Think a lovely old Pittosporum is on the way out! Why?? Can it be saved??

[Mingomang]

We’ve been here 10 years and it was established when we moved in.
Never touched it
it now seems to be dying! The leaves are droopy and some are brown and crumbling.
It’s normally really lovely
Do you think there’s anything we can do? It’s such an established small tree, does watering help (always imagine the roots of old plants are too deep to make watering worth it)

Pics

It was probably the heat last summer that caused the start of it, combined with the really cold winter. I suspect that it is dying from the roots up, and the stored energy in its branches was enough to keep it going so far, but the end is nigh. Sorry.

I once had a lovely big one in my garden which had got to about 10 feet tall. We had a really cold winter a few years back with snow on the ground around a fortnight, and that did for that one.

Looks like some new growth at the base, water well, cut back a lot of the dying top growth, and hope for the best.

Also look for pests and maybe spray anyway.

I had mine die last year. I say last year as thats when it started. The prolonged summer heat made it look like your photos and then it just lost all its leaves and never fully recovered in spring this year. I was gutted as it was a lovely tree

All the leaves are brown and crispy now. Really sad. It doesn’t seem particularly fast growing so I’m not sure what will happen if I cut it back. Might just cut it down.

Give it a heavy water with some feed, it's been so dry this year after a super cold winter.

I have just about saved both of my pittosporum tobira which I thought were toast a few months ago - feeding regularly with fish, blood & bone feed and regular watering in dry spells. I also cut back any obviously dead brown bits. They both now have new growth and one even flowered for the first time (have had them 4/5 years). I will be mulching the fuck out of them before winter.