I reckon the poor thing has had it and its just in for a slow death. What a shame. I hope someone will disagree with me!

Yes, it does look sad Stera, was hoping last year to save it as it was bought as a gift by my daughter on the day my grandaughter started school so means a lot, coincidentally Lizzie is taking her A levels soon and then will leave school....

Hi Sue, sorry to ay this, but it looks as though it could be honey fungus, try scraping some bark away at the base, look out for a paper thin layer of white or creamy white fungal tissue, Viburnum are prone to it, unfortunately there is no cure for it, the only thing to do is dig it out, and burn it, sorry.
But look on the bright side, once it's out, you'll have a fairly large piece of land, which you can put more plants in!!, Derek.

To be honest it looks like its on it's way out, normally you would cut the whole plant down and it will respond but with all that fungus then it's possibly a waste of time, what you could do is take some soft wood cuttings in may/June that way you will still have the same plant that your daughter brought you, also I would grub out the old plant, clear away the poor soil and fill with some decent soil and hopefully if your cuttings work then you could plant out in the new space.

Thankyou Derek and Julien, I was suspecting the worst, I will certainly try with some cuttings, should be a fun job getting the root out, good job I'm a tough Taurus gardener lol...

It's not honey fungus showing on the trunk, its one of the bracket fungii - doesn't matter anyway, once brackets appear, the plant's definitely on its way out and the process of being broken down has already begun. If you can wait till mid June, you could try taking semi hardwood cuttings from the growth at the top, but even that seems to be, or have been, suffering from Viburnum beetle infestation, to which this variety is particularly prone. Might be worth a try though, as it has sentimental value - propagate from the healthiest shoots, then remove the shrub.

Thankyou Bamboo...

Peel away some of the bark and see if there is a sheet of white fungus between that and the wood which is what happens with honey fungus. It also has black strap-like threads undeer the soil all around the plant affected. I'm confused though because Armillaria mellea is brown and scaly and isn't a bracket. Can anybody enlighten me please?
Are there two varieties both called that?

The picture doesn't show honey fungus, Armillaria, so probably one less thing to worry about.

Accept Bamboo's advice... this shrub is on its way out!

Sorry Bamboo I didn't notice you'd said it isn't honey fungus.
I was pretty sure it wasn't but hesitated just in case two things were called the same thing - it happens with some plants.

Just fyi, Steragram - honey fungus produces honey coloured toadstools around September time, but is invisible the rest of the year, unless you look through the soil for "black bootlaces".

I remember finding my first ones on a stump in field years ago and getting excited because I hadn't seen them before- I didn't know then how dangerous they could be . The ones in Linc's pic are nothing like them, but you know how often two completely different varieties have the same common name so I thought best not to be too dogmatic! So I did in fact have a look on google and was surprised to find some white ones listed as honey fungus which made me hedge my bets. Perhaps it was just a poor photograph. Couldn't find the link when I looked again today.

The white growth is not like any bracts that I've ever seen growing before, its very dry and if you scrape it then it turns powdery, the best way to describe it is to say its as though someone has sprayed the trunk with that horrible plastic foam stuff one uses for filling in gaps, I've been looking at lots of pages in my books and on the web but cannot find it.....

Trametes suaveolons; Rigidoporos ulmarius; Climocodon septentrional:- these three are just some of the white bracket fungi which occur on dying woody trunks. There are images of various types online, most of them only labelled 'white bracket fungus', though they don't all look quite the same. If you haven't done it already, Google 'white bracket fungus on trees' and click on Images at the top, if you want to be convinced that these are definitely bracket fungii.

Oh no I don't need convincing Bamboo, I'm very appreciative of all the help given, its just that I've spent ages looking on web and in my books and could not find the darn thing, as I said its really weird stuff, I like to know what I'm up against as to that piece of ground in future years and what effect it could have on anything else planted there...I don't recognize the names, by the time I've finished I might be able to pronounce some of them, have to admit I'm always fascinated when reading about them, I could even end up knowledgable in my old age, lol.....

Got news for you Lincslass - I dunno how to pronounce those names either, though I'd probably have a poor stab! Bracket fungus occurs on dying and dead wood, so if you remove that plant and have its roots bored out, there shouldn't be a problem from the fungus later. What's intriguing is what killed, or is killing, the plant in the first place - bracket fungus won't be the cause, merely a symptom of imminent demise. Did you notice any cracking or anything on the main trunk in earlier years?

No nothing at all until last year when it first started looking sick.
Not sure whether it could be anything to do with it but we did lose a plum tree a few years ago, it had gone rotten right down in the trunk and literally split itself in half, it used to be approx 10ft away from this shrub but thinking back the suckers were a darn nuisance and used to come up a long way from the actual tree itself, is it possibly something in the ground left over from that, mind you that didn't ever have anything showing on its trunk or the branches like this one does......

Have a look at Tyromyces caesius (used to be called Polyporus caesius)Underneath these go grey-blue with age. Probably not this though as its usually on dead conifers but you never know. Or Postia Caesiou. But better, you could ring
Anthea Ashmore on 01529 413890 who could tell you the contact details of the fungus expert of the Lincs. Wildlife Trust who would probably be interested to help.

This plum tree - did you leave the roots and stump in the ground after it died? Honey fungus may have developed on that, and that's what's killing off the Viburnum, though, as I said, the bracket fungus we can see is not related to the honey fungus at all - bracket fungus is secondary, and appears when a plant is dying already from some other cause, which in this case, if you did leave the dead plum tree stump and roots in situ, might well be honey fungus.

Afraid so Bamboo, that tree had been in the ground since the early 40's, we'd need an expert or a tractor with a chain on it to remove that I think.....

right, well then, honey fungus in that planted area is a distinct possibility. You might keep an eye out around September time for honey coloured toadstools, but I'm afraid it means that any further replanting in that area will need to be honey fungus resistant planting. Which essentially means most woody plants are excluded, though I recall that Pittosporum are reasonably resistant.

Thanks Bamboo, I appreciate that info.....

RHS has a list of honey fungus resistant plants... doesn't mean they won't get it (unless they're soft, like Phormium and herbaceous perennials), but its less likely, depends on the particular strain of honey fungus.

Yes I have been reading up on the various pages, have to say there are a lot more than I ever realised .....