Lilies are beautiful flowers that will add so much to your garden, it originated from Greece and represents love, friendship, loyalty, and happiness, and even symbolizes Virgin Mary’s purity. So you decided to grow some in your garden but suddenly you noticed that the lilies are dying! in that case, not to worry! We’ll explain to you why the lily is dying and how you can heal it in time.
Lilies usually die from a disease or fungal infection and brown and spotty leaves indicate that this is the case, lilies can also die from other causes like too much watering, not enough watering, and pests like the Lily Leaf Beetle.
The best way to handle this problem is to grow the lily plants well which will avoid these problems and below we’ll explain to you how to do that.
Most Common Reasons Your Lilies Are Dying
There are three types of diseases that are the ones that cause the lilies to die, they are called Lily Mosaic, Botrytis Blight, and Basal Rot.
If your lily plant is producing fewer flowers than it is supposed to grow, the flowers that grew are deformed and the leaves are covered by unusual grey spots or stripes, which means that the plant is suffering from the Lily Mosaic disease.
It’s a disease that is caused by aphids who spread a virus that kills the lily plant and turns it dry and brown, it mostly affects Tiger Lilies.
If wet teardrops and brown spots merge together on the leaves of your lily plants (This usually begins on the lower leaves), brown spots spread over the buds and petals of the flowers, and a gray and fuzzy growth grows on the dead part of the plants, it means that the plant is suffering from the Botrytis Blight disease.
It’s a fungal disease that is caused by the wet weather, it infects the lower leaves and spreads to the stem. it causes the leaves to turn brown and die which will prevent the plant from growing new flowers.
If the roots and the basal plates of your lily plants are rotting and their color changes to blue or gray, the bulbs and scales fall down, the plant stops growing and flower buds die before they open it means that the lily plant is suffering from the Basal Rot disease.
It’s a disease caused by a fungus and hurts the growth of the plant. The bulb is infected first and then the disease spreads over the plant which causes the leaves to turn yellow, wilt, and die and also causes the roots to become colorless and rotten. Usually, the Asiatic Lilies are affected by this disease.
There is also a lily leaf beetle that settles in the plant and eats the flower and the leaves.
If the lily isn’t getting enough water, the dry air will dry that lily and kill it.
Also, too much water can drown the roots and cause the bulb to rot. If the lower leaves become yellow and fall down, this means that the lily is suffering from this.
Starting from the fall until the winter, the lilies have natural “death” and during the early spring, the plants will blossom again. The signs that indicate this are when the leaves become yellow and then they shrivel and die.
Can I Heal My Dying Lily?
If your lily is infected by the lily mosaic disease, you can’t heal it because it’s a virus. You must dig up the plant and throw it away as soon as possible in order to prevent the virus from spreading to the other plants and then you can plant new lilies. If you see an aphid on the plant, scare it away by spraying it with water and that will help you avoid this problem in the first place.
The same goes for lilies that are infected by the basal rot disease. You can’t save it, only throw it away in order to stop the disease from spreading to other plants. The only way to fix this problem is to minimize the chances of the plant getting infected by these diseases and we will explain to you how to keep the plants healthy in the next section.
If your lily is infected by the botrytis blight disease, you must remove all the infected parts of the plant as soon as you see the infection and use fungicide spray like this one on the flowers, the spray kills the fungus directly and it’s easy to use and all you need is to follow the instructions on the packaging.
If the soil is dry, simply watering it once a week will heal the plant. and If the plant is suffering from too much water, dig it out from the soil and put it in a flowerpot with a drain hole or raised beds that can drain the amount of water that isn’t needed with a fresh potting mix and throw away the old soil. Also, remove all of the dead or rotting roots.
If the plant’s leaves died during the fall and the winter, the plant “died” naturally and will blossom again in the spring so all you need to do is cut the dead leaves and water it once in 2 weeks and after it becomes healthy again in the spring water it once a week.
How Can I Avoid The Death of The Lily?
The best way to avoid the diseases that we talked about earlier and causing the lilies to live fully is to grow each lily with enough space from the other lilies and other plants in order to give it enough air circulation and in the full sun and also plant it in a ground that drains the water quickly and by watering the lilies close to the ground rather than overhead. That way, you’re keeping the lilies dry and avoiding creating fungus that creates the diseases that we talked about.
Don’t put too much fertilizer and remove weeds and other plants that could harm your lily.
Also, spray the lilies with fungicide and insecticide sprays since those sprays are easy to use (Don’t forget to follow the instructions), only hurts the fungus and the pests and by that, you are protecting the plant from fungus and pests before it has the chance to harm your lily. This will decrease the chances of the lilies
getting affected from such diseases and dying.
Also, remove any fallen leaf or stem from the plant to make sure that the lily won’t get infected by these diseases.
Also, keep the lily moisturized and plant them in good soil that can drain too much water or containers that can drain too much water.
