Dogwood satomi leaves turn brown in 4-5 days

[boniam]

Hi, 

I have a dogwood satomi tree which I planted 7-8 years back. The tree grew slowly but flowers in spring and in last 2-3 years flowers better. I think primary reason to slow growth is it being in full sun. Though i read many place that it can do well in full sun.

 

In any case, this year I thought it bloomed a bit late in early June and looked really nice through June end. Attached are pictures. Pictures with bloom is from June 11 and with brown leaves is from today. I think leaves turned from green to brown in last week or so. What may be reason and is it dead or is there a chance it will come back next year?

 

In past years I have seen different degree of leaf scorch but I don't think i have seen all brown this time. Also, this is in Boston area and this year is unusually wet and my grass is green without watering which is usually has lot of brown patches by this time. I did mulch heavily in April End and may have mulched close to trunk but it did well for month after mulching so not sure if that is the cause.

 

Any idea how to find the cause and any way to recover/survive this tree?

 

 

[Will C]

Scratch the bark on a small branch or 2 with your thumb nail, if it’s green under the bark it’s still alive, if it’s brown and dry it’s dead.

[madmaxtree]

It's possible it's just dealing with some leaf scorch, especially with that unusual wet weather this year. Mulching close to the trunk might not be the culprit since it held up well initially. Keep an eye on the watering, though, 'cause even with all that rain, it might need a little extra TLC.

[boniam]

Apologies for not following up but I thought I will give update and ask few more question before I plant new trees. Bad news is that it was dead. I did see a lot of green fungus on trunk so my best guess is it was because of fungus. There was another tree crabapple tree 15-20 ft from this that is also dead but other tree are not dead. I will be digging these tree out in next couple of days and plan to plant new trees there.

 

Now question is what can I do so my next tree in same spot doesn’t die? I would still like to know if what was the problem and how to avoid that? Any ideas to understand the cause?