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Hi all, new home owner, and I have a couple of decorative evergreens (are they Junipers?) at my front door that are looking sort of sad. Is this a blight or insect doing this? or something else? What should I do? Thanks in advance, and hello from Knoxville TN! You can see three photos of the plants, here:
I am having a similar problem. I attribute a lot of it to the hot dry summer we had in NC. I do run my hands over the dead bits to remove them, since they would be an excellent breeding spot for insects. It doesn't remove much, but once the inner twigs are totally dead and dry they do come off.
Is one supposed to be registered with smugmug to see those pictures? I copied and pasted the link you provided into a search but couldn't find the pictures and some of the things that came up for the smugmug site said I needed a password.
sr1, that is a type of ornamental cedar tree and what it's doing is called flagging. It's actually a normal process, browning and shedding of older inner leaves that aren't getting as much light now as the newer outer leaves. Extensive flagging is also an indication that the trees weren't getting as much water as they needed. Cedar roots are very shallow, mostly spreading out a mat of roots within the top 5 inches of surface soil so if the soil at the surface is drying out quickly then that means the roots are drying out too and that's bad for the tree. Most cedars need plenty of water, they aren't drought resistant so the surface soil should be kept evenly cool and moist throughout the hot summer months (but not soaking wet and spongy or else the roots can get a fungal infection).
I'd suggest that you do as luv4horses responded, reach in and remove the dead stuff by hand, or else wash the trees by hand to get rid of the brown flagging leaves. By wash I mean hold a garden hose nozzle into the inner foliage and near the trunk and spray it all over inside there to loosen and wash off the brown foliage so it drops down to the ground. Washing will clean and freshen the healthy interior leaves and branches and allow some more light to get into the interior, and it will wash away any possible cedar mites and other insects that might be hiding in the interior. After you've finished washing the interior, give the whole exterior foliage a good hosing off too.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Originally Posted by Zoisite
Thank you luv4horses, that worked.
sr1, that is a type of ornamental cedar tree and what it's doing is called flagging. It's actually a normal process, browning and shedding of older inner leaves that aren't getting as much light now as the newer outer leaves. Extensive flagging is also an indication that the trees weren't getting as much water as they needed. Cedar roots are very shallow, mostly spreading out a mat of roots within the top 5 inches of surface soil so if the soil at the surface is drying out quickly then that means the roots are drying out too and that's bad for the tree. Most cedars need plenty of water, they aren't drought resistant so the surface soil should be kept evenly cool and moist throughout the hot summer months (but not soaking wet and spongy or else the roots can get a fungal infection).
I'd suggest that you do as luv4horses responded, reach in and remove the dead stuff by hand, or else wash the trees by hand to get rid of the brown flagging leaves. By wash I mean hold a garden hose nozzle into the inner foliage and near the trunk and spray it all over inside there to loosen and wash off the brown foliage so it drops down to the ground. Washing will clean and freshen the healthy interior leaves and branches and allow some more light to get into the interior, and it will wash away any possible cedar mites and other insects that might be hiding in the interior. After you've finished washing the interior, give the whole exterior foliage a good hosing off too.
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I agree, good information and advice. We have big Western Redcedars that do this every year, leaving a mess of small branches all over. It's worse after a long dry summer, though that is rare here.
Wait, when people are identifying this plant as a red cedar, to me this means it's a Juniper species. I don't live in the SE, but the photo doesn't exactly look like a juniper (red cedar) to me. Is it possibly a hemlock?
I seriously doubt the plant is lacking for moisture if it's an established plant in eastern Tennessee- you get plenty of rain there.
Wait, when people are identifying this plant as a red cedar, to me this means it's a Juniper species. I don't live in the SE, but the photo doesn't exactly look like a juniper (red cedar) to me. Is it possibly a hemlock?
I seriously doubt the plant is lacking for moisture if it's an established plant in eastern Tennessee- you get plenty of rain there.
The OP's pictures look like they are of one type out of a variety of North American cedars species, it might be a white or a red or some other cedar, but it's not a hemlock or a juniper which are different species of evergreens. Hemlocks and junipers don't have the same kinds of leaves and scale conformation as the North American cedars. There are several varieties of North American cedars and they all have flat scaled leaves.
sr1, you might find this helpful to identify which type of cedar you have:
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