I planted a 10 ft. White Wonder Dogwood about 6 years ago which has hardly grown at all. After it has bloomed, the leaves are attacked by some sort of disease leaving them full of "rust" spots and finally they dry up and fall off, some of flowers even get this rust. Many of the boughs have no leaves at all. This tree should have branched out 20-fold by now. If I got it sprayed would that help or should I just uproot it, it always looks such a mess. Many thanks for any help out there. Marian
Anthracnose? This link mentioned, by Gordo, in another thread may be helpful www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0551/ . The thread is here www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=22800
That wouldn't account for the lack of growth, however. Something else is haywire. Too deep? Too wet? Too dry? Too...?
Thanks for your reply. The Dogwood is in the corner of my garden, gets morning sun, afternoon shade. I have an ornamental Japanese Maple beneath it which is beautiful. Surely the maple would also suffer if the spot was too wet or too dry? I'm wondering if when the leaves and flowers become "rusty", something is eating them or spitting up a caustic fluid on to them. You mentioned "too deep", it doesn't look too deep, I planted it so that the soil on the top of the pot was level with the ground around it. I keep passing beautiful prolific pink and white ones and I'm so envious! I was told by a gardener to give it rose food every March, May, July & Sept so I've given it in May and will do in July & Sept.
Lay off the fertilizer until you sample your soil and have it tested. If a deficiency is indicated, fertilize in fall.
Thanks, I'll do that. I did however, go on "Ask Jeeves" and found out that what my dogwood has sounds like "Anthracnose". I have to make sure the trunk is able to dry out , that any diseased limbs are pruned, mulch it and make sure it is watered during dry periods. So I've got my work cut out! I can also use a fungicide, Chlorothalonil but must try the first things first to get it back to good health.
The dogwood will like cool, moist roots and the maple will take dry periods better than the dogwood. Both like a mulch.
In addition to the mulch, it's important to make sure that adequate water is applied. One method I have used to make this much easier is to make soaker hoses into shorter lengths (use hose menders) so that the root zone of the tree gets a good drench, rather that a superficial watering. These short sections of soaker hose can even be "daisy-chained" with y connectors for additional plants.
