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Whats up with my viburnum?

Last post 16-10-2009 7:26 PM by ErWe. 1 replies.

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  • 12/10/2009 10:23 AM
    • ElRosso
    • Scotland
    • 11 Oct 2009
    • 1
    Not Ranked
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    Hi, I'm looking for some advice please, I have a couple of varieties of viburnum in the garden and all are looking a bit peaky.

     

    First off, this one which had a number of branches completely die back this year and last, I have pruned them out and noticed this marks on the leaves of the surviving branches:

     http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/3481/dscf0042.jpg

    There is this other viburum, which hasnt suffered any dieback but the leaves are shriveling up in places (kind of hard to make out in the picture sorry)

     http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5763/dscf0038qo.jpg

    I also have a viburnum rhytidophyllum whos leaves are looking a bit droopy and shriveled, but suspect autumn could be a cause of that.

     

    I have also noticed my black elder is losing its leaves all down one side:

     http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/9823/dscf0044.jpg

    This is a vew from the other, fully foliaged side in comparison:

     http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/7150/dscf0045f.jpg

     

    I am in Glasgow and we have had an appalling 3 years of very wet summers and I'm aware that fungal diseases thrive in wet warm weather, the apple trees have had scab this year, box hedging is being destroyed by what looks like blight, diseases resistant roses struggling with leaf spot, pear tree losing its foliage due to leaf spot, sycamores dropping their leaves midsummer with leafspot, mildew on the rhodies - it just goes on. Just like the rain has these last summers...

     I was wondering if the die back on the black elder and the first viburnum I pictured (after pruning out dead material, doh!) could be caused by Verticillium Fungus? I suspect a number of fungal diseases at work in the garden, very few shrubs look completely happy, but thats the one I'm most concerned about.

     

    Thank you,

    ps

     Anyone else noticed a rise in fungal problems due to our wet summers?

     
  • 16/10/2009 07:26 PM
    In reply to
    • ErWe
    • Vienna, Austria
    • 29 Apr 2008
    • 48
    Top 100 Contributor
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    I consulted Michael Dirr's monography on Viburnums*:

    He mentions as possible causes for dieback:

    Sudden Oak Death (SOD), but this seems to attack V. onlyoccasionally, at least in the US, Dirrs home (initial browning on a leaves tip, spreading in a V-shape  towards base, dropping, individual stems die, even the whole plant); Botryosphaera canker, specific to viburnums (leavess on affected branches wilt & die, "branches die back and become covered with dark-brown to black pimple-like fungal fruiting structures. Wood under the bark is dark brown.") . The latter is worse on plants under drought stress.

    Furthermore he mentions, among others, verticillium wilt, downy and powdery mildew as fungal diseases.

    The curling could be due to aphids?

     *http://www.timberpress.com/books/viburnums/dirr/9780881928532

     

    regards, r.w.