Damaged Cypress

Hello Anne,

We have 15 cypress trees that are at least 30 feet tall. They are
beautiful however, when we purchased our home the previous owner had
morning glories blooming and growing up them. Our gardener said we
needed to remove the vine as it was strangling the cypress. He
removed all of the morning glories and the bottom of the cypress
trees were left brown and dead looking. It has been two years and
they have not filled nor any green branches returning to them. What
should I do?

Thank you,
Steffani


Anne's response

Steffani,
It is not unusual for the lower limbs of evergreens to die as the plants
get older. If the tips of branches are cut or damaged the foliage on the
limb closer to the trunk usually is not regenerated when the old foliage
turns brown. Scrape the bark on one of the limbs to see if there is any
green cambium layer still visible. If not, you need to remove the
damaged limbs at the trunk. Planting a groundcover under the plants may
help fill in the spot until the bottom limbs drop down to fill in the
space left when you removed the damaged ones.