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gailwrite

phlox problem

gailwrite
9 years ago

My healthy phlox have smooth leaves, but two have leaves that look crinkled and I fear it is coming on the others. Is this a sign of critters, or of fungus. They are all phlox "David" -please help. I can't manage to upload a picture, but so far there are no black spots or white powder.

Comments (5)

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    9 years ago

    Are you warm enough that you might have aphids? They would be on the leaf undersides and perhaps young stems. There might be ants visiting them. They are tiny and often green, but also some in a rainbow of other colors.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    without a pic.. its hard to tell anything...

    how big are they ... inches .. feet??? .. it would tell us how warm you have been ....

    could they have been stepped on while dormant ...???

    and have you had any cold ... and yes.. cold.. frost can affect one or two.. of many plants ...

    finally ... it seems extremely early ... to be thinking bug hordes .. in all but the most temperate areas this early in spring ... there simply hasnt been enough time to grow a population to impact a plant ... in my z5 .. so i would look.. but would be surprised if that was the issue... but then.. i know nothing about your z6 ky ... especially without a pic

    ken

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Loving garden phlox, I'm quite concerned to read about your problem Gailwrite.

    One of the two respondents to "Weird crinkly phlox - is this a virus?", on-line, did, on the advice of a plant pathologist friend, put it down to a virus.

    It would be interesting to read more details of the progress of the problem.

    I only know what I read, but there seems to be growing reason for concern about commercially produced garden plants. I believe a major concern centres around the potential for viruses to be transmitted through vegetative plant propagation; that is, when it is done without due care.

    I also gather that, within commercial establishments, not only could plants stocks themselves contain viruses, but also, again without due care, viruses could be transmitted by insect vectors (e.g. white flies, thrips and aphids).

    This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Wed, May 7, 14 at 21:18

  • lesmc
    9 years ago

    I never got info on my phlox problem last year. Do you leaves look like this? I never got a bloom and I was so disappointed. Hope you have a different issue. Lesley

  • gailwrite
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    No, my leaves do not look like yours, although they are beginning to get a black spot or two. One of the afflicted phlox is in a plot where a couple of years ago my Victoria salvia got a strange ailment. With that in mind I'm going to take a stem to the extension agent to check about a virus. Thanks. In the meantime a nursery man said that it could be pesticide drift - not from my yard, but from the neighborhood.

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