This year, after I moved it to a new location on the roof where it got more sun, it still didn't flower although it got buds and produced new growth and looked okay. I figured moving it was the reason it didn't flower. It was very dense with growth.

During the summer I noticed a preponderance of
large flies (horseflies) in that general area of my garden, but never associated it with the shrub.
Toward the end of the season the leaves appeared to get some sort of disease that turned them brown and withered. I removed the branches that looked really damaged by the "blight"...that's what it looked like..and left the rest to see what would happen. As the weather got cooler a lot of leaves turned yellow with brown spots, looked really awful, and came off easily.

Yesterday I noticed most of the leaves were yellow and I decided to defoliate it. I also noticed there was still a ton of flies and they all seemed to be coming from the shrub. Well as I defoliated it, the flies were coming out of it like a horror movie. I thought maybe because it was so dense the flies had started breeding in there or something...I really don't know...I removed leaves and a few branches that seemed superfluous and were making it too dense.
I noticed that wherever I cut the flies would congregate as if feeding on the sap. I put up 4 fly papers in and around the shrub and this morning they were all totally covered with huge flies...hundreds...maybe more.
There were flies laying in the dirt beneath the shrub writhing around and fly carcasses on the deck about the shrub. It was like a war scene of carnage.
Really bizarre.
Also, where the cuts had been made there seemed to be a foamlike oozing that went down the branch. There were still a few flies alive but they seemed dazed and very weak.

Does anyone know why the flies were so attracted to the virbunum and if this is something that can be prevented.
And what about the oozing from the cut sites. Should I be treating it with something?

To post images, see this
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/msg0513322013993.html?14

What I did learn is that there are some plants that flies are attracted to because of the smell and it seems that this must be the case, because there are literally thousands of blow flies around it (most caught on fly paper by now) and on the soil under it staggering around.
This is not the case with any other plant in my garden.

Blow flies are usually attracted to rotting flesh and feces, but in their absence can be attracted to decaying plant matter as well. There are certain flowers (not sure if virbunum's is one of them) that smell like rotting meat that attract them.
Since they are attracted to dark damp places to lay their eggs and since this shrub was so dense, and the soil under it stayed damp, I guess they were drawn to it as a breeding ground.
It's so gross. I just finished spraying it with pyrethin and
will probably get rid of it entirely.

"As far as not noticing Stinking Viburnum - crush a leaf from every specimen you see - sooner or later you will notice! Odoratissimum smells like a mix of pepper and poop - and apparently tinus flowers reek just before they finish flowering - to attract flies."

Isn't that something? that's why I have all those flies....

I'd also be surprised that it is V. tinus you are growing, as it would not be fully hardy in your climate in the ground, let alone in an exposed, rooftop container. Ditto V. odoratissimum.

FWIW, common boxwood or Sabin junipers grown in full sun have a far reaching noxious aroma reminiscent of cat pee that needs no leaf crushing to pervade your senses :-) They are mistakably unpleasant and offensive, whereas the viburnums can easily pass unnoticed.

What I am surmising is that the leaves...not the flower..because it never flowered...which in August started to curl and crack a bit and look like they were drying up.... must have emitted an odor that attracted blow flies that were in the vicinity.
The fact that the shrub was so dense, and was kept more or less moist by a drip watering system and our unusually warm humid fall weather must have made a convenient breeding ground because they were all over the soil too. No other plant has them.

you are aware.. that most flowering shrubs 'set' flower buds late in the summer.. for next years bloom ... are you not??? ... i dont want to go into a discourse on such.. if you know this ...

i gotta tell you.. i have done some weird things with struggling plants.. but i never put one on the roof.. what is that all about???

do you have cats on your roof.. and are you 100% sure.. they are not using the pot for their personal issues???

did you mean to say.. you picked or cut every leaf off it??? isnt it deciduous in your z6????

ken

It's about a roof garden. I live on the top floor of a loft bldg. in NYC. I wish I had a yard but I only have a roof.
I only pruned it a few days ago when I noticed so many flies around and 90% of the leaves were yellow with brown spots and would come off easily if you touched them.

No cats KEn...just dogs...and they don't go in the plants..there is a special area for them to do their business and everything is picked up and hosed down immediately. I'm a neat freak.

Not sure if it's deciduous or not..but it wasn't necessary to pick off every leaf. You could shake a branch or run your hand along it and they would fall off.

I've already disposed of the shrub. There were flies all over the soil as well. I think this all started when I used a fertilizer that probably had manure in it as I do remember it smelled bad. That combined with the unnaturally warm weather we are having...high 60's and really humid...
and density of the shrub must have contributed to the blow flies breeding in it.
When I did cut branches from it flies would congregate at the cut site...mobs of them...so it is something to do with the shrub itself as well. Anyway it's gone now.

If you would like to see pictures of my roof garden, you can see them at the link provided.
Thanks everyone for your input.

Whenever I heard that complaint, I knew it was either a V. tinus or a stinkhorn fungus. Or really something dead, lol.

and i appreciate you understood my sense of humor..

your roof top jungle is awesome... God's work, if you will

ken

Roof gardening is a lot of work...between keeping roots trimmed back because there's only so much you can up pot...
and keeping the deck and planters in condition every season .... if I would have known before how much work it would be I'm not sure if I would have done it. But being that it's been done...I have no choice but to view it as a labor of love....and I do love it.
BTW...nary a fly as been seen since I got rid of the viburnim.