Death Soil!

emailroses

Help: we have reasonably good soil, annually treated with manure and compost.
In one patch we first lost a 10 yr white beam, more recently lost 5 Queen of Sweden roses (we have others as part of the rose hedge still doing ok), last year lost 11 viburnum tinus in the same area.
So some plants in front of/behind this area are fine and some plants have died.
Any ideas please?

BobTheGardener

The most likely culprit is Honey Fungus.  Affects mainly woody plants and some things are more susceptible than others:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=180

emailroses

Thanks Bob

jameshtracey

Could be worse though, a lot of Oomycetes (pythium, phytopthera etc.) are soil infections and will kill woody plants over time which shows more pronounced than herbaceous perennials. Is the soil wetter than other areas or poorly drained? If this is the case you have a real soil problem.