Same Frans Fontaine Hornbeam Dropped Leaves (Again) - November 2020

Two years ago, I posted - with some alarm - that one of our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees had suddenly dropped all of its leaves while the other seven clung to their fall leaves vis foliar marcescence.  That post was back in November of 2018 can be found here.  If you look at that post, you'll note that it was the fourth tree from the left.  Today - I'm sharing this photo of the stand of columnar hornbeams above and you'll notice that....wait for it....the SAME tree (fourth from the left) has done the same thing again this year.  It has shed most of its leaves. 

Below is a different angle of these same hornbeam trees where you can see all eight of them.

And, here, below, is an even closer look at the difference between some of the trees and #4 - the tree that has lost leaves.  

This is when the [garden diary] pays off for me.  I would normally be very concerned about this tree - was it stressed?  Was it dying?  Do I need to be worried about it coming back in the Spring?  

And, I suppose all those questions stand.  But, I *do* know that since this happened two years ago, the outcome in 2019 was that this tree did, indeed, come back in Spring.  From a post in early June, 2019:

First, the top photo that shows four of the trees to the left from our patio. These are all about the same in terms of thickness, lushness, etc. They're all close to the same height and you can see that a couple of them have a really nice, thick set of leaves near the tops. I think that's a great sign.

One data point in the garden diary here. Last Winter, I posted a photo showing that one of the trees - the fourth from the left, and the one furthest right in the photo above suddenly dropped all of its leaves before the others. Today? That tree appears to be just fine.

I don't want to tempt things here, so I'm going to stay cautiously optimistic about the tree, but the history of our [garden diary] makes me hopeful.  One other note - and something to consider for my 2021 to-do list:  lay down a new set of soaker hose(s) on these trees that will evenly water the eight trees.  It seems that the soaker hose have been providing the furthest East three trees more water than the rest.