SMILACINA with unknown disease??

[Lvandelft]

This weekend I saw that some of my Smilacina were looking very bad. They just started to flower and were a week before still healthy.
Being afraid that it is some sort of leaf nematode and therefore I cut off all the ill stems.
Due to the cold and wet weather the disease spreads very fast.

I’m happy that I have these plants growing on different places and this was the only group infected.
Is there anybody out there with the same problems? Would like to know if nematodes is the right diagnosis and if so, how to solve the problems with this beautiful plant.

[Lvandelft]

Sorry, did not remember there is a "special"for cultivation problems.
Hopefully Maggi will put it there where it belongs?

[gote]

You have not got a firend with a good microscope?
Nematodes are fairly visible if the plant part is dissected..
I would not have believed nematodes would attack the leaf edges only.
My guess would be damage to the young shooots by inclement weather but then I am an optimist by nature.
Cheers
göte 

[Armin]

Luit,
did you had night frosts?

[Lvandelft]

Göte, mostly the disease started on the end of the leaves and then it went down over most of the leaf.
And I am sure it has nothing to do with water quality. In our sandy soil the water is very stable ca. 40 cm. below the surface and the roots of
Smilacina don't reach so deep.
We had long time very cool weather and then some wet days. The shoots were totally healthy till some weeks ago
I have made a picture of another spot where they are still totally healthy
See picture.

Armin, during these weeks we had amazingly never frosts in the night.

[gote]

I am just surprised that it starts at the leaf tops. I would have expected nematodes to come from below. I would dissect one stalk very thoroughly and compare with a healthy one preferably with a microscope. Nematodes are usually to small to be seen with the naked eye
Göte

[Lvandelft]

Göte, I don’t have access to a microscope but I made a close-up of a leaf.
It is made of a leaf which is still partly green.

[gote]

Göte, I don’t have access to a microscope but I made a close-up of a leaf.
It is made of a leaf which is still partly green.

Cut a piece and send it to me as first class letter.
IF (big if I am afraid) it gets here in sufficiently good condition AND I can take it to where I have the microscope in time I will see if I can see any nematodes.
Göte Svanholm
Oskarsparken 6
SE-70212  Örebro
Sweden

[Lvandelft]

Thanks for the kind offer Göte, but I think I was wrong with my idea that the plants were attacked by leaf nematodes.
Today, when I was meeting several other gardeners at Lisse Flower Show, we talked about it too and I was told that the problem is more likely something physical.
Now I believe that it must have been a damage by night frost. I thought we did not have this the last weeks here but I was told that there were incidentally some more small spots with frost in the area.
For instance one grower told me that he saw damage with some Eremurus where flower buds were damaged. And the same seemed to have happened with Allium in some spots and don't flower this year.

Luit,
did you had night frosts?

Armin, you probably were right? 

[Armin]

Luit,
I had some partial late night frost damage on my roses, too. Newest, softest leaves started to wilt from the tips.
Therefore it was my first thought.
Amazing and interesting observation is that not all rose bushes from the same cultivar show frost damages.
It seems really to be a very local phenomena, within a few meters distance only.