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Viburnum bark peeling

16 years ago

Last spring I moved 3 large double file viburnums (viburnum plicatum tomentosum).

I moved into a house where they were planted agianst the house...not enough room and were in pretty dense shade.

After much labor..huge 2 1/2 foot rootball (plants about 8 feet tall), i moved them to full/partial sun. They looked marvelous through spring, summer and fall.

This spring early I noted some bark peeling..worried but thought I wait. About 1/4 of the branches have done this..everything is dead on these branches. I've had to thin/prune pretty heavily

The remiander of the shrub looks pretty good..some blooms this spring but not full.

Any ideas

Thanks

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Comment (1)

Embothrium
16 years ago
I'm thinking maybe they froze. Earlier posts might be taken to suggest that USDA 5 tends to be the border for this species.

A friend here in USDA 8, where they wouldn't have frozen also has had some canes on hers go in a similar fashion during a prior year - so there is something else they get as well. When the mulch on our old 'Mariesii' got played out it it immediately started to decline, perhaps some canes on it also 'exploded' during this period of chrisis.

I think I eventually got some organic debris under it and saw an improvement but then that soon petered and we were back to small palish leaves etc. Bored with the now-persistent trend I took the old girl out.

Today I might have made more of an effort and brought the plant back around, it was a nice feature here for years and if still with us would now be huge.
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