Also my neighbor has viburnum plicatum tomentosum planted not far from where my Carlesii were planted and their doublefile viburnums are doing fine.

Thank you Embothrium. I took out the plants and all the clues that were with them unfortunately so I don't have much more info to share except that I saw no bugs so it was probably disease. I was just wondering if there was any systemic disease that hits Carlesii because all of mine went at roughly the same time even though two of them were planted 150 feet apart.

Some varieties of Viburnum seem particularly vulnerable to voles eating the roots while others seem unbothered. I lost a couple burkwoodii and carlesii to voles eating the roots while doublefile and natives nearby were undamaged.

where are you .... big city name ... its one of the biggest clues to the answer ... are you zone pushing these?? .. or in other words.. did bigbox sell you plants not for your area????

and what was the weather for the year before death ... drought... horrible winter.. etc ...

weather is hard to define as an issue.. because the end result can be a season or two after the insult occurred ... e.g. winter damage might not kill the plant until the heat of summer shows us its dead.. [spring and summer being the 2 seasons ... especially with an evergreen type plant ... in essence.. until it uses up stored energy ... or heat sucks all the water out of the plant ...

ken

I am in Trumbull Connecticut about a 20 minutes highway drive from Long Island Sound. I do have voles though I don't think that was the problem here. I didn't buy these plants at big box store and they are hardy to zone 4 and I am zone 6 so that isn't the problem, but moisture is sometimes an issue though I don't think so because I had one in an irrigated area (sprinkler system in front yard) and one that was not (no sprinkler in backyard) and they both died though six months apart. Sometimes we have a warm spell in late winter and then a cold snap; it may have been one of those weather patterns. It's been a few years now so I just don't remember, but I will try them again because the fragrance is amazing. Thank you for pointing out the delay effect of adverse weather conditions.