Daphne Cneorum Seriously ill!!!

Hi, My beloved Daphne Cneorum is experiencing a rapid and devastating illness. It is 3 years old and until now, extremely happy. It was beautiful just last month.

This one is growing just 4' away from the invalid.

I have 8 of these growing in my shrub beds. They usually are wonderfully healthy. I have 2 other Daphnes growing within 6' to 8' of this one. They are all extremely healthy. Here's Carole Mackie.

Here's Bowles White just radiating health. I also have 3 other younger Cneorums in this bed and they are doing fine, even the one that I moved in July.

The only thing that I have recently done differently to the shrubs in this bed was to add some green sand to the shrub dirt as I was experiencing some chlorosis in some of the shrubs. I don't think that I added it to the Daphnes as they were all doing fine. There are voles living in this bed, but to date they have not bothered the Daphnes.

Does anything here help? I don't grow them because my soil is just a tad to acid. I'd like to though!

http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/d/dapcne/dapcne3.html

Thanks, Snapple, it doesn't have any of those problems listed. Now I can't remember all of the stuff I read about the soil. It prefers PH Neutral. If I did get any of the green sand on it, would it hurt it like this? It could have gotten green sand run off onto it during the heavy rains.

I don't think so.

Greensand (0-1-7, 3% Mg, 20% Fe) is an organic iron-potassium silicate. It has high water absorption ablity and will loosen hard soils. Unless the additional soil absorption and heavy rain led to a crown rot or the green sand was extemely heavily applied I can't see it as a problem. Voles are nasty little critters, but I also don't see them as just bothering this plant and not the others. I'm honestly stumped.

You might want to check out this thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/896856/ Someone else was having daphne issues and Resin mentioned a disease that's carried by aphids that is fatal to daphnes. I've also heard before about daphnes being sort of temperamental and often just deciding to die for no apparent reason--I'm not sure if a lot of these unexplained deaths are due to this aphid transmitted disease or if there are other things that can happen too.

Thanks, Ecrane & Snapple. This plant does not have crown rot and has no evidence of aphids. The plant was fine during all of the heavy rains earlier this year, when other shrubs in this bed were suffering. This just happened in the last week to 10 days in which we did have one heavy rain storm.

The voles have been bothering the Azaleas and Rhodos, but so far have left the Daphnes alone. At least I think so, the Carole Mackie does have vole trails around it, but so far, no evident damage.

They have also been eating the conifers. But they all show damage in small sections, not all over the plant like this Cneorum.

I guess I should try lifing it out of the dirt and check the roots. Daphnes don't really like being disturbed, but I guess I don't have much to lose now. Cneorums have virtually disappeared this year. I tried all year to locate some and couldn't find any.

This plant is looking worse by the day. Does anyone know if I should try cutting all of the dead branches off?

I'd dig it out and burn it. And disinfect the tools afterwards, to avoid any risk of transmitting any disease to your other specimens.

Resin

I don't know what's wrong with your plant but I've heard from multiple sources that daphnes can die off suddenly with no warning. I've lost four. And they will quickly die if their roots don't have excellent drainage---we have clay soil. I amend the soil heavily when I plant (all beds are double-dug) but maybe my roots went deep enough to reach the clay. Even the folks working at my favorite nursery had daphnes suddenly die in their own yards. No warning and no clear reason why they died. Around here, good nurseries will sell daphnes with a warning and usually without the usual guarantee. I like their honesty.

I don't know if this will be any help to you but I thought I'd share my experience. I still have one daphne left but it's only been in the ground for two years. I think it's a February Daphne.

Thank you, Resin & Velnita. Well, I finally dug it up and it was those durned VOLES *&%&%$&&^(%$#!@!$#%@!!!! The roots were completely chewed.

I removed most of the mulch from the shrub beds and dug 4" x 4" "moats" around all of the shrubs. I filled these moats with a product called Permatill Volebloc. It is pelletized kiln fired slate. It is used for this purpose as well as to loosen up compacted soils. Supposedly those creatures will not dig through it.

Thanks for posting the outcome. It surprises me that the voles got this one and not the others. Lesson learned!

Is the Volebloc readily available, or did you have to order on-line?

Weerobin, For me it was readily available until I bought up everyone's supply at season end. Now I am working with the manufacturer to get a large supply. It is available in bulk as well as bags because it's main use is in large city gardens and construction projects for soil amendment.

It's original name in the construction industry is Stalight as it is used to loosen up compacted soils. For vole protection, you are actually supposed to plant shrubs and bulbs right in the product instead of in soil. It feeds the plant and enriches the soil.

Try to get it locally. I paid $10 each for 40lb bags. The best buy online is from Yardiac.com for $12.95 per 40 lb bag. However the shipping is so expensive that it would triple the price, so they are looking into sending it to me via freight. My Agway has the 15lb bags for $15 each. Another local nursery has 2 of the 40lb bags left at $15 a bag.

Debbie Stringer , the Permatill employee can be reached at DStringer@stalight.com. She sent me the names of local distributors and bulk suppliers in my area. Stalight phone# is 877-737-6284