Euonymous Emerald 'n Gold

[Aself]

Hi--Members of Helpful Gardener Forum--

Nine 10-year-old euonymous bushes hug the Southeast side of our house in Morgantown WV. I believe that we are in Zone 5 or 6. They have been beautiful. I will have to learn how to attach photographs to this site to show them in their glory. However, recently, I noticed lots of leafless stems. I do not see gall or signs of infestation, but the plants are not looking their best. Could they have gotten too dry? (I tend to neglect to water them because they are up against the house and stay pretty cool and moist.) Could rabbits or groundhogs--both of which we have in abundance--have stripped the leaves? If this has happened to you, please post a response. Thank you! Aself

[rainbowgardener]

Dunno, but since you haven't gotten a response, I will give it a try and maybe that will bump your post up for someone else to notice.

Deer like to eat euonymous and would strip the leaves like that. You would probably know if you have deer around or not. I have euonymous and groundhogs and have never had the euonymous eaten. I usually recognize the groundhog damage, because she likes to eat things down from the top, leaving just a stub at the bottom. Rabbits do like euonymous, but I think are more likely to eat the bark off it.

If it were dry enough to make it drop leaves, I think you would notice how dry the soil is; they are pretty hardy.

Any sign of disease? Leaves discolored, spotted, curling, etc?

[Aself]

How thrilling & helpful to receive this reply, Rainbow Gardener--aptly named!

Though we live in a university town with almost 100,000 people, we do have all manner of critters. There are white-tailed deer in our neighborhood which I spied as near as the yard one street away, also rabbits, and the aforementioned groundhogs--a colony really which we coexist with but which have taught us to plant accordingly. No more groundhog buffets do I supply with pansies or petunias and other plants they love.

Looking once again at the naked stems in my euonymous, I can imagine a deer tenderly stripping the leaves. There are hardly any leaves on the ground and the stems look clean rather than gally or gnarly. Now, I really want to see this deer, and find out whether the bushes can survive the assault. We also have azaleas in front, but there is no sign of leaf damage yet. Can I expect it? Do deer like azaleas?

Many, many thanks for trying to prime responses to my call for help! I have been reading some of the other postings and can see that Helpful Gardener will be a welcoming place where I'll want to be on a regular basis. On a prompt from one of our fellow posters I already signed up on the watch list to enroll in the Coursera course on plants. Having taken the Coursera course on Hollywood Storytelling last year--It was fascinating and very well taught by a renown film scholar Scott Higgins--I am definitely going to sign up for the plant course.

Appreciatively--Aself

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, unfortunately azaleas and euonymous are on the list of deer favorite plants


"...avoiding the use of plants that deer have a palate for such as taxus (yew), thuja (arborvitae), tsuga (hemlock), rhododendron, azalea, euonymus (burning bush), hosta, daylily, tulips, crocus, and others. At the end of this article, there is a list of plants that deer love to eat."

http://www.myohiolandscape.com/deer-res ... plants.cfm

the article does give a list of deer resistant plants. If you have a bunch of hungry deer though, nothing is deer proof!

Just after sunset and before dawn are good times to watch for deer. Or water the ground around your shrubs well so that it is soft and look for footprints.

[Aself]

Dear Rainbow Gardener--This is indeed disheartening! Our euonymous have been so beautiful for such a long time. Because of their spotless record, last year we planted 9 more on the other side of the walkway next to our house. They doubled our pleasure when we walk from front to back yard. They are also obviously helping to hold our hill. There is a large drop-off to the street below and the hill has been eroding since time began.

Yikes! The azaleas in front are now on the endangered list as well!

If I had your phone number, I could text you a photograph of our euonymous before the deer attack right now because I have one on my cell phone. I'm going to check to see whether deer love crape myrtles because we just planted 8--which I purchased from Clint the Crape Myrtle Guy in Waxahatchie, Texas. Clint is wonderful and the crape myrtles are as yet undiscovered by deer.

I will also try to capture a shot of the euonymous after leaf loss. I could also try to figure out how to upload the photograph on my cell phone to this Helpful Gardener site, though that is more than I can do right now given my downcast state of mind and load of student essays to read for tomorrow.

Appreciatively--Anna

P.S. I am now going to check the list you sent for crape myrtles.

[Aself]

Yeah! Crape Myrtles are not listed!

Onward!

Aself