Cedar dying?

[mattF4]

Hi, new to this forum but hoping I can get some advice about my cedar, as I love it but it seems to be dying. I believe it's a Himalayan Cedar Aurea but not totally sure. It seemed happy enough until this spring, when it started losing more needles than usual and looking a bit brown. This continued through the summer, with it looking less and less healthy. Now as you can see from the photos it's just about bare - some branches almost completely, while others look more normal.

 

As for history, the pond and flower bed on front of the tree were both created a month or so before it started looking unwell - the pond is about 80cm deep - I did hit a few roots when digging it, but not that many. The flowerbeds are about 1.5m from the base - i tried to avoid digging them too much to avoid damaging roots (of which there were quite a few).

 

Also, the 'hill' next to the base of the tree has been there for about 4 years. However the soil was already raised around the base of the tree - this hill doesn't actually touch the trunk at all (it's about 20-30 cm away).

 

Soy question is this - is there anything I can do to save the tree, or any chance it will just sprout in spring and recover? Or is it a lost cause that I need to get it cut down? I'd obviously much rather keep it if possible! I'm worried that I've inadvertently killed it by damaging roots, but not sure if there is anything I can do now.

 

Thanks so much for any advice,

 

Matt

 

 

[MattyF]

I think it’s finished I’m afraid … last years constant wet weather was ideal for a lot of pathogens already a threat to trees but this one I’ve seen take a lot of them, including one of my favourite that my father had grown from seed last year sirococus blight is worth a google , forum won’t let me post links any more for some reason. 

[judastreefairy]

9 hours ago, mattF4 said:

Hi, new to this forum but hoping I can get some advice about my cedar, as I love it but it seems to be dying. I believe it's a Himalayan Cedar Aurea but not totally sure. It seemed happy enough until this spring, when it started losing more needles than usual and looking a bit brown. This continued through the summer, with it looking less and less healthy. Now as you can see from the photos it's just about bare - some branches almost completely, while others look more normal.

 

As for history, the pond and flower bed on front of the tree were both created a month or so before it started looking unwell - the pond is about 80cm deep - I did hit a few roots when digging it, but not that many. The flowerbeds are about 1.5m from the base - i tried to avoid digging them too much to avoid damaging roots (of which there were quite a few).

 

Also, the 'hill' next to the base of the tree has been there for about 4 years. However the soil was already raised around the base of the tree - this hill doesn't actually touch the trunk at all (it's about 20-30 cm away).

 

Soy question is this - is there anything I can do to save the tree, or any chance it will just sprout in spring and recover? Or is it a lost cause that I need to get it cut down? I'd obviously much rather keep it if possible! I'm worried that I've inadvertently killed it by damaging roots, but not sure if there is anything I can do now.

 

Thanks so much for any advice,

 

Matt

 

 

Fell the bugger , straight on that slide 

[mattF4]

Love it!

On 26/01/2025 at 11:03, MattyF said:

I think it’s finished I’m afraid … last years constant wet weather was ideal for a lot of pathogens already a threat to trees but this one I’ve seen take a lot of them, including one of my favourite that my father had grown from seed last year sirococus blight is worth a google , forum won’t let me post links any more for some reason. 

Thanks - I thought so but was thinking of waiting until spring/early summer just in case it suddenly comes back to life! Maybe best to get it down while nothing else going on in the garden.