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My parents gave me a couple of months ago a Viburnum Tinus (aka Laurustinus, or Durillo in spanish). It had a lot of "bud bundles" (I don't know the technical name for that, sorry), that looked nice and about to give us a lot of flowers, but they suddently started to look "sad" and slightly dry. The leaves are still looking nice. I water it a little everyday (it is in a really big pot), and it's in a large terrace with a lot of light all day long but no direct sun on the spot where this plant is. Also, I live in the spanish mediterranean coast, so the winter is really mild here (not a single night below 0 degrees Celsius)

So, any idea of what could be going wrong with this plant? See the couple of pics attached.

I am moving it to a sunnier spot, but I don't know if it will be worse.

Thanks!

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motagirl2
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1 Answers1

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It looks as if its suffering from drought - the first thing that happens with that is, any flowers or flowerbuds start wilting and eventually die, followed by leaf loss if the problem is not corrected.

You say you water a little daily - that is not a good idea. When you water, give it a good soak so that water runs out at the bottom of the container (hopefully there are drainage holes) and, once you've got it wet enough (if the soil it's planted in has dried out completely, it may need repeated waterings to get it damp), water only when the surface of the soil feels a bit dry to the touch, and when you do water, give it plenty again. You might find you don't need to water again for a week or three if the weather is chilly, but the hotter it is, the more often you will need to give it a good soak. It is better to water in quantity but much less often - little bits of water daily probably aren't even getting more than an inch or so into the rootball, so the rest will be dry, particularly if the pot you planted it in is more than two three times the size of the original pot.

It's just as well its not in sun - that would simply have aggravated the watering problem. Viburnum tinus likes partial shade, but will tolerate almost complete shade if it has to, though the quantity of flowers may be reduced in darker conditions.

Bamboo
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  • Unfortunately too little water and too much water have the same symptom ;wilted leaves. To much water causes root rot then the roots can not absorb enough water. After many years of gardening I just ruined a Christmas Cactus bloom by over-watering. – blacksmith37 Feb 10 '19 at 22:07
  • @blacksmith37 the leaves on this plant are not yet wilted, its just the flower buds, and from the description of the watering routine, along with its being in a very large pot, I bet the rootball is pretty dry... this is not a case of overwatering. – Bamboo Feb 10 '19 at 22:22