with 50% of the canopy dead.. its dying ... how long it takes.. in tree years.. is unknown ... all dead stuff has to be removed.. and by that time... and cost.. you may as well remove it all .. yes.. its shocking ... welcome to home ownership ... it really doesnt matter why ... but if you want to find out.. you can hire a certified arborist to come and tell you why ... but you will still have to remove all hanging dead stuff... especially if it is overhanging your house .. or your neighbor.. whether you like them or not ... though we had a horrible MI winter.. none of my 20 oaks of various ages were affected ... you might want to ID and save some of the other trees as replacements for this one... dont make the mistake in getting rid of what might be quality trees.. already on the property ... but do get rid of weed trees .... and if your words failed.. as to what you mean by 50% not sprouting.. get us some pix ... ken

How awful! I remember when I lived in Massachusetts in the 1960's and we had a blight called Dutch Elm Disease that destroyed all the Elm trees. It was so sad to see a whole species of trees completely wiped out. About 15 years ago we were having a problem with oaks in Central Florida. I had a nice shade tree in the back yard that just suddenly lost all of it's leaves and died within a week. When it was cut down it appeared that nothing was wrong with it. My neighbor also lost his huge oak that was 5 feet in diameter and over 60 feet high, at the same time I lost mine. The rest of the oaks in our area were okay. His tree was about 150 feet away from mine. A tree that was the same age and size as my neighbors and about 20 feet from his was okay. Very strange. Hopefully this current blight will not affect all the oaks. Rose

I don't think there will be a problem of something like disease or pests killing a whole row of these. Part of the appeal is how pest free they are. Mine took off after a couple of years and got very tall in 3 to 4 years (too tall for me to trim the tops without bending down the branches). Extra water will make them grow faster but once established they are very drought tolerant. They are uniform but not so uniform as to make them all need to look exactly alike and if a part is damaged, unlike for a confer type, it will fill back in quickly. Mine have never had any problems, except one outgrew its spot and created too much shade for my purposes in a bed. They are highly recommended in Texas as a drought hardy plant. Also, they are native and that is another plus.

Dear Lisa, Lemons do not like being pruned,unless you paint over the wound with either expensive wound dressing ... or plain old (cheap)water-base acrylic paint (type you wash the brush clean in water). They also do not like alkaline soils, having the trunk base covered, and get sub-burnt (particularly stems/branches) if in direct sunlight - on paving or by brick walls/asbestos, tin, iron, brick or rock-wool fencing ... ie. materials that store and reflect heat. From the looks of it your tree first was stressed from lack of potash (sprinkle some charcoal or ash around the top of the pot and wash it in - bucket of burnt "two or three pages> newspaper, mixed with water will do the trick; as well as being unhappy about the soil acidity, and sunburnt (leaves and dead stems), or dying-back from previous pruning. I am aware Peter Cunnel does not think you need to seal tree/plant wounds, however he is wrong in many cases; Citrus trees, oaks and mulberries being amongst those where post-prunning die-back can be serious/fatal ... but actually like el-cheapo acrylic paint - dabbed on wounds to seal in moisture and keep disease/bugs/ants out. For the trunk base, think letter W in cross section - where the stem/trunk is the middle and pot edge = two top outer top legs (of 'W'). Rather than dig, just use a dry paint brush to gently clear the soil away until 5~10 mm from where the roots start, then make a dip-bowl effect about 25mm out and curving up to the pot edge. Purpose is so water soaks in well clear of the steam/trunk, and keeps the stem/trunk free of residual moisture and/or fungus growths. Soil acidity is easy in this case (yours). Run down the shop and buy a couple of lemons or oranges, use former on chips/whatever or eat latter, keeping the skins/rinds. Put the rinds in the sun to dry, then put three or four dried half rinds in the dip/bowl of your pot, just out from the tree stem. As the skin rots/degrades, it balances the soil to the citrus tree's preferred measure Sunburn. For the time being move the pot/tree out of the sun and its current position, if possible putting it on grass to avoid heat reflecting up from the paving and back from the brick wall. When it is recovered and bushy again, put it back but place sacking, cardboard, carpet or a dead newspaper under the potbase to insulate against heat/reflected heat. It should be better/recovered in a month or two. Basically you've cooked it, then compounded the problems by pruning it and leaving the wounds open to air. Follow the instructions given and it will recover, then be so happy it might start jumping about and you'll probably find it wants to go 'walkies'. There again, maybe not, but it will be happy. Cheers, Rick. ps. If pruning in the future, wash the cutters in a dettol or eucalyptus-pineOclean solution before and after ... to avoid infecting your plants/trees with disease.