Pom Pom pine looking drab

[aussiegardener]

Hi All, Hopefully someone can help me. I have a pom pom pine in my front yard that is appox. 5 years old. I have trimmed the pom poms back each year to keep the shape. This year I trimmed them each back but noticed inside the pom poms are filled with dead needles and dry brittle branches. If I cut the pom poms back to shape (the tree grows very large and overtakes the other bushes if not trimmed back) I am left with dead, brittle dying branches. Should I trim them all down and start again? Is the tree sick? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I can send photos if necessary. Cheers, nat

[valleytreeman]

Lets staret out with a better identification of your tree... I presume when you say pom pom pine, that you mean either Mugo Pine or some form of topiaried pine (which very well could be Mugo). Can you perhaps give us some indication of what you are dealing with?

[aussiegardener]

I apologise that I am not aware of the correct name for the tree. I researched several gardening sites to find trees similar in description and what was found was Pom Pom Topiary Tree or Pom Pom pine or Pom Pom Juniper. I looked up Mugo Pine and the tree does not resemble the images found on that tree. The tree has several branches with what resembles "Pom Poms" at the end of each branch. The tree has long needles and grows what I have seen referred to as candles in the spring time.