OOPs on the watering. i will stop. Thanks Lgteacher! i hope I haven't killed it. I love this tree!

You haven't noticed any fresh growth since the deep watering? In well drained soil with hot summers, once a month deep watering shouldn't hurt it. If the soil isn't well draining and stays too wet, that could be a problem, but even more so in cooler weather of winter.

dig a bit around it and see how wet the soil is before watering again.

I just lost the very same tree. I live in Arizona and ours didn't bloom this year so we checked it out. Same issues as yours, we lost all the leaves and the ends of branches were turning brown. Then we noticed that the usually green trunks were turning gray. It was a boring type bug. It is coming down now off it's own, because it looks to be dead. We did ask around to experts, there is no help for it. So sorry. I was so sad to lose my tree, it's so pretty in spring with all the flowers. Ours was well over 12 years old. I wish I could give you some advice to save it, but we were told there is nothing to help.

I wonder if it could be the shot hole borer (hope not). LA Times had a good article but I cannot link it. Check it out.

Oops

This post was edited by socks12345 on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 18:55

Borers are a possibility. I looked at the tree today and the main trunk and all the main branches (except one small one) are still green. I would imagine with borers the vascular system would get clogged and the whole tree would be brown. What do you think? It is just weird because it lost all of its leaves so fast. I really don't think my watering was any different. The other plants around the tree are fine: succulents, Hibiscus, Calliandra.

I think I watered incorrectly and I have root rot of some kind. Do you know the symptoms of root rot?

Looks like I have the same thing happening to my museum palo verde tree. It bloomed beautifully this Spring. Then two weeks later I noticed that all the flowers had dropped off. When I checked the branches, the ends were yellowing and browning. I was told I over watered it and I'm really mad at myself for that stupid move! Now my tree is only about 5 feet round and pruning off the dead branches. I'm hoping that the gorgeous green trunk won't turn yellow as well. If it does, there goes $500 down the drain and the loss of an awesome tree.