Can you identify the problem with these (possible) viburnums

I have a client with viburnums that are showing stress in the form of burned looking leaves. They had previously been healthy. They are not certain what the cultivar is - I suspect some kind of trilobum. They finally got a few flowers this year because their landscapers had been pruning them every spring, therefore eliminating all flowers and fruit. For a time I persuaded them not to prune for size but they did it anyway. And now, I am seeing this, as shown in the picture.

I can see that new buds are forming, and again, they cut them back every year, but I do not recognize this condition. Can anyone identify it?

Thanks for any suggestions.

And, by the way, I have several viburnums, including trilobums, and they are fine.

I'm missing something - or misunderstanding your description of the problem.

I agree that these are a pretty dense selection of Viburnum trilobum - aka Viburnum opulus var. americanum by the taxonomical lumpers. The images looked like plants at the end of summer, going into fall, with foliage turning colors and a lot of foliage missing. I don't see what you mean by burned.

This has been an above-average year for rainfall in the midwest. Has that been the condition at this site? Is it a very well-drained site, or could it be waterlogged at all? Other than obsessively excessive pruning, what other conditions or treatments are these plants experiencing?

Unfortunately, this is one of the viburnum species that prefers northerly gardens, and I have few of these (a handful of Viburnum trilobum Redwing™ from Mike Yanny of Johnson's Nursery in Milwaukee) from which to offer experience. This species doesn't like the heat and humidity of the Ohio River valley region here.

If you can provide a few more images...

A shot of the entire planting would be good, to show context. Some closeups of individual branches, stems, leaves (top and bottom) are good to describe the conditions. Prune off some pieces of the plants (that doesn't seem to bother anyone else) and take them where you can get excruciatingly clear close images of the problem(s).

I should have been clearer. Only some of them look like this. They have five. The other three plants of the same type that look pretty fully leafed out. The others, including the ones in my personal yard (got them from Gary Ladman earlier this year) are fully leafed out. What you could not see, because it was not there, is that some of the sections were brown and looked burnt - I cut them off.

Thank you. I will take the types of pictures that you describe when I am on site Monday.

If you saved any of the cut off pieces - those would be valuable to analyze. If not, so be it.

Those bare stems with the prominent buds - are they bare because the leaves have abscised normally for fall, or do you know if there is something else going on there?

I hope you don't have Viburnum Leaf Beetle, or something awful like that. Here is a good resource to understand this pest of this genus: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/

If you have had a lot of wet weather, you might just have an intinerant foliar disease - fungus of some kind - that could cause leaf browning and premature leaf drop.

We DEFINITELY don't have the Viburnum Leaf Beetle. That was the first thing I thought of. I became a Master Gardener a year ago -happily I've been gardening since 1996 so it was easy - but the really useful thing about it is that you get the heads up on potential disease because it is presumed that people will ask you about it. So I researched it a few months ago, and I am happy to say, as a big time viburnum owner, that it hasn't reached us. Neither has the lily leaf beetle, by the way. Lilium is not at all popular in this part of the midwest. I grow 90% of the lilies in my city. I'm in the land of hostas and daylilies and Autumn Joy sedum.

But we have had a TON of wet weather - real saturation. I control it on my roses with sprays of sulphur and my viburnums are well spaced. I do know that the leaf drop is extremely premature. The balance of these plants on their property are still fully leafed. I see the fact that buds are forming as a very good sign. I think you nailed it. I love the use of the word itinerant connected with fungus. I see little funguses with backpacks with their thumbs gesturing that they need a ride to the next plant.

Thanks!