What happened to my Calycanthus?

I have a Calycanthus that I've had since last spring. It did fine last year and did fine this year, even putting out new growth. However, a few weeks ago I was pulling weeds in the vicinity of it, and the thing is dead. I did the scratch test on it and bent a branch which broke in my hand. It's under an arborvitae, a big one which I didn't plant so I have no idea on which one it is. I have other plants under there that are still doing fine, but the Calycanthus is dead as a doornail. What happened? I have another one about 25 ft away (other end of the porch) and it's fine. Are they prone to anything in particular?

Same thing happened to me on a Ceanothus obovatus. I pulled it up and it appeared the entire root system simply went kapoot. I haven't a clue why. The plant was sited properly and about all I can think of is possibly too much rain?

Are they susceptible to vascular diseases like verticillium? Maybe see if you can find any tell-tale streaking in the cambium or black/brown dots when cutting the stem in crossection.

Very interesting thread I found online poking around to solve the mystery of my dead C. obovatus-
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?p=35113

Her Calycanthus is perplexing because those are generally insect and disease resistant.

When we moved from TN back to IL, I dug up a few shrubs, some bought from ForestFarm. Most of those bought from ForestFarm have since died. But before they died, I placed another order. One that included this Calycanthus. So far, from ForestFarm and still alive, barely is an Amelanchier canadensis, dead is a sambucus, 3 different viburnums, but very much alive are 3 Euonymus americana. I just can't help but wonder if it all stems from ForestFarm?

I can sure look though to see if I see streaking or dots.

Thank you!

I don't have good luck with anything from Forest Farm either. I don't believe there's anything wrong with their plants other than that they're being grown in Oregon which might not be the best for us. I've switched over to ordering from nurseries that are growing in my zone or a 6 and the vast majority that I order from are in Wisconsin or Illinois these days. I've been enjoying considerably more successes since I began ordering from upper midwestern nurseries.

I plugged Forest Farm's zip code into a search engine a few years ago when I kept losing their plants to unknown causes and came up with a USDA hardiness zone of 8 for them and that spells disaster for us zone 5 folk.

Yup, and I didn't think of that when I ordered from them up here. I was in zone 7 down in TN, pretty darn close, but I lost some plants then even. I'm with you, I give em up.

I've had great luck with Forest Farm. Peculiar.

Scott

6b to an 8

5a to an 8

Might be just a little bit too much of a stretch.

But Equil, remember I didn't have real good luck with their plants in Zone 7. Especially the time when UPS decided they couldn't find my house and this box with 6 plants sat in their warehouse over the weekend. Those plants were sad, but they were alive. Not for long did they live.........

Forest Farm has worked great for me as well. It doesn't matter where things are grown, except perhaps at the ends or beginnings of the season, and only as far as freezes on new growth. There are a huge number of FF plants outside in my landscape, some having made the trip over from my old house.

The American Yellowwoods, White Fringe Trees, Silverbells, Hophornbeams, as well as a host of other plants I bought from them are all deader than doornails other than some of the ferns I purchased from them. The plants I received from them all looked healthy to me so I ordered trees a second time from them and the same thing happened. Now, in defense of them the second time around we did have a drought that was pretty intense. The same species purchased from Great Lakes, Cascade, Oikos, and Reeseville Ridge Nursery are all alive.

I always buy at the beginning of the season. Grabbing my shovel and driving up to Kevin's...............

I just went and looked at some old FF invoices---90% of the plants are still with me, and the ones that died were questionably hardy or I planted in the wrong spot.

Whew, just got back from Kevin's.........wonder if he'll notice all the plants missing. I don't think so. Now to just ID them all...........hmmmm..........

I have always had very good success with FF materials here in z4a. When I buy from places whose spring is far ahead of mine, I ask them to ship in early March. Obviously not planting time for me, but they ship much better, and the plants don't seem to mind the prolonged semi dormancy.

Obviously I'm no expert, but the first thing I thought of, was soil interface problems. Maybe if you remove the potting mix the plants are packed in, before planting, would eliminate that possiblity? I have never bought mail order so I'm just asking.

Well, Cladrastis doesn't like to be transplanted no matter who you buy it from. The Halesia would have been a little north of its range in my zone. That leaves the Chionanthus and the Ostrya and I haven't a clue what happened to those the second time I ordered them from FF but the ones I have from Reeseville are fine. The third time I ordered Halesia, I sited all three of them in considerably more protected locations so that could have contributed to why the replacements are still alive. I don't think I gave FF any special instructions to ship early so I would have received them whenever they normally ship out my way. Perhaps that entered the equation also. Not much I can add other than that the plants I received both times from FF looked healthy as mentioned before.

PGZ5, any plant I've ever gotten from FF was either gallons or tubes. Neither one had much soil in the pots. Meaning when I tipped over the top to remove the plant, the potting soil in there fell away. Interesting though, the only plants from them still alive are the ones I got in tubes with very little soil. But then again, here in IL, I have very good black dirt and in TN I had clay chert. Very different, and I had many losses in TN too..........