An unfortunate discovery in the garden and a case for walking the garden every day observing both positive and negative changes...
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| stems are droopy |
While doing the morning rounds, I noticed all 5 of the beautiful, large Heuchera 'Obsidian' I'd purchased recently had something very wrong with them! The underside of the leaves and some stems had light brownish bumps and were clearly dying. Immediately I called the wholesale nursery from whom I had purchased the Heuchera. I learned the ailment is
Rust and that this particular rust only effects other Heuchera and Saxifraga. I could have removed all of the foliage and waited for the new growth to appear but after some preliminary research I also learned that once the rust is touched the bumps release spores spreading the rust. I chose to 'glove up', carefully dig up and throw away (in the garbage) all 5 Heuchera. I can only hope that the rust has not spread to the other Heuchera in the garden or the Saxifraga on the other side of the garden!
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| eruptions on underside of leaves |
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| curvy stems with whitish brown dying portions |
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| Ewwww |
5 comments:
Yuck - this would be the spring for rust! Thanks for reminding us to look closely and often at our plants...
Ewwww is right!
I noticed scale on a plant on mine the other day. The first time I've ever seen it, but once I saw it I knew that's exactly what it had to be. Yuck.
Valerie's comment has me thinking about what this spring is setting us up for in terms of mosquitoes. Last year was bad enough...what's this year going to be like!?
Yep, it's a tough spring for water-borne disease. I usually cut "rusty" heucheras off at the base and they resprout cleanly - at least if the weather improves pretty quickly...
Ugh...yeah...I've noticed rust on one of my Geraniums already...usually doesn't appear until it gets warmer and they are stressed.
Val - Yes, walking the garden in the morning is one of my favorite 'habits'!
Oh, my gosh, Loree, last spring I felt as though I lived in the South again...the mosquitos were soooo awful!
Kate, I thought about cutting the rust off but I have an open garden approaching and didn't know if they'd grow back in time.
Scott, I've not seen rust on Geraniums...I'll keep an eye out, thank you!
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