Should I remove or save my arborvitae?
Arborvitae isn't a habitual problem species, so a sound one is usually worth an opinion before it comes out. It is the default privacy hedge in every central Indiana subdivision, and the two things that end them are deer and ice. Because they go in as tight rows on a property line, one failed plant is a permanent visible hole that never fills — so arborvitae work is usually a replacement-and-reset job rather than a single removal.
How to tell which one you've got
Read it by pattern. Uniform bronzing on the windward and south-facing sides after a cold open winter is winter burn and usually flushes back out by June; a sharp browse line with cleanly stripped twigs to about four feet up is deer, not disease; and one plant going fully brown while its neighbors stay green is almost always root rot in a wet pocket or a girdled stem, and that one is not recovering. Interior yellowing and shed in fall is just normal seasonal drop.
The structural question
Ice is the defining structural event — multi-stemmed and globe forms have no single dominant trunk, so an ice load splays the stems outward from the center, the bark tears at the union, and they stay splayed permanently. Tying multi-stem plants before winter or cabling the leaders on larger specimens is the standard preventative, and because the plants are small this is a cosmetic and replacement-cost problem rather than a property-damage one.
Related
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