Calycanthus floridus Venus problems

6 years ago

Can anyone help with this? I noticed about four days ago that the blooms on my young calycanthus Venus had black spots. The buds looked okay then, but now I see spots starting to form on the buds as well. And you can see some kind of darkening and - not sure how to describe it - a curling(?) of the leaves. The majority of the leaves are fine but all the flowers seem to be affected. I'm watching to see if the issue with the foliage is spreading. I don't see any kind of bug/pest on the leaves.

I did a google search and have seen other people referencing this but haven't found any good answers.

I appreciate any help. This poor shrub already got weed-whacked in its first year, so I was so happy to see it come back and grow well, and bloom, and now this.

Thanks!

Dee

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Comments (3)

Embothrium
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
'Venus' is a hybrid, the Chinese wax flower side of the cross is prone to a possibly bacterial blackening when grown in too much sun - going by your plant apparently 'Venus' has inherited this susceptibility.

Coincidentally I just cut my Chinese wax flower back again (I have been working on getting rid of it for some years now) yesterday, blackened flower buds and all. I've read that In the wild the species grows in a part of China that is notorious for awful, gloomy weather, where sunny days are supposedly rare. So in cultivation it probably needs to be treated as a full shade shrub, planted in a position with little direct sun exposure.
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Dee, you have my sympathies. Anything bacterial or a virus or a fungus...yuck. Discouraging. Poor flowers. Just a couple of attempts to see if there are organic solutions. Haven't tried any of them.

Organic solutions for various plant issues

Treating Plant Diseases Naturally

I wonder if now that it has developed it, you will be able to get rid of it even if you move it? But, on the other hand, I have had good success in just letting some plants figure it out for themselves when they get some unknown disease. I had a foliage problem on violet 'Queen Charlotte' and I just let it be and the next season it came back perfect. I had a strange disease problem on two canes of a new rose last season and this year, I cut it back to the ground and it sprouted all healthy growth. It doesn't always work, but sometimes.
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diggerdee zone 6 CT
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks PM2, I'll take a look at those links. Yeah, it is discouraging. And very ironic in a way. All the research I did before buying and planting this said not only that it was quite carefree, but that it should be in full sun to part shade. Wanting to give it the best shot, I put it in the sunniest spot in my mostly shady yard! I have never in my gardening life had anything suffer because of too much sun lol!

I guess I'll have to move it elsewhere, although I'm not sure where as my largest shade garden is now in almost full sun since I had to cut down my beautiful old oak. The funny thing was I was thinking it wasn't getting ENOUGH sun, that the heavy rain we had previously, combined with the less-than-full sun, was making conditions too damp.

Thank you, embothrium, also. I appreciate your input.

:)
Dee