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Dying Bush
Trevor White
Posts: 8
Hi. First ever post on here. I'm no specialist gardener but I do love my garden and enjoy pottering.
I have this (unidentified) bush that has a lovely aroma and flowers beautifully. But last year part of it started dying off. It has 2 main trunks. The last time it happened I pruned the discolouring branches off and it did well. Now the right hand side is doing the same. At this rate I'm going to be left with one small bunch of leaves and not much else. It was once quite a size.
I hope the photos show that the foliage on the left hand trunk is fine yet everything on the right hand trunk, appears to be dying. 
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Posts
Welcome trevor, it's a choysia, mexican orange blossom. This sometimes happens usually due to a wound or break in the stem lower down the plant. You can prune it out if you get a total die back, they do come back with time. It will look a bit unbalanced, but don't give up on it just yet.
Plus, that one looks fairly elderly (in choisya terms) so it's possible that minor damage in its early life has finally taken its toll, and the flow of sap up that main stem has been interrupted somehow. As above, cut it out (it aint gonna recover), and re-shape the shrub. Gives you some room for something else. Low geranium like G. 'Havana Blues' or 'Rozanne'.
H-C
Yes that's it. A Choisya. I put it in about 10 years ago and as you brush past it, you get a lovely aroma. Would be a real shame to lose it.
Is there a best time to cut it back? It's one of our Xmas light bushes. Come the time in Dec to flick the switch, there's not going to be much left to display.
Many thanks, I'm going to like this site.
Cut it back now before winter sets in. This will give the cut time to heal naturally and in spring the new growth will appear.
Thanks. The affected trunk is actually loose under ground. You can rock it from side to side.
I'll cut it back.
A bit of an update.
On trying to remove the dying side, it soon became evident that the whole root was loose. Digging down a bit further, the roots were just not there. And so the whole bush pulled from the ground! That's the end of that one.
I'm now off to the garden centre to try to replace it with another as it was lovely when in flower and the smell was also good.