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The Impatient Gardener

Garden, Garden design, Plants

A soilborne disease wins a battle in my garden

May 8, 2018

signs of verticillium wilt

One of the jobs for the weekend was digging out three large Viburnum lantana ‘Mohican’ shrubs from the “back” (which is really the side, but that is a story that is too long to go into) of the property. One by one, they’ve been fading, with more parts of each looking worse by the month. Given that we’d planted them for some screening they were no longer doing their job. 

verticillium wilt signs

The dark brown in the middle of this branch is a symptom of verticillium wilt.

In order to dig them out, we cut them back first. And those cuts into the woody bits provided proof of what I had suspected for a couple years: verticillium wilt. The brown and olive rings are a sure sign of the culprit (click here to see a comparison of affected wood vs. unaffected wood). Technically, I would need a lab to look at a tissue sample to definitively  diagnosis verticillium wilt, but the symptoms are enough for me in this case.

The first sign of verticillium wilt was in 2016, when in the course of a week my Sambucus racemes Lemony Lace (aka elderberry) went from gorgeous to a wilted mess. Few things can do that to a plant that quickly. I disinfected my tools, and cut it back. Then last year, I ended up digging out what was left of it along with a large amount of soil around it. Later I lost another elderberry growing in a different part of the yard, which was sad because that is an excellent plant.

The viburnums grow about 8 feet from where I dug out that elderberry and I noticed last year that the southernmost viburnum was not looking great. Viburnums are one of the shrubs that can be affected by verticillium wilt (here’s a list). 

verticillium wilt

The base of one of the viburnums shows the most dramatic symptoms.

How this area became infected by verticillium wilt is anyone’s guess. It’s a soilborne fungus, so it’s possible that I plant I brought in was infected with it. It’s possible that it was there all along. At this point, it doesn’t really matter how that area of the garden became infected with it because there’s very little to be practically done about it. Solarization (covering the soil with plastic and letting it bake for several weeks to kill the fungus) is challenging and problematic, not least because I’m not interested in digging up everything that’s there and moving it for a year or having an empty garden. 

The far more practical approach is to just plant things that are resistant to verticillium wilt. Thankfully the list is long. My goal is to avoid spreading the disease to other areas of my garden where I have treasured trees and shrubs that I would hate to lose (like my Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, aka redbud). It appears that plants under stress are more likely to succumb to verticillium wilt, so I’m going to be careful about watering that redbud and a few other trees over summer, even though I normally wouldn’t do that with established plants. 

Placement of new hornbeam hedge

Here’s a side angle of the area at the back of that bed where the new hornbeams will go. I highlighted the stakes because they were difficult to see in the photo. After we laid these out, we realized we’d need one more tree to the left of the photo. Although it may not look like it, these are spaced equidistant.

And I’ve already bought the replacement for the viburnums. I’ll be planting six pyramidal Carpinus betulus (European hornbeam) close enough that they will form a hedge at some point. The “at some point” is always an issue for me, but I’m hoping in four years we’ll have excellent coverage. Hornbeams are resistant to verticillium wilt and tend to hold their leaves through winter, so even though they are deciduous, they’ll provide a little screening in winter. Ideally I’ll prune this into a raised hedge, but that’s a decision for the future.

circle grass planting

The three ‘Mohican’ viburnums were planted as screening at the back of the bed by the garage.

Honestly, although I’m not happy about the reason for the death of these viburnums, I’m not all that upset that it happened. When I planted them in 2014 when I reclaimed this area of the yard from what could only be described as a weedy mess, they were chosen because they grew big and were inexpensive. That’s not to say this isn’t a great plant. I love most viburnums and ‘Mohican’ is a really good one, but it wasn’t quite right for what I was trying to achieve here. You can see what they looked like in the photo below, three soldiers at the back of the bed after it was planted. 

Looking at that garden when it was planted is rather shocking to me. I can’t believe how quickly things filled in. Some things didn’t last long. The Lysimachia atropurpurea ‘Beaujolais’ lasted just that one year (although it was fabulous while it was there). Spiraea media Double Play Blue Kazoo grew from a 4-inch pot to a 3-foot shrub that is a star in the garden. 

It’s one more reminder that gardens are always changing. The garden adapts and so does the gardener.

back yard disease hornbeam verticillium wilt viburnum
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
6 Comments

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Comments

  1. Lisa at Greenbow says: May 9, 2018 at 4:58 am

    I will be interested in seeing how the hornbeams do in your garden. I haven’t heard about the V wilt. I hope to never encounter it. UGH…

    Reply
  2. Cortney Dean says: May 9, 2018 at 5:46 am

    My Lysimachia only lasted a year as well! What a bummer! Where did you source your Hornbeams? I’ve been searching for some but can’t find any in the Western part of Wisconsin… I can’t wait to see how yours fill in the space- they are a lovely tree to be sure!

    Reply
  3. Linda from Each Little World says: May 9, 2018 at 9:27 am

    I killed multiple Japanese maples by planting them in the same spot until someone told me it was likely Verticillium wilt. They are just about the only plant that died in that area. I just bought a dwarf columnar Hornbeam that will get about 6-8 ft. tall. (though I am sure it won’t stop growing when it gets there!). They will be a great choice for that location.

    Have you watched any of the Monty Don series: Big Dreams, Small Spaces. I can’t imagine a show like that here. Americans would be too silly or too uninterested to do the projects those Brits take on in the interests of creating a garden.

    Reply
  4. Tom van der Linden says: May 15, 2018 at 7:24 am

    I’ve had excellent results in SE minnesota with the native hornbeams. They do drop seeds around the garden, so I’m getting some free seedlings! (not too many, so a good problem.)

    Reply
  5. Marie says: August 9, 2019 at 7:21 pm

    I suspect this is an epidemic in my front yard. One tree is dead and gone already and now my other massive 2 are showing the same symptoms. Its happening fast now. The first tree took years to die. I feel like this one will be dead by the end of the fall this year. I have more huge trees there. Are they all going to die? I believe they are maple trees. I have birds of paradise on that area and other bushes. How do i stop it?

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Here’s a combo I’m totally digging this year: Wicked Witch coleus with Compact White Sunpatiens. I should have planted more Sunpatiens because they haven’t filled in as much as I expected in this part sun spot, but it’s a great look.
When you leave your garden in the middle of summer you know there’s going to be some clean up on the back end. It’s amazing how the little things we do every day in the garden, even when we’re not “working” in it—pulling a weed, propping up a plant, tucking tendrils into a trellis—add up to important jobs. And you don’t realize that until they aren’t being done. 

When I came home after 8 days away I was planning to whip the whole garden into shape and ended up spending all day in the vegetable garden where things went awry quickly. 

I was rewarded though with lots of cucumbers and zucchini and a few pretty bouquets to put around the house. This is Madame Butterfly Bronze with White (a name I don’t understand at because I wouldn’t use any of those words to describe the color) snapdragon and Apricot Shades strawflower. 

Check the link in the bio to see the whole video and what I found when I first laid eyes on the garden after some time away.
It’s a nighttime hunt in the garden and it’s the best time to find hornworms. You’ll need a black light and a tough gag reflex but you have to remove these guys from your tomato plants or they’ll be gone quickly. If you find a hornworm with white things that look like grains of rice in it, that is parasitic wasp larvae that will eat them from the inside (everything about this is gross). Remove those hornworms from your plants but don’t kill then as you’ll be aiding the beneficial bug population by allowing those parasitic wasps to hatch. For other hornworms you can kill them or feed them to chickens or put on your bird feeder. They do turn into beautiful, big moths but you want to make sure they can’t get back to your plants if you let the hornworms live.
When it comes Echinacea, @garden.evolution (aka Coneflower king) and I don’t often agree, but I think we both feel the same about Color Coded ‘The Price is White’ being an outstanding variety. The flowers are big and flat, hold their white color really well, are sturdy and, well, put on a great show. I’m loving them growing with Rock ‘n Grow ‘Back in Black’ too. Both are @provenwinners varieties from @waltersgardens

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