Sorry to hear about your Sciadopitys, that would really bite, especially on a nice six foot specimen. My partner got careless with the weed-whacker this summer around mine, and I wasn't too pleased, but that was just minor damage. I'm not an expert, but I would imagine that it will grow another leader eventually. It will probably take a while before it has a nice pyramidal shape again though.

Marilyninconn,
I'm sorry to hear about your unbrella pine.
It will take years and years for the tree to correct itself.
THat is exactly why my hubby isn't allowed to touch anything in my garden.
He isn't allowed to touch the weed whacker either.
I always wanted an unbrella pine, but couldn't afford a tree of any height at all, so I give up on the idea.
The next time you buy an expensive plant or shrub or tree, tell him the price right before you plant it.
Tell him, so don't touch it.
Hope it grows back for you!

It will produce one or more new leaders. The important thing is to select a single leader in a couple of years, and prune the others out, so you don't get a forked tree. I've seen this happen over here with one that lost its top in a storm several years ago, it produced several leaders which then started breaking off in subsequent storms.

Resin

I still don't understand the logic of, "Look, a plant! I must cut various parts off of it for reasons I can't really explain!" I don't think I'm alone when I say that I find yews a lot more attractive, for instance, when they're not box-shaped.

A ex-neighbor of mine has what I swear is a Japanese umbrella pine but it's not conical at all. It's about 4-5' tall and about 6' wide and very open -- not dense at all. I find it quite beautiful and would love to replicate it in my garden. It must be heavily pruned but when I questioned the owner about it she seemed totally clueless. She's the only person I've seen tending the yard so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have someone else pruning and training the specimen. I was told at one garden center that there are both tree and shrub versions of the Japanese Umbrella Pine but I can find no evidence of this in my online searching. I've moved away from the neighborhood but if I ever get back there I will take a photo and post it. I would appreciate any information that might help me identify this shrub on the chance that it is not an umbrella pine.

My Japanese Umbrella Pine is about 11' high made up of five main trunks. In May I lost one of the trunks and now I am losing another. It has bin in this location for 12 or more years. When we have a really heavy rain it does puddle around on both sides. It starts out browning until that whole trunk is dead. What may be the problem? Do I need to grade the water away or is it something else? Is there any thing I can do now to save this trunk?

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I need help with my Japanese umbrella tree. I have it in a pot and it has grown a lot in 3 years, but the branches are leggy. And not dense at all. They are long thin branches with needles at the end. Is it possible to prune it back? Will it grow more branches? Or it's a lost cause?

Thank you for your help.