Dead branches on Viburnum

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slvrwilo Loudonville , OH(Zone 5b) Apr 22, 2009

I have a Carlesii Viburnum that was already at this house when I moved here 9 years ago. It is about 6 foot high and at least that wide. It has always bloomed beautifully until last year. I noticed then that the blooms seemed a little more sparse than usual but didn't think too much about it. Now this spring I see that there are at least 4 large branches that are dead. What is causing this? Do they get any diseases?

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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Apr 23, 2009

Probably not disease, unless there was some severe change to this plant's growing conditions. Any major grading projects, utility work, dumping of toxic chemicals, or ponding of water around it?

Barring something like that, I'd hazard a bet that you have a borer of some sort tunneling around low on the plant. Some pictures would help a lot, to see the character of this damage compared to the rest of the plant. On mature plants, gardeners don't usually get down under the plant to notice this as it's happening, so the insect larva does the damage incognito, and you don't realize that it's going on till a significant dead branch or some such shows.

This is difficult to do much about. Prune out the dead wood, if this is indeed the problem, and take the body parts to your extension service office and get a positive ID on what you might do for control or elimination of this problem.

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