I have three beautiful viburnums that look sick. At the end of last summer, a lot of branches were dying off. This spring I added leaf compost and trimmed back all the dead branches. Leaves started sprouting 2 weeks ago and things looked hopeful. Now those leaves are turning black. Any idea what's happening and how to treat?

Hmmz, could be frost damage.

Arico said:Hmmz, could be frost damage.

oh ok. you might be correct about that. we did have frost one night.

It looks like you have some form of the Doublefile or Koreanspice Viburnum from east Asia; otherwise a Wright or Linden Viburnum that will develop red fruits. Look at the base of the stems and see if there are any holes or damage from viburnum crown borer insect larvae, or this viburnum does not like the soil being too wet. A large Doublefile Viburnum in the neighbour's yard suffered lots of dead from a very wet year of 2018 into 2019 here in southeast PA.

ILPARW said:It looks like you have some form of the Doublefile or Koreanspice Viburnum from east Asia; otherwise a Wright or Linden Viburnum that will develop red fruits. Look at the base of the stems and see if there are any holes or damage from viburnum crown borer insect larvae, or this viburnum does not like the soil being too wet. A large Doublefile Viburnum in the neighbour's yard suffered lots of dead from a very wet year of 2018 into 2019 here in southeast PA.

Thank you! It could be any of those. I'm guessing double file, based on the flowers. It has red berries that arrive after flowering profusely with large flat spreads of white flowers. I've attached a picture from last summer with the berries. Don't have one with the flowers unfortunately. It did have some rotting stems that broke off right at the base/ground of the tree. I added compost this spring and loosened the soil around the base. It's planted on a slope so it shouldn't be standing in water, but we did get a lot of rain this spring and last year as well.