Posted a couple of weeks ago about my doublefile viburnum.. It was planted close to a month and a half ago and the plant seems to look worse and worse with each day. At first I noticed a bit of a droop... More than normal, now it seems that about 1/3 of the foliage seems to be curling up and browning, I can't seem to find any aphids but could I just be not looking good enough. Or could it be fungal?

@Stumpedgardener91 Welcome to NGA

You planted your Viburnum in mid April, correct? Have you had a freeze or frost warning since you planted it? I know the average last freeze date for zone 5 is April 15th, but without a location it is difficult to know if the damage is a result if the weather or pest/disease. Below are some of the major problems affecting Viburnums.

http://garden.org/articles/art...

http://www.clemson.edu/extensi...

http://gardening.yardener.com/...

@viburnumvalley , could you take a look at this and see what you think?

Hey, Jean. We crossed.

Hi Celia.

Hi!

I live in newark ohio. There were 2 frost/freeze nights after I planted this guy. I want to say around the first week in may. I don't know how long it would take to show the effects of frost on the viburnum? This seems to be progressively worsening as time goes on.


I attached a picture of the viburnum from further back.

Doesnt look so much like freeze burn as a root issue.

Looks to me as if mostly just the flowers are brown. That could be from transplant shock or as Jean suggested, a late frost could do it, too.

There are still some healthy looking leaves which is encouraging. I'd cut off all the brown flower heads and see how it does. Maybe shading it from the hot sun for a while would help it recover from whatever happened, too. IF you have a piece of shade cloth, that would be perfect, just make a little tent over it. An old sheet would work, too.

I can definitely create some shade and deadhead the flowers. I'll let y'all know how it goes .

In the original thread we suggested shading, and keeping it watered. The rootball was broken up at planting, I don't think we established how much or why. So it lost roots and looking at the soil now it appears to be dry and cracked. It's also next to a concrete wall which will increase water needs. Which is all a long way around my getting to the question - is the soil as dry as it looks in the picture? I think we might have also suggested giving it a spray of water on the leaves occasionally because with root damage it will have a hard time taking up enough water for cooling down with transpiration. I think it has been fairly hot in Ohio recently? Some drooping of the leaves is apparently normal with that Viburnum but this looks to be going beyond that now.

I promise the soil isn't as dry as what it looks. I have been keeping it well watered once if not twice a day if it gets very hot. We slightly loosened up the roots to make sure that it was not root bound, out of pure habit I suppose. Since my last post I have discovered fuzzy grey patches on the tips of the top of the plant. But new leaves are starting to grow where the old have died off which I'm assuming isn't a bad sign

New leaves growing would indeed be a good sign. If the older leaves have scorched from the plant being dry they could look something like this:

http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter...

Once those brown bits have developed they won't turn green again. Hopefully when you're watering you are checking the soil a few inches deep to make sure the water is penetrating to root depth rather than just wetting the surface.

Hm, once it's in the ground you really shouldn't disturb the roots any more. It may have sustained some more damage to roots from the loosening process.

How about some mulch to keep the ground more moist and cooler going into summer? A nice thick layer of wood chip mulch all around there will help a lot, I think. It will reduce your watering chore going forward, and help keep weeds down, too. Remember there are, or will be roots out beyond the spread of the branches so mulch and water out away 2ft. or more from the base of the shrub, too. You want to encourage it to put out roots.

Don't ever use rock or rubber mulch, btw. It doesn't insulate well, and heats up in the sun so really has an opposite effect to what a good organic mulch will do.

Once it seems to be perking up, start very sparingly giving it some diluted fertilizer. Again, water it in, in a wide circle around the base of the shrub.

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting digging with a trowel where the roots are to test soil moisture, but away from them within the irrigated area. It is very easy to overestimate the depth to which irrigation water penetrates the soil.

It looks like spider mite damage is contributing as well. The webbing is visible in the second photo in the background. I almost lost an older Viburnum to mites.