I have two bottlebrush bushes/trees in my front yard. Neither have fully recovered from the last cold-snap that we had earlier in the year.
The larger and previously healthier/prettier of the two is completely brown. The only green leaves are on new shoots coming out of the ground at the base of the tree.
The second one (which is more of a bush) does have some green leaves on the existing branches, but most of the leaves are brown and dead.
I just got a letter from my HOA saying I have 15 days to get rid of the dead foliage. What should I do? Take the tree-like one out completely and prune the bush of everything but the (few) green leaves that it has? Take them both out? I'm afraid if I prune the one that does have some green leaves, it will look worse than what is there now (because it's going to be pretty puny and asymmetrical if I remove the dead leaves). Also, there is new growth among the dead leaves, so how do I know what to prune?
And I thought bottlebrush were supposed to be hearty plants. I don't really understand why mine have died (especially since a couple of years ago we had a spring freeze that literally left icicles hanging from them and they survived that). Several of my neighbors have various sized bushes and trees, and I'm the only one whose died.
The larger and previously healthier/prettier of the two is completely brown. The only green leaves are on new shoots coming out of the ground at the base of the tree.
The second one (which is more of a bush) does have some green leaves on the existing branches, but most of the leaves are brown and dead.
I just got a letter from my HOA saying I have 15 days to get rid of the dead foliage. What should I do? Take the tree-like one out completely and prune the bush of everything but the (few) green leaves that it has? Take them both out? I'm afraid if I prune the one that does have some green leaves, it will look worse than what is there now (because it's going to be pretty puny and asymmetrical if I remove the dead leaves). Also, there is new growth among the dead leaves, so how do I know what to prune?
And I thought bottlebrush were supposed to be hearty plants. I don't really understand why mine have died (especially since a couple of years ago we had a spring freeze that literally left icicles hanging from them and they survived that). Several of my neighbors have various sized bushes and trees, and I'm the only one whose died.