We live in North Texas and it got so hot that most of our maples did the same. The ones that had sunlight were the worst. Read in the Ft. Worth paper that it is a way for the tree to save itself . They lose water thru the underside of the leaf and cannot stop that. The only way is to basically sacrifice the leaf to keep from losing too much water. It has cooled off a lot lately and ours are starting to get some new leaves. Hopefully it is something that simple.

In future maybe use the organic moisture meters consisting of your finger tips and your eyes. With not much experience you should soon be able to tell what is likely to be going on without even poking into the soil.

Are those next year's buds I see on the ends of the branches? They look about the same as on your other maples? That's cause for relief if so.

Some trees just die. Heck, some pets just don't live as long either.

I DO NOT have the best eye for this so don't dig her up yet. Should a Japanese Maple of this size have an exposed rootflare? Anyone else think it looks like it might be planted deep?

Those are buds for sure, on the branches. As for the roots, the top layer is some organic mulch I just put in about 2 weeks ago in the hope of retaining more moisture. Since it's dry and hot here in the summer, the top layer of soil dries out very quickly, but the deeper part of the pot is not that dry comparatively, thus the reason for the mulch.

Thanks,

i have the same problem with my JM's. they look good until around July-Aug, leaves start to scorch and brown. early fall sometimes they'll leaf out again, and have a nice color show in early winter.

mine are under the patio, east facing, but the morning sun is still very hot here in Houston. i water mine several times a week. the soil dries out fairly quickly.