Thanks to all who have contributed to this discussion.
Uli; the purple leaf is not any problem, it's the lighter striations in
the leaf that I imagined were insect damage, now viral perhaps. My entire
population of more than 1000 plants exhibit this condition; 99.9% of those
plants are my recent seedlings. None of the plants exhibit any other signs
of distress, in bulb, leaf, or flower scape. Here in Arkansas, we get late
frosts, and cold snaps, and that will stunt the scape if it is developing,
but all the plants are vigorous and bloom well. That is one reason I am
surprised it might be a virus. I am beginning to think it might be heat
stress instead, so to address that, I will raise some plants indoors here
next spring, where they can have plenty of light from south-facing windows,
but the temperatures will remain low. Our outside temps here in the summer
reach 100 F routinely, sometimes for many days running.
Thank you for your helpful thoughts and comments. I will investigate the
possibility of testing my plants for virus properly.
Don Kuonen
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