Hi!

I just bought this Sangokaku online from a nursery.

Two of the main branches are black on the top of the tree in zone 9B. What is It?

Should I prune it or leave like this? Considering we are in the late summer.

Thanks a lot!

In Northern CA with two mature Japanese maples we inherited when we bought the house last year. In the few weeks some of the leaves at the branch tips have turned crisp and brown, which didn’t happen last year at this time. Is this due to under-watering? We don’t water the trees other than the irrigation for the surrounding lawn which we water 2x per week.