A number of my lilies have had very curved shaped buds this year and don't look very good when they open. Does anyone know what causes this? Here is Montreux. You can see some of the curved buds on the right side. The foliage seems healthy to me.
susan
Could be weather.
OR
Look carefully at the bud and you may see a very very small hole. Inside there is a teeny tiny caterpiller. This is happening to quite a few on mine this year. Could be hail & or wind damage as well, if you think back to the hail storm you probably had ...... At least we had hail now and then.
G
Did you have a late frost? We did here and a couple of mine that were further along than the rest, have slight curves to the tips.
Pam
OK, one of my curved buds opened this morning and there are little dark colored worms about 3/4" all over the bloom. What are they, what do you do to get rid of them and what can be done to prevent them? The bud is deformed, but otherwise the stalk looks healthy. Do I need to destroy the entire plant?
Beaker, did they look like this?
http://www.umassgreeninfo.org/fact_sheets/defoliators/lily_leaf_beetle.html
Diann
No. In fact, I'm embarrased to say that I think what I was seeing are the anthers. I took another, closer look as I left for work this morning. I didn't see any filaments, but the anthers are there in every imaginable position in the bloom. Just looked like worms from where I standing earlier. I'm still quite concerned about the deformity, but breathing a little easier now that I know those things aren't worms. This was one of those curled buds and it still may be damage from a catapillar as Inanda mentioned above. Now what I want to know, is how to you determine if it was weather or an insect?? I'll try to get a pic tonight when I get home.
I usually have a few of those buds, especially on one asiatic in particular.
Ya know, some times things just happen. How many buds are doing this?
Diann
I've got some like this too, but mine aren't showing any color. I don't know what the problem is. I can't see any worms inside.
Judith
I don't know how many, Ticker, I have a lot of lilies. It's enough to make me concerned. The one that opened this morning, there are three other stems and they all have curved buds. Then its just one here and one there. Seems like just the asiatics.
I was talking to a friend at work today and he said that he had a few and was going to ask someone at the Northstar Lily Society what causes it. I sent some questions into them about six weeks ago. They've acknowledged my e-mail, but so far no answers.
Moby, you said that you had one lil that it does it fairl often. Does it always do it? Does it ever put out any good blooms? I was wondering if I should dig these up and just replace them.
It puts out many excellent blooms. Of perhaps 15 blooms, only 2 or 3 buds will be curved and deformed in bloom.
Mine seem to be only on the Asiatics too. The blooms don't always look shaped right when they open. I will post some photos of the blooms later.
Susan
