another pic

and another

transplant shock...

to avoid.. try not planting in august ....

snip off the offenders if it makes you feel better..

i would just ignore them..and water properly ... especially considering .. the new growth looks great ...

ken

Thanks for the reply. I feel this issue has been appearing on more and more of my plants over the past week at least. Does that still sound like transplant shock? And are you saying my planting should be limited to springtime?

This post was edited by sysdawg on Thu, Sep 12, 13 at 11:04

For years I pulled up, put in new, tried fungus sprays suggested by the extension service after testing and finally someone said that her neighbor drastically cut back her yard full of vinca every year and when I tried that - after the first burst of growth early in the year and then again in summer, miracle, I had no more whatever the problem was. Good luck!

i plant NOTHING IN AUGUST...

to avoid shocking plants ...

how hot was it in the weeks after planting??? hundreds??.. 90's???

with hot humid nights following???

one of the reasons we plant in spring.. is that warm days.. are followed by cool nights .. allowing transplants to recover ...

frankly.. you ought to feel lucky they lived.. and look as good as they do ... and except for a few scarred leaves.. they look very good ....

damage to leaf tissue... can take weeks.. if not months to appear [some conifers] ....

relax.. i figure you won... take credit..they would not be budding out that vigorously if there had been significant damage ....

ken

Vinca is prone to a number of fungal issues that can produce that sort of leaf spot. Are these plants planted very closely? Have you been doing a lot of watering? Is drainage good?

There are fungicides you could use but all these will do is prevent the infection from spreading to new growth. And the new growth looks very healthy at this point. I would just suggest monitoring it for the time being and the cutting back as suggested above can help a lot, especially as it applies to appearance :-) But hold off on this until the plants are better established.....maybe next spring.

You are not limited to planting in spring only but it is important to realize that planting in the heat and dryness of August creates unnecessary stress for plants. The cooler, wetter weather of spring or fall is a better choice.

Whatever it is, doubtful it would kill these invasive plants.

Invasion map.

Like Ken, I don't plant during hot weather since it stresses new plants more than is good for them and there's no need or advantage in doing so. In CT you can plant perennials in spring or fall but fall is generally a good choice since plants have time to establish their roots before the ground freezes and the snow flies. They're also gifted with fewer hours of daylight & lower temperatures which means they aren't in a growth mode in the fall--they're going dormant.

The perennials I've planted when the temp is closer to 50 or 60 have done a great deal better than those I've planted when temps were higher.

I have an entire hillside covered with vinca my parents planted 40+ years ago that blooms profusely in spring--the bees just love the periwinkle blue flowers. It's one tough perennial in my experience

I can vouch for the fact that it wasn't that hot here in SW CT for the past few weeks - August was quite frankly much more September-like (geez, nights were more like October!!). Of course now September is like August and we're sweating to death, lol.....

Anyway, I take care of a garden which has a bed that is chock full of vinca, to the point where I rip handfuls out every spring and often in the fall as well. I often see this spotting and the browning of leaves exactly as in your photos, and I deal with it by.... doing nothing. Okay, I am a lazy gardener, I admit. But as long as it affects only a small percentage (which for me, it does) and as long as new growth looks healthy (which for me - and you! - it does) I don't worry much about it. I might snip out some of the offending vines if it's in a very visible spot, but that's about it.

This plant is so indestructible (in my experience) and so aggressive that I feel there are other, more important, plant-related things to worry about first.

This approach doesn't help you if you are truly worried, or have just a small patch that is affected and the spots and discoloration stand out, but to me, your vinca looks overall very healthy and I wouldn't be too concerned.

By all means, if this is a serious fungal disease that someone can identify and suggest options for, listen to them and not me! But I do think once your patch gets growing and you see how vigorous it is, you won't be so concerned.

Good luck!
Dee

After a little further research, I'm thinking it could be Botrytis Blight, as described here: http://www.gardenguides.com/100693-vinca-minor-diseases.html

The spots are widespread enough, maybe 40% of my clumps, that I'm too lazy to nip all the affected leaves. So I bought an Ortho product containing one of the chemicals named in the article above. I don't think I'll be able to eradicate the fungus (if that is indeed what it is), because it isn't practical to spray the undersides of the leaves...but if it is Botrytis, then hopefully the chemical will keep it under control.

Thanks for the help everyone.

deleted...somehow previous post was reposted

This post was edited by sysdawg on Fri, Sep 13, 13 at 17:07

purpleinnop........THANK YOU so much for posting that.

I believe any vinca is unkillable myself and it definitely doesn't need to be babied or good soil. Vinca Major, which is worse, is aggressively invasive, it turns wilty in heat and crispy brown if not watered, it will overrun anything and everything in its path and it doesn't even make for a good weed barrier. Its the classic "not nice neighbor who plants this by your property line" plant.

Just an observation from someone who sees this stuff growing everywhere and under every tree.

Seriously Vinca minor is one of the most indestructible plants in this yard. The previous owner had it planted everywhere. I've removed most of it, now it grows only along one side and a huge patch under the Norway maple (you know it's rugged when it can thrive under a Norway maple).

I have seen large patches of it creeping into woodland and hillside from property owners who do not keep their invasive plants corralled.

Easiest to remove by constantly mowing it back, especially in drought, or smother it with several layers of cardboard and mulch.

As you point out Terrene, when a property owner doesn't realize the plants potential to travel and doesn't keep it under control it can be a problem. I have had this plant under a large Maple for over 20 years and have nothing but good things to say about it. It was here when we moved in. But it is in an area that limits it's ability to travel. Bordered on one side by the street, a second side by the driveway and a third side by a fence, and the fourth side has a rock edge with another 15 ft of mulch on the other side of it. It takes very little effort to keep it out of trouble. It looks good all year and provides a low maintenance area under a Maple that I've been adding tiarella, ferns, hosta and epimedium to the existing spring display of crocus.

I didn't realize it's potential to travel until I tried to take some from that area and plant it in a sunnier area of the back garden, where it quickly developed from 3 small plants to a 6ft patch in one season. So it was removed after one season there. I didn't find it much harder to remove than any other plant. We pulled it all by hand and I haven't had regrowth since. I have a weedy plant in the yard that may be a Campanula that gives me much more trouble than this plant did. One I have pulled and pulled and pulled and it always returns. And nowhere near as bad as Witchgrass, which caused me to shut down my vegetable garden for 2 years because I was so sick of dealing with it.

This is what it can do in full sun here. Synonyms for thick? Congested? Inundated? Looks like a rat habitat to me.