Hi bernd- Not much worth saving. These can take quite a bit of cold even on a standard. When you remove it, take a look at the trunk to see if there was some mechanical or critter damage.

tj

oh come on bernd.. ITS DEAD .. lol ...

replace in fall ... with.. imo.. something better than a juniper ...

how ya been, old friend?

your gardens are too nice.. to mess with this thing on hopes of recovery ...

be done with it ...

ken

I suspect-as TJ says also-that you will find the trunk girdled by voles or other gnawing critter. almost always the case. And BTW, global warming is simply far too simple a concept for the range of climate anomalies expected with the enormous increase in CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) currently spiking in our atmosphere. In other words, it is totally within this model that some places will actually get colder. The earth's climate machine is complex and we've fiddled with it as if unconscious But this is likely nothing to do with that.....or the connection is so vague and mixed in with other aspects as to be undefinable.

My question,,you got hostas and juniper next to each other ?

with direct opposite sun and water requirements ?

maybe it drowned

ron

Ive got a

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Fernspray Gold'

or three that look like that. :)

Thank you all! This browning happened only in April/May, before that foliage was blue-green, but probably dead already. Looking again at the trunk where it comes out of the ground, I noticed peeled-up bark, with that bark feeling like paper. I scratched that 'bark' off with my finger nails, removed soil and see wood without bark :

There were no vole runs and holes. Last summer and fall I used 1" dia PVC pipe runs (like a Z) with poison pellets against voles. Pellets now remain uneaten in those Z runs since last fall. The bark might have rotted away over the last 10 years.

The juniper looks like planted too deep, but should not have drowned because it sits 10 in above the bottom of a dry creek and 3 ft away which carries water from house gutters to a place 65 ft away. I water that area for 1 hour when there was no rain for a week, turn on/off manually an overhead sprinkler. I also have a healthy 12 ft Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gracilis' in a vegetable garden, no rotting of the bark. My 'van Akker' sits 6 ft away from the dry creek across from the juniper and is happy

I just bought a Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Compacta', will plant it somewhat high.

Thanks again!

Bernd

ya know.. some Js line hundreds of miles of MI roads ... invasive on some level .. though not technically ...

others grow so fast .. they have a whole post and mulch industry around them.. in the south ...

bottom line.. they are weeds ...

so based on that.. i was mulling why yours failed.. apparently nothing better to do today .. lol .. and i saw in my mind.. all those hosta ... and i think to myself.. how most Js are plant and forget plants ... never need a single thing from you ever again ...

and how much water.. all those hosta surrounding them need ... there is a good chance .. you rotted the roots off.. somehow or another ... of course.. you will find that when you dig it up ...

and frankly.. ive had more conifer deaths from a mild winter than i ever did from a bad one.. my theory.. get them dormant.. keep them dormant.. and they are happy ...

but when we have a mild one.. especially if no snow cover.. the soil can warm.. and they go in and out of dormancy.. and lots of stuff dies.. especially back when i did roses ...

there.. two theories.. alone and in combination ... are the best reasons i can come up with ...

ken