a picture would be worth a couple million words of speculation ... but if the leaves went from full shade.. to full sun when the sun is at its most intense levels.. most likely.. they got sunburned.. and fried themselves ... otherwise known as scorch ... i would suspect that it has nothing to do with the roots per se ... but the plant might also benefit for some extra watering ... if you notice that the soil is drying much faster with all that sun ... PW is pretty hard to abuse to death .. and i suspect that it will recover.. again.. w/o a pic that isnt easy ... all you can do is watch and wait .... it has plenty of time to reflush.. with leaves that will emerge... acclimated to the new sun levels .... good luck ken

Yes, I've gotten the same feeling...control isn't feasible. So far, however, most of what I've read about this disease indicates that the tree won't likely succumb to the disease. And a lot of what I've read gives the impression that when the weather warms/dries for the summer, that the tree will recover (to a degree)...but will likely be affected again next spring. I'm curious, however, how the existing Weeping Willows there fare when affected. Does the disease kill the trees there or do the trees seem to do OK, despite the disease or ??? Obviously, taking out a 20x25' tree is not light-duty yardwork...and putting in new (and obviously smaller) trees means "starting over" and waiting even more years before I have some shade in the front yard. So I have a big decision to make. If I'm up against curled leaves dropping on my lawn during the wet spring, it might be worth the effort of the cleanup. But if the tree is simply going to die, in part or completely...or if it will be seriously deformed, I'd rather do the removal now while it is still at a somewhat manageable size.

I completely understand and totally respect where your coming from. My tree planting philosophy for my city plot is fairly selfish from a long term perspective. If I had more property / space here, I'd be planting, oak, black cherry & walnut, ginko, sugar maples, dawn redwood, etc. - trees that are fairly to quite long lived. I very much value and appreciate the long lived "legacy" trees. My Green ash is 48 years old and in exceptional condition, (ISA certified arborist was very impressed with it, and it is even looking better now - he said I had the dead limbs so well pruned out it wouldn't even be worth it for him to do anything to it and this tree is a good 60' tall) I am taking very good care of that tree, through it's not as long lived as many, at least it has the potential to make it another 100 years. Unfortunately, no matter what you plant, as you know, city conditions are often extremely hard on trees, and they live much much shorter life spans than they should. I'm convinced that PROPER mulching (meaning as close to going out to the drip line as possible, even with large trees) with good mulch with organic material mixed in plays a huge role in tree health. Unfortunately, this is extremely unpopular for some reason (people love that dang nutrient water sucking weed...Grass), and people want to grow the grass right up to the tree, and when that doesn't work, they just dump more and more soil on top of the roots then throw down some more seed. Remember that tree I showed here a couple weeks ago that had the funny color edges and was diagnosed as having chlorsis, that tree hangs well over my property and provides valuable shade, but it is my neighbors tree, it's buried too deep and has grass growing right up to the tree. My mature maple, about the same age as my neighbors, is growing like a weed and looks very healthy, but it is mulched out to the drip line with nice mulch with organic matter mixed in. My drive to plant very fast growing trees is multifaceted; 1. Like so many of us, I am driven by instant gratification, something most long lived hard wood trees don't give you. I thoroughly enjoy watching how fast my plants and trees grow. In fact, growing my plants and trees (along with my dogs) are about the most exciting, engaging and meaningful activities in my life. 2. I love Hosta. While I am finding some are more sun tolerant with lots of water, there are many that need a more shaded environment. In under 2 years, the weeping willow has gotten large enough that I was able to plant Halycon under it, and it is looking great. I want to keep packing my yard full of hosta and need at least partial shade for many of them to do well. I've added almost 80 hosta to my front yard in the last 3 weeks. Fire & Ice, Christmas Tree & August moon are in a large amount of sun currently, and they are doing surprising well, but the sun is moderately hard on them and I am having to remove burnt leaves, as well as giving them copious amounts of water. I have Amoroni Gold, Sum and Subtle and Halycon under the weeping willow, and they are loving the location so far. I've seen some weeping willows aggressively cut back in a really creative way that made them look great, I'd guess it is a form of coppicing. When I get to the size where I need that aggressive of pruning, I'll likely have the ISA certified arborist come out to discuss. When I look at the silver maples that are out growing their terrace space, it seems they are mainly shifting the sidewalk and not so much the curb, not sure why exactly, maybe the curbs are poured deeper. There was a fairly nice looking weeping willow about 2 blocks from here, they cut it down last year for some reason, I thought it looked like it was in good condition. Then about 3 blocks from here, there is an amazing weeping willow that must be 50+ years old. Overall here in the city, there are not very many of them, beside the one I just mentioned, I can only thing of others that are on the waters edge. I'd bet the trees in the city go something like 50%+ Maples (mostly silver) and a portion of that being Locust, 10%-20% pine / spruce, 20% mixed hardwoods, birches, oaks, ash. The rest being a variety of different trees, many softwood, cottonwood, poplars, aspen, etc. We defiantly have a overwhelming abundance of Maples here, and I'd guess that Locust comes in second. So in this area, the willow stands out pretty well. It's unfortunate, but the vast majority of this city is filled with fairly short lived trees. Jamie

If it was mine: I'd cut it WAY back - probably to the first upward growing branch of any significance above above the soil line and cut off the bottom 2/3 of the root mass before pruning out any other problem roots and potting into an appropriate medium. Pictures aren't definitive enough to identify it as of the Salix genus, but if it's a weeping pussy willow it will tolerate that treatment without much protest. Unless you cut the plant back hard, there isn't much you can do but pot up or plant out at this late date (already in leaf) ..... and I wouldn't plant out w/o correcting what you'll find when you start looking at the roots. You might find this helpful. Al