My Lilies leaves are turning brown

by Tracey
(Oregon)

My lilies have started to come up, but some of them seem to be droopy. The leaves are curling and turning brown. Not all of them, just some. What should I do?

Doug says that this "sounds" suspiciously like "foot rot" - a fungal disease of lilies that attacks the stems just below soil line and the infected stems shrink, whither and fall over. Earlier infestations (when the bulb is just sprouting) cause the tip of the stem to die (it's the later infestations that creat the wilting).

If this is the case, the fungus is a little tough to control. Affected bulbs are pulled up and thrown into the garbage. Survivors are sprayed with a copper based fungicide such as Bordeaux mix.

Be careful when cultivating around your lilies so you don't knick the existing bulbs (the fungus lives in the soil). Commercially, growers try to wash the crowns of soil when the lilies first emerge but this isn't practical in the home garden.

Having said that, the only way you'll know for sure is to have the bulbs tested or dig one up and see if there's some rotting just under the soil on the stem.

Good luck