What's going on with my ceanothus (Californian lilac)?
This one is about 4 feet tall, was here when we moved in in 2021 and is looking decidedly ded, apart from that single green branch you can see there. This bush is against a west facing fence.
PXL_20240222_114441119 by
The Pingus, on Flickr
On the other side of the garden (so east facing) this is a bush which I planted in 2022 (I think) so it's smaller. More of it is green but you can see some of it is dead.
PXL_20240222_114519531 by
The Pingus, on Flickr
I don't understand why. It's not been particularly cold for here, I would say. There's never been weedkiller used anywhere near the top most pic. I had one of these bushes in our north facing postage stamp of a garden at the previous place for years and it was fine.
I'm guessing the top one is going to be a dead loss and I might as well dig it up?
Any wisdom?