Claire, I have a friend who planted over two hundred Lelands a couple of years ago here in Va. and he had the same problem crop up. He lost at least a third of his
trees and it took about two to three years for the damage to finally stop. He had an extension agent come out and look at them and he stated that they had a fungus that destroyed their roots and went from
tree to
tree. He did not remember what the name of the fungus was, and was told that there really was not much he could do by then to stop the infection, other than remove the infected
trees. The fungus seems to have gone into remission or just went away as he has not lost anymore
trees, but if the conditions are right, I am sure it could come back. He lost a lot of money to that fungus, I'll tell ya.