Euonymus are not the only plants that suffer from crown galls, but in over a decade of gardening for other people, that’s where they’ve been the most trouble. Amazingly, given how large and unsightly they can get, most Euonymus can continue on for years with few noticeable ill effects. And with a large, dense bush, they can go unnoticed for years. Because of that, I generally prune them out as soon as I find them – if possible. It is best to prune well below the infected spot. If that means losing a large chunk of the plant, I will usually head back other growth in the area to encourage it to branch out and fill in the blank space.
This photo is from a year or two ago, and shows two galls – already pruned off: the paler of the two is the younger one. (The almost white stems are ones that were growing up under the eaves of a garage roof.)
These photos below are from a plant that I moved a few years ago, at which time I discovered that it had numerous galls. I pruned out all I could, (which resulted in a considerably smaller plant) but when I looked at it this year, not only were the galls back, but the largest one was right where the main stem emerged from the roots. Clearly, there was no way to prune below that gall, and I decided it was best to ditch the plant.
The website for the Missouri Botanical Garden has a decent article on crown galls, with excellent identifying pictures. They recommend sterilizing your pruners after each cut (always a good idea when working with infected plants). Their choice of sterilizer is a bleach solution, but I’ve never been a big fan of bleach – I’ve always used rubbing alcohol instead, and so far it seems to be doing the job. I did find another site that recommended an alcohol solution, which I must say was rather comforting.
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