We bought am ungrafted Camperdown Elm, 5 years ago. Until this year all was well. This year the blossoms were late and now in the middle of June there is no leaves. According to our garden center(which lost 4 of these trees) nobody is selling this tree any more. The most successful ones in the Northwest including the one in Astoria are very old. Any advice would be greatly appreciated because it is such a great tree.
riverview has some examples of this tree. seems like its susceptible to elm leaf miner, as other elms are.
Surprising it is ungrafted - it is usually grafted on top of a tall Wych Elm (the species it is derived from) stem, otherwise it gets no height to weep from. Any Dutch Elm Disease in the area? It is highly susceptible to that.
That HAS been working its way up the coast, although elms are not dropping like flies here--yet. Maybe it has gotten up there by now.
I believe all camperdowns are grafted - all decendants from the same tree. I have read info that suggests that the north amerian "version" of the bark beetle that transports the fungus which casues Dutch elm disease (DED) do not like Wych elms - therefore, while camperdowns are very susceptable to DED they don't typically catch it in North America from the bark beetle. I'm not sure how accurate this information is though. If this is factual, then it your camperdown my not have died from DED. If the tree has any branches with leaves on it that are not completely dried out you should be able to have a sample tested to determine at least if it was DED that killed it. You need a branch about 1 inch in diameter with leaves still attached - again, a branch that isn't completely dried out. Here we can take it to a local university which specializes in argiculture to be tested. Cost is about $55.
