Sorry for the lack of info.

There has been nothing unusual lately. We did have late frosts but that was over back in April.

I have 5 others at the house that are doing well. This one is even putting out healthy new growth.

A couple weeks ago it was blistering hot for a few days on a row with no rain. Then it stayed hot and rained several inches over a few days.

Soil is heavy and mostly clay.

I gave up on Rocky Mountain juniper cultivars 25 years ago, they're just too disease prone in TN. Diseases that are mostly cosmetic on our native redcedars kill J. scopulorum.

Symptoms COULD indicate Botryosphaeria. If so, no control other than prune out dead wood and hope.

Thanks, Ken! That indicates too much water, correct?

It was just very strange to me that the one next to it is completely unaffected.

I pruned our the portions that were fading. It was the “newer” growth off the main cane.

New growth on damaged tree:

Thus tree is about 30 yards away and in amended soil with afternoon shade:

I will probably continue to post I this thread, if only for personal documentation.

Do you use any alternatives to the Rocky Mountain varieties?

I don’t necessarily need juniper. I figured the Spartan variety would fare worse so I stayed away.

None of the scopulorums do well in high humidity. I'm betting your others will follow sooner or later. I had several 'Wichita Blue' hang on for years in a slow, ugly decline.

FWIW I have Spartans that I really love, Also DeGroot's Spires if you want something more narrow. My Chamaecyparis Blue 'Fuzzy Dwarf' is a beautiful fine textured blue.

Ask over in 'conifers' for loads more suggestions.

to repeat.. i also gave up on a bunch of named varieties of these things.. because they were so problematic .... every time they grew to a good size ... they simply started declining ...

sooo .. i started planting other things instead of wasting many years trying to grow a plant with a death wish ...

btw.. install a mulch ring around each plant.. to keep the dude with the weedwhip away from the trunk ...

ken

Haha Ken, I wish I didn’t plant so many suicidal junipers.

I really only went with these because every kind of arborvitae is wildly popular as a builders grade tree around here.

cearbhaill, I might try the Spartans. I‘m looking for something tall, slender, and an uncommon color. I think DegRoot Spire is out. But if it’s builders grade because it performs so well I might need to stop being a snob. /wow that was obvious

I kept researching and stumbled across this resource from Ohio State.

http://u.osu.edu/ornamentaldiseasefacts/nursery/botryosphaeria-canker-and-dieback/what-is-it-what-to-do-about-it/

I'm pretty convinced a canker got to the juniper. The area between brown/green was very rigid in addition to the healthy portions putting out lots of new growth.

I'll start following prevention protocols now.

It's been a week and there is no evidence of further damage.

I did have a 5ft Leyland Cypress kick the bucket earlier this summer. It took less than 10 days from me noticing anything might be wrong to having it be ENTIRELY brown and dead.

I wonder if it was the same thing.

I'd think having the downspout directed at the base of the one in the last picture would backfire at some point. Otherwise if it keeps developing in that spot it is soon going to overwhelm the plants around it. If the crape myrtle behind it is a comparatively large growing one - and it does not appear to have a dwarf habit - just that by itself will grow much bigger than there is room for in that corner. And you have this and the juniper right on top of each other, with smaller growing plants right in around these two as well.

Likewise the junipers in the lawn are very closely spaced, even for a hedge.