picture 1

This post was edited by bleumax on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 16:29

Picture 2

Your shrub is in pretty good shape, considering that it is newly planted and hasn't fully become established.....brown areas are probably a watering issue, but it will be better next year..............

I agree that your shrub looks pretty good, and buy into a story a well respected plants woman told me. We take these well grown, well tended plants, like private school kids, and take them home to what is like a tough public school,in comparison. Even with care, they take time to adjust. But V. carlesii is a very adaptable plant, and should do fine.

Thanks! That's very reassuring.

Are the brown areas a sign that the shrubs have had too much or too little water?

Deleted duplicate.

This post was edited by MulchMama on Thu, Sep 5, 13 at 13:41

I know something about viburnums. They're my favorite things in the landscape and I have about 24 of them, probably eight or nine cultivars, including three carlesii. I've read the Michael Dirr "Viburnums" book cover to cover: twice. They're a bit of an obsession with me.

Your shrub is in the wrong spot. I suggest you move it before too long. It is WAY too close to the foundation, where soil is never very good anyway. Nothing should be planted that close to a foundation. It needs to be centered at least 4-5 feet away from the house to give it room to spread, and if you don't have the room, please don't try to force it to survive in that confined space. It is also right on top of some hostas, and even if it did manage to survive that spot, it would overrun them within a year and would be smashed up against the house.

The foliage should be a much deeper green than I see in the photos, likely because of the intense sun it gets. (We have two leatherleaf 'Allegheny' viburnums on the northeast corner of our house and the one that gets more sun is always a shade or two paler.) Carlesii likes half sun and half shade. We have ours on the western side of the house about five feet from the foundation, and they are shaded until about 1pm. If yours is getting all-day sun, that is not good at all. It might be adaptable, as bogturtle says, but there is a limit to how adaptable they are. If you want something to perform at its best, plant it in a location suited for it.

You don't say if you have carlesii or carlesii compactum, which is a smaller version of the cultivar. I don't know from experience what the true difference in their size is, but the regular carlesii can easily grow to 6-ft tall and across. Even the 'compactum' will spread to 4-ft, which is too large for your spot. (Mine are 5-ft across and about 7-ft tall.)

I harp about "the right plant in the right place" all the time, as I'm doing here, but shrubs aren't cheap, and they should never be forced to live in spots where they cannot thrive. .

This post was edited by MulchMama on Thu, Sep 5, 13 at 12:31

MulchMama....always wondered why this website does not have a Viburnum forum?
Do we have to request one? How does one go about asking for such a forum?
Any ideas.....You sound like you have more that enough knowledge to persuade them into including one.....
I would love one if they did......

Ians, yes, I have wondered about that. For heaven's sake, there's a Sansaveria forum!! Who wants to talk about an age old houseplant that's impossible to kill?

I will suggest it if you will!! There is a "Suggestions" forum link.

I am going to make a strong suggestion right now......Viburnums are as important as roses, peonies and other forums like that....crikey, they have one for salvia for heavens sake!!! So I think it is high time we give the viburnums their due.....
Thanks for the support

Ian