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Help with my Viburnum
Sarah 31
Posts: 58
About a month ago I had a shrub 4ft (In old money ) with green leaves, ready to flower, 2days later whole shrub has shriveled. No sign of life, but brances when broken show some green. Was hoping to see some show of life after a month, but weather has been cool and still looking very dead.
Is this a "cut my loses " and take it out, or should i be patient, could life possibly be re kindled?
Any suggestions appreciated
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Posts
That looks a bit drastic!!!
Are there any signs of damage to the trunk, what about the plants around it? Are they ok?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
All other plants /shrubs healthy. Its a woody shrub, looks ok, still green underneath, but would have expected to see some attempt to grow back, leaves do look like might be a mold? But that might just be cold weather over last month. No sign of damaged on trunk .
I'm afraid I'm stumped Sarah - that's a very rapid decline - I've been wracking my brain and looking stuff up but I can't think of anything that would affect it so quickly with no previous signs of anything being wrong and that wouldn't affect the plants around it.
Whereabouts are you - did you have a severe frost? But even then viburnums are pretty frost resistant and nothing else has been damaged
Which viburnum is it? I can't really tell from the pic
Hopefully someone with some ideas will come along soon ....
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I am in Aberdeen, we did have a cold night with ground frost, but nothing else affected, theres a magnolia, japanese mapel, all ok and thriving. This one is just shrivelled. Found a photo in flower. The wind can funnel down the house.
I'm not sure what has happened to your Viburnum but my Viburnum Opulus looked very much like pic 2 and 3 yesterday as it had a black fly infestation on all the soft new growth tips. This had made them go all curled up and crumpled looking so I had to cut these off the end of each stem. I wonder could the same thing have happened to your shrub and then it got frosted after when already weak and that it why it's proving tricky to diagnose?
I'm wondering whether it was a combination of frost and drying winds - possibly the others weren't affected because they weren't in leaf?
If it's green below the bark then it should recover - I'd give it a sprinkling of some slow-acting balanced fertiliser - I'd suggest Fish, Blood & Bone (according to the directions on the pack) and a mulching with some well-rotted farmyard manure or garden compost to make sure it has the energy to grow new leaves again - I doubt if it will flower again this year tho'
Have there been any changes in the area around it, the removal of large evergreen trees or hedges perhaps, that would have protected it in previous years?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
No changes around area, it was in full leaf and ready to bud! The change was very dramatic. Think the others were still waiting to leaf.
Should I cut back branches, or feed and wait?
Do not expect it to flower this year, would be happy to just see a green leaf.
I have a similar problem, however, my viburnum (tinnus, I think) came into lots of flower. It was when the flowers finished that the leaves started to turn yellow and there is very little sign of any new leaves growing back. Some of the ends of the branches look old and knotted up. I really don't want to lose this one as it provides a great structure to that part of the garden. Any advice would be really appreciated. Like you, Sarah 31, I am reluctant to cut it back in case I finish it off for good!