Chamaecyparis obtusa with brown leaves

I planted this in the spring of this year. It has done well until recently when I noticed leaves turning brown. It's in full sun, z5, average water.

Can someone tell me what might be wrong so I can fix it?

kwanjin, in all reality your plant does not look too bad over-all. The browning look's like a watering problem (lack of) but that's only a guess.

Rachel

I'll get another pic in the morning. It's like that all over the tree.

Here is an overall pic. The browner parts are closer to the bottom and slowly moving upwards.

oh kwanjin that's awful! did you try the tree & shrub forum? I have one of these shrubs here in zone 5, I paid a lot of money for it, I planted it & a week or 2 later noticed one small branch turning brown, I panicked and pinched it off with my fingernails. It's been fine since. But my shrub is much smaller than yours. Mine has been watered pretty generously with all the rain here (mine is a gold form). What cultivar is yours? I have had a hard time finding info, these seem to be new to everybody.

Kwanjin, I would agree with Lynnie in response to adding your pic's to the other forum as well but in all reality it does not look like it's heading to a "death bed" thus far;-) I do not have the knowledge to tell you if a disease would be the culprit;-(

Rachel

Thanks for looking and responding. I may try clipping the bad parts. The cultivar is 'Gracilis'. I'll post on the other forums and see if anyone nows.

Wish I could have been more help kwanjin but I will tell you here......I sure did enjoy viewing your sunrise pic's on the photo's thread too.

Rachel

Thank you! LOL Go to the sunset thread in a few minutes and I'll have some more sunsets pics.

Will do.

couldn't remember the name of mine, here it is..verdonii hinoki false cypress. I don't know if these false cypress shed needles or not.

Unfortunately, false cypress will look like that. Their growing conditions are very particular which is why they do so well in the Northwest and Japan. I would try watering more frequently but I believe this something you might have to live with. I am an arborist so I am not guessing. Notice that the brown is inside the plant and not the new growth; very typical. We all have tried growing these and they just don't perform very well without the growing conditions it wants. The Northwest gets a lot of rain at the right time and not a lot of sun. Portland, Oregon is where I have seen some of the beautiful specimens. I tried growing these when I lived in St. Louis and just gave up. They have beautiful blue ones that are the envy of most growers. Sorry for the bad news but perhaps watering it a lit more often will help. Make sure your soil drains well. Andrea

Thanks for your input. It's much appreciated. I will live with it as it does add a beautiful touch. I ran my hands through the dead parts and knocked most of the dead stuff off. It looks better but I'm certain more will show up. I will do as you suggest and increase the watering there. The grass won't mind.

Hi Kwanjin, your choice of plant is one of the few of this type that hates limey soil and does best in a more acidic type soil and cant really tolerate too dry a soil either, so may I suggest you give it a mulch of some leaf mould and perhaps a light sprinkle of acid plant feed, this is best done autumn or spring, but for now, I would give it a regular soaking especially around the root ball, I am not too sure how hot your summer temps are, but for a tree / shrub your size, I would dig with a trowel a hole wide enough to take an upturned empty plastic juice container, (bottom removed) insert the bottle narrow end into the soil and keep the bottom end just above soil level, then when you water the Root area, you just fill up the bottle several times and this way, you know the water is actually getting to the roots and not running off the surface, I feel sure if you scrape some soil away you will find the soil is quite dry under where the roots need the moisture, in a couple of years time, you can remove the plastic bottle as by then the roots will have sent the leaders down in search of moisture and the hairy water seeking ones will be able to colect enough from within the top soil, it is worth a try as it is a lovely tree / shrub and should give you years of worry free pleasure once you get the conditions just right. hope this may help a bit. Good luck. WeeNel.