Ceanothus - Put it out of its misery?

[allen81]

We moved into our current house three years ago. In the back garden, there was a beautiful ceanothus. Judging by its size, form, and the thickness of its trunk/stem, I assume it is old (for a ceanothus).

For the first two years of our time with it, every spring, it flowered spectacularly, especially last year. However, this year, I noticed that after winter, it lost half of its leaves, and they never grew back. This spring, we got a few sad looking blooms, but nothing compared to previous years.

I can't see any disease. This year, I pruned it because it clearly needed it. I removed the dead, diseased, and damaged parts, but if anything, it looks even more sorry for itself. Is it dead or slowly dying? Was last year’s flowering its final hurrah? Has it likely reached the natural end of its life, or could I do something to bring it back to its best?

My hunch is that it's dying, and I should probably put it out of its misery, but I wanted to get a second opinion before doing so. It was a beautiful specimen, and I'd be sad to see it go. There is fresh growth from shoots at the bottom, fully leaved and looking healthy. It's just the other 95% of it that is the problem.

 

[Anniekay]

That tree adds a lovely architectural focal point to your garden. I would remove the long branches that are coming out all the way, (almost) to the ground, shorten the other lower branches by one third but wait until late fall to do this trimming. Then in early spring I'd give it a good dose of compost and see how it gets on.

It would be a shame to cut it down, it's lovely.