Hello my fellow gardeners. I have a New Zealand Tea Tree, Ruby glow (leptospermum scoparium) and over the summer (southern California) I got complacent with the watering and though they are drought tolerant this summer was extra hot and my once lovely lady seems to have crisped up. About two weeks ago I cut off a good amount of her dead limbs in the hope that it would help but she has continued dying. Do I cut off more of the dead brush? All of it? What parts/where do i cut- like do I cut off whole thick branches or just the dead offshoots from the branches? Is she a lost cause? Any help is incredibly appreciated, she's one of my absolute favorite plants in my garden and I hate that I let it get to this point
Please and thank you so much!

Natalierose127 said:Hello my fellow gardeners. I have a New Zealand Tea Tree, Ruby glow (leptospermum scoparium) and over the summer (southern California) I got complacent with the watering and though they are drought tolerant this summer was extra hot and my once lovely lady seems to have crisped up. About two weeks ago I cut off a good amount of her dead limbs in the hope that it would help but she has continued dying. Do I cut off more of the dead brush? All of it? What parts/where do i cut- like do I cut off whole thick branches or just the dead offshoots from the branches? Is she a lost cause? Any help is incredibly appreciated, she's one of my absolute favorite plants in my garden and I hate that I let it get to this point
Please and thank you so much!

Maybe cut off the dead parts, see if trunk is still alive.

Trunk is alive -> Maybe if you take good care it will grow back
Trunk is dead -> The plant is probably all dead.

@sedumzz thank you so much for your help! Is the trunk the biggest part down at the base? Do I cut it all the way down to the base and not leave any branches?

Start cutting at the top and keep on going until you reach green wood. Brown wood is dead and won't re-grow. I'm sorry. I hope there is a bit of it alive, so it can survive.

lets hope you get some green wood! good luck, Natalierose.

@plantmanager and @breith95 thank you both so so much!!!!!

Please give us an update on your plant!

Yeah! We would like to see the update.

Having dealt with this myself (several times, sadly ), if the leaves are crispy the plant is toast.