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I have two small siberian cypress bushes planted at the front of our front
garden and chose them for that site because of their tolerance of cold
weather ... I live north of Toronto in Canada ... and of dry soil conditions.
My concern is that both look fine on top but the lower branches are turning
brown and dying on me. I know that our soil is alkaline ... could that be
the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated ... this is a problem
spot and I was really hoping that these bushes would be the answer there.
They should not be bothered by alkaline soil. Many of the evergreen groundcovers like Microbiota and creeping junipers will have the bottom branches die, mainly due to lack of light because of the above branches. If the tops are OK, I expect the plants will be fine. Even Chamaecyparis will have their inner branches die in mid-summer...it can lok quite bad for a while but it is the natural course of the plant.
Todd -- Thank you so much for your quick response ... it's good to know that alkaline soil isn't the problem, and that neither are the brown lower branches. The tops are very green and healthy looking.
One more question, if you don't mind ... I've read that they are tolerant of dry conditions, but do they need a fair bit of watering the first summer to get them established? I put these bushes in the front
garden in May.
