I have a Aucuba Japonica ( crontoifolia) the leaves are starting to go black what is the problem

someone has just been talking about paint like marks on their roses, apparently thats black spot, have a peek and see if its similar,

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I had this on my Crotonifolia, The male plant, I have a number of the male and female but just this one it happened exactly the same, could not identify it with any of the deficiency or wind damage description in the pest diseased and difficiency book, so I just cut off all the affected part of the bush, and it seemed ok, but not as robust as my other ones. Two years Since that time I have moved it through nacessity, its ok but I notice one or two leaves looking a little suspect so all I can say is cut them out and hope for the best unless anyone can come up with the answer, I will be watching this space!

Looking in one of my books it first mentions frost damage but if you have ruled this out through pruning out damaged bits try looking up phytophthora . Check out base and roots of plant.Cause is various species of soil or water born fungus,possibly no cure.Sorry to sound so negative and I really hope I'm wrong :(

I Looked up Phytophthora, but my shrub roots looked very healthy when I moved it. Thanks for the suggestion Aster, if we don't look we wont find out!

I dont know if you have pets Paisley, could someone be using this area for a toilet?

seems very strange

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