NEED HELP with garden plant problem

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Hey everybody,

I'm really not a gardener - just a slave to yard work - but I've really been slacking on the job when it comes to one particular plant in our backyard.

I decided to tackle it today, considering our unusually warm weather (there was snow on the ground less than 48 hours ago; right now it's 70 degrees).

Anyway, as I started hacking off some limbs here and there, I suddenly noticed this white powdery stuff all over (see below). It's in seemingly random, but frequent clusters all over the bark.

Note that this has not been a really healthy-looking plant over the past few years, but it still grows insanely fast during the summer (one reason I fell so behind in its maintenance).

I apologize for not knowing what type of plant it is, but is there anyone out there who could possibly clue me in on what this flaky, white powdery stuff is below?

[image]http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9616/whitepowder01wy4.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/8903/whitepowder02xj6.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3029/whitepowder03fb9.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4877/whitepowder04df6.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9686/whitepowder05hp6.jpg[/image]

Not quite sure why the [image][/image] tags aren't working for me... :confused:

[KimmSr]

To get to those images you need to cut and paste the links into the browser engine, but they are too close to really see what you are talking about. Most often if a plant is not thriving where it is planted the first thing to check is the soil, is this soil what this plant needs to grow in? What is the nutrient load? What is the soil pH? Does the soil drain well, too much, not enough? Second is the amount of light, is the plant getting enough, too much, or not enough?