraying to keep sucking insects away. Why does it seem like I pull more lilies for suspect virus now than I ever have? It can be distressing trying to figure it out. And the medical person in me cannot let it go. What am I doing wrong?
I'm with you, Mags ~ there are a few that I'm watching closely. :(
your thinking is sound, Mags.
Why does it seem like I pull more lilies for suspect virus now than I ever have?
I can't answer that, especially since you've learned so much since your first lily "clearance." Although, you had a lot more weird weather down there than me up here, that could have caused some unusual leaf and flower formation and color patterns. There has been a time or two when I disagreed with the more experienced in the Yahoo Lilium group concerning virus, but I am not claiming infallibility. Only that it's not always so black and white.
I have learned a lot, but I must admit, with a variety that is easily found in commerce and been around a while, looking questionable, I will tend to get rid of it. Do I toss it at the drop of a hat? No. Do I wait, watch and assess, yes.
Overall, it's something that I wish was clearer. If there was some sort of test kit, I'd buy it. And I think about the growers and how they do all of their lilies safely. I mean we are talking hundreds and in some cases thousands.
I'm not trying to over-think it, but when you come from a medical background where disease transmission and prevention is a big deal. It's the way my brain works :)
Rita, sorry to hear about the loss of those Lilies, but better safe than sorry. I have several questionable ones I'm going to dig out in the next day or two. I've learned my lesson about where I obtain bulbs from, I've been finding virused plants since a bloomingbulb order a few years ago (some showed symptoms their first year).
I knew I had to pull them as soon as I saw what they looked like. There was no question they had to go.
But they're only plants, in the big scheme of things.
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
~Spok (paraphrased from the Star Trek episode)