Cedars & Juniper? Salvage or Surrender?

[Leana]

We just bought the house and unsure of the history of these trees. There are five established trees planted close together. One guy said they were pine and another said they were juniper. I have no idea. They drop nuts. The one on the far left appears to be dead. There is new growth at the bottom but everything else is brown and appears dead. I took several close-ups. There appears to be fungus on them. The prior owner had pine straw about 6" thick. I don't think I can salvage the one on the end, but the others may have a fighting chance. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for any advice!

 

[Deleted member 149229]

If it’s juniper you can make gin from the berries.

 

[Leana]

Gin...nice. Now I can get exercise picking up all the berries, make gin, drink away my worries, pain, and sorrow, and sleep blissfully. In the meantime, I'll continue to wonder what I can do to save the other four trees so I can have some privacy in my backyard and listen to the birds sing while I'm sober.

 

[no tree to big]

If those are juniper they are huge, atleast for what's in my area. They could be cedar, I would say not pine. But a shot of the foliage would help a lot

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[ropensaddle]

If those are juniper they are huge, atleast for what's in my area. They could be cedar, I would say not pine. But a shot of the foliage would help a lot

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Eastern Red cedar is actually juniper lol

 

[no tree to big]

Eastern Red cedar is actually juniper lol

Interesting never newed dat haha
well in that case those are eastern aromatic red cedar junipers

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[bfrazier]

We just bought the house and unsure of the history of these trees. There are five established trees planted close together. One guy said they were pine and another said they were juniper. I have no idea. They drop nuts. The one on the far left appears to be dead. There is new growth at the bottom but everything else is brown and appears dead. I took several close-ups. There appears to be fungus on them. The prior owner had pine straw about 6" thick. I don't think I can salvage the one on the end, but the others may have a fighting chance. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for any advice!

Leana,

Those are most definitely in the Cedar/Juniper family. What you are seeing (and have so nicely photographed) is pitch or tree sap. The yellow gooey sap slowly turns white, chalky, and brittle. This could be from boring beetles (however no characteristic holes are in the photos) or simply from old wounds healing further up the trunk dripping their sap. While I'm 100% certain it's sap, you should consult a local arborist for solutions - if indeed a solution is needed at all. As for the variety, hard to say without pictures of the foliage and berries, but most likely Eastern Red Cedar, or Chinese Juniper. Both were actually pretty common to plant as windscreens such as yours. My 2 cents anyways, not really my area.

Good luck,
Bob