I transplanted it from my old house and even though it was very scraggly, it bloomed a little bit. I was thinking its because I transplanted it that it was not doing too well. But now it is all dry and looks dead. A couple of days back I spotted 2 deers in our yard and very close to the this plant. I also have a snowdrop anemone in the same area which also looks very distressed. Can I save these plants or are they just dead? Here are the pics: Viburnum before: snowball viburnum ( photo / image / picture from Tina's Garden ) Viburnum Today: ( photo / image / picture from Tina's Garden ) The Snowdrop Anemone ( photo / image / picture from Tina's Garden )
Hope this makes sense.... Doesn't hurt to try keeping the ground moist and waiting. Transplanting really shocks plants. If no new buds by July or August and you have kept them watered (ground in a wooded bed can be pretty dry sometimes) you can think of replacing them. (Try lightly scratching the bark to see if the green cambium layer is still alive...prune down to where it has life (green). Hopefully the deer won't help too much with the pruning. This has been such a wet spring, but then under the trees it can be surprisingly dry. Good luck
Tina--Did you actually see wilting & dying foliage, or was the foliage just suddenly gone one day? If it is the latter, I would think it is deer, & I would try to protect it from future munchings so it can recover. When you transplanted the tree, did you get a good sized root ball?
I just went and checked. There are no green left. Seems like the viburnum is dead. I pruned it almost to the ground. It was a new bush in the old house too. The root ball wasn't too big. And since it was all green and flowered I thought it was established. I did see the leaves gradually wilt and die. So maybe the deer weren't responsible. I also watered pretty regularly. So what could have been the reasons that it died ? Also what can I do to save the anemone at least? It still has some green but don't look too healthy. Thanks for your help!!
Tina, Did you move it after it was growing or when it was dormant? Pruning it back was going to be my suggestion, but I am wondering when you pruned it was there live tissue in the stem or was it dry, crackly or really hard to cut? If you scratched the bark with your thumb nail was there green underneath the outside layer of bark? If not it most likely died, but leave the rootball in place, maybe there are few buds still below the surface that might pop through.
Carolyn - we moved in February, so it was dormant when we moved. After that it gave out nice leaves and also bloomed - not too profusely. When I pruned, it was looking dry (brown) but not hard to cut. I did scratch the bark and there was no green in there. I will leave the root ball there itself. I wonder why plants suddenly decide to die
Since it is both plants and the ground looks relatively bare of vegetation previous owners might have treated the area with Caseron or some other long lasting herbicide. Just a speculation. You might try just planting some cheap seeds and see how they do, before investing in shrubs to go in this area.
Jewell - no previous owner. That's part of the problem. Its a brand new house built on a newly developed land. Basically the area was full of tall trees.
If it was woodland it might simply be that the trees used up all the available nutrients that might have given your shrubs a better chance of long-term survival? When we moved into a brand new house here in the UK the builders had physically removed all of the topsoil,leaving only the subsoil and large amounts of rubble, which meant that until we knew better nothing did well for us either.Then we moved...
