Help with a large Ceanothus tree

peterjenkins

Hi, I've got a 9 year old roughly 10ft high Ceanothus tree and has been going from strength to strength, until this winter. It has frost damage and most of the leaves look dead, there are just a few branches near the bottom with green leaves on. I've done the finger nail scrape test and the main branches appear to be still alive (showing green). What could I do next to help the tree stay alive?



peterjenkins

This is the tree.

clematisdorset

I am not an expert, but I do have a large ceanothus and every year parts of it die off, but I am in the coastal south all be it with strong winds rushing in. However, when parts of my ceanothus go brown, I wait usually until the flowering is over ,(May-June usually) and then snip out anything that looks too unsightly. Did you receive bad weather, too much up and down weather, frost,wind, rain? Is it in a sheltered spot? Whereabouts in the country is the tree?

punkdoc

They are natives of California, so not fully hardy, especially after such a hard winter.
Also they are short lived, so it may be at the end of its natural life.

Dovefromabove

I bet that's a beauty when it's in flower 

It will have had a hard time in the dry summer, followed by a very odd winter with some bitter chills interspersed with mild spells.  I think I would cross my fingers, make sure that what rain we do get can get to the root area, supplementing with some deep watering a couple of times a week as it begins to come into leaf (as I hope it will).  The sort of place it's living is probably a bit of a rain shadow, as it's by a wall.

I wouldn't feed or prune just now ... ceanothus don't like being pruned a lot, and feeding will just add to it's stress.  As I said, cross your fingers and speak kindly to it.  🤞🙂

peterjenkins

Thank you all, we did have a really cold and icy spell in December here in Hertfordshire and the tree struggled from then. It does look stunning when it is in flower and I'm hoping it will again this summer. I will give it more water and keep my fingers crossed.

clematisdorset

It does sound your conditions are different from mine, @peterjenkins, but it is worth checking what happens, as plants  all across the country seem quite slow to get going this year. I may be mistaken, but I thought too much irrigation could be bad for ceanothus and I don't water mine.

Dovefromabove

I'm saying ensure that it's watered when it begins to leaf up and consequently requiring plenty of moisture, because it does look as if it's in the rain shadow caused by the wall, and it is a large shrub which will also have been acting as it's own umbrella.  

robairdmacraignil

If it is any reassurance, I have one of a number of ceanothus in the garden here that was over 90% dead with just a small lower down branch still with green leaves a few years back. When I was sure the higher up branches were dead over 6months after they first went brown I cut them off and the shrub has completely regenerated now to be mostly green and gone through a number of cycles of flowering well. I have found them to have a tendency to produce dead branches occasionally and removing them seems to do them no harm and makes them look better. The biggest one I have here would normally be starting to bloom now but there was some hard frost here in December that burnt off all of the flower buds so missing seeing that in the garden here but some of the other more sheltered ones are starting to flower. I've never watered them and I'd check how damp the soil is before watering if you are going to do so.

Happy gardening!

clematisdorset

I checked mine today and as per usual for this time of year, the leaves are a mix of green and brown ( brown is caused by weathering, eg wind and rain I think). I have several brown and non-productive/ dead stems which I keep on the tree, in order to hang bird-feeders from them. You could try shaking a few branches to see what falls away, but you might want to close your eyes/wear goggles. I think some people are more sensitive to the chemicals in the tree than others. I know your tree looks a bit unsightly, but I would wait to see whether you get any buds before doing anything drastic! In the wild, ceanothus seeds can withstand wildfires and germinate after fire. I believe wet winter rain can sometimes cause root root, so if you have had a lot of rain this winter, that could be something to check.