Hardy Tropicals UK

I notice these two conifers going brown, are these trees dieing?

Anything that can be done?

They're both junipers. They might live, but they won't ever look good again, so I'd be inclined to get rid of them and put something else new in.

Junipers tend to suffer from Phytophthera which causes browning like this. The second picture looks as if it could be Chamaecyparis 'Boulevard' (is it?) which is never long lived and tends to get a mess. (Good garden centre plant - bad garden plant!) Either way, conifers do not take to pruning and will not re-grow from old wood if you trim them so I suggest dig up and burn in case its Phytophthera and spreads.

Ian Cooke wrote:Junipers tend to suffer from Phytophthera which causes browning like this. The second picture looks as if it could be Chamaecyparis 'Boulevard' (is it?) which is never long lived and tends to get a mess. (Good garden centre plant - bad garden plant!) Either way, conifers do not take to pruning and will not re-grow from old wood if you trim them so I suggest dig up and burn in case its Phytophthera and spreads.

Ian, i have about 20 of these i would like to get rid of at some stage. My conifers are about 10ft high but i have been trimming them for about 18 years & the stumps are now pretty thick. They were the fast growing leyandi type i mixed golds with the standard green colour. Whats the best way of attacking the stumps when the tree is cut down, how far approx will i have to dig around to get all the root out?. Also apart from bamboo what is there that will create a nice dense hedge fast growing. thanks karl.

I would say that in the case of the first conifer (probably a Juniper as Ian said) it's just a case of bad pruning.

Looks to me like what has happened is that the plant has outgrown the space & been hacked back to the edge of the border, just look at its shape. Nothing grows square like that.

I would take issue with Ian as regards conifers not growing back from old wood though. Thuja's especially Thuja plicata will take cutting back & smell fantastic.

Then there is Yew, old hedges can be renovated by cutting one side back to the main trunk, allowing a couple of years to recover then repeating on the other side. I saw this done at (I think) Arley Hall, frightening at first but the result was amazing.

Conifers' going brown

Must be sunny in Newcastle

The sun shines on the righteous!

billo wrote: I would take issue with Ian as regards conifers not growing back from old wood though. Thuja's especially Thuja plicata will take cutting back & smell fantastic.

Then there is Yew, old hedges can be renovated by cutting one side back to the main trunk, allowing a couple of years to recover then repeating on the other side. I saw this done at (I think) Arley Hall, frightening at first but the result was amazing.

You are quite right that yew grows back from hard pruning and is indeed a conifer. Thuja may well respond in the same way although I have not done it. However its an established fact that conifers in general will not regrow from old wood. Prune into the green and you are OK but prune back to the hard wood and they'll do nothing as many people have found trying to prune overgrown Leylandii!

Thuja species only have very limited regrowth ability - cut them back like Ian's photo above, and they'll be dead. Same applies to most junipers (there are 2 or 3 species that will coppice, but they aren't in widespread cultivation) and all cypresses.

There's cutting back then there is Ian's pic. I fully agree with Ian - cutting back that hard will kill almost anything - except Yew.

Rather I was making the point that some conifers will respond to a degree of fairly hard pruning (but not almost total destruction!).

A lot of Conifers dieback occurs from wind damage and drought,

I love my Goldcrest lemony trees. Nothing small about them. I trim to a column and allow it to gain good height.

At my last house I had to resite it, got to well over 5ft and climbing. I now have another three at my new home, here is an 18 month one...nice lemon smell when you brush by them.

I had none go brown. Fleece in winds and winter.

Reviving a Leylandii hedge - this one is near me where they've freshly shaped it on one side where it used to be a monster-big hedge, which I think is quite clever Some more pictures via the link.