We have a mature Monkee Puzzle tree here in Parksville. It's a mature tree (diameter about 12 inches and height of 35 feet). We just noticed that Ãt's starting to look very chlorotic and the branches are starting to die back from the trunk ( ie turning brown). Our house was built in 1980 so we are assuming that it's about that age. We're concerned that we are going to lose it and were wondering if anyone had heard of this happening before. It's at the edge of our garden and we have a gunnera that's right next door to it that gets watered once a day for 15 minutes with a soaker hose so water shouldn't be an issue. Last year, we pruned off the lower branches as they had gone brown. The base of the tree is covered with fabric landscape fabric and is covered in large field stones.
Why your conifer is named after The Monkees pop group is a puzzle indeed. And a mature example is more than double 35' tall. But anyway others have been losing theirs in recent years in this area, the deterioration you have described does not sound promising. I haven't seen any announcements of why this is happening. Otherwise, if the liberally watered Gunnera is a new addition it seems possible the tree has been affected by the dampness.
We've only been here a year so it's hard to say how long the gunnera has been here. The bole of the Monkee puzzle would be about 12 feet away from the soaker hose. Some neighbours of ours who also own a house in Victoria have said that some of the Monkee puzzles in Victoria are being affected also.
It's spelled monkey puzzle, the idea being a monkey wouldn't be able to climb on its sharp leaves. There's a disease issue affecting the tree in the wild, have not heard if the local problem is thought to be related.
